Mike Trout is not of this Earth

[El Duderino]

I wonder what the reaction of Angel fans would be if you told them last November that they would add Albert Pujols, Zach Grienke, and CJ Wilson; plus Mike Trout would have one of the greatest rookie seasons in baseball history, and they would be a .500 team and 8.5 games out of the AL West in the last week of August.

 

Seriously, why are they so bad?

[Cubswin11]

I wonder what the reaction of Angel fans would be if you told them last November that they would add Albert Pujols, Zach Grienke, and CJ Wilson; plus Mike Trout would have one of the greatest rookie seasons in baseball history, and they would be a .500 team and 8.5 games out of the AL West in the last week of August.

And Trumbo would have as good, if not better year than last year. Why don't they have a better record? Is their starting pitching not performing to career norms? Are they bad defensively? I would have to think, offensively, they rank in the top 1/3-1/4 in most major categories.

[Tracer Bullet]

I wonder what the reaction of Angel fans would be if you told them last November that they would add Albert Pujols, Zach Grienke, and CJ Wilson; plus Mike Trout would have one of the greatest rookie seasons in baseball history, and they would be a .500 team and 8.5 games out of the AL West in the last week of August.

 

Seriously, why are they so bad?

 

Must be that Mike Scioscia is a terrible manager...

[UMFan83]

I wonder what the reaction of Angel fans would be if you told them last November that they would add Albert Pujols, Zach Grienke, and CJ Wilson; plus Mike Trout would have one of the greatest rookie seasons in baseball history, and they would be a .500 team and 8.5 games out of the AL West in the last week of August.

 

Seriously, why are they so bad?

 

I dont know if thiis is every reason but Dan Haren has been terrible a lot of this year, CJ Wilson has had an ERA over 7 over his last 7-8 starts, their bullpen is mediocre to poor especially with injuries, Howie Kendrick is having a very disappointing year, Albert Pujols didn't show up until May, Greinke has a 6.19 ERA since joining LAA, Maicer Izturis and Bobby Wilson have played starting roles most of the year, etc.

 

I still think they should be a lot better than 3 games over .500 though.

 

I feel like the top part of their lineup is one of, if not the, best in baseball but then in the bottom half you have Kendrick (.713 OPS), Aybar (.716), Callaspo (.689), Wilson (.593), Izturis (.630).

[Guest]

Player    GS   ERA+
Weaver    22   138 
Wilson    26   104
Santana   24    69
Haren     22    77
Williams  14    80
Richards   9    88
Greinke    5    62

[sneakypower]

similarly, the Tigers have three 900+ OPS players, four of the top 14 starters in the AL for FIP, and three relievers with 127 ERA+ or better, and they're barely keeping afloat

[Clem Fandango]

I'm bored, and felt like trying to break it down a bit because I've also wondered how they could be so bad...

 

1) It looks like getting rid of Mather and adding Iannetta so Scioscia couldn't start a no bat catcher didn't stop him from making Bobby Wilson his primary catcher (.227/.294/.299)

 

2) It doesn't help that before Trout was called up the only player worth a damn on the offense was Mark Trumbo, who has been terrible this month (.594 OPS)

 

3) It also doesn't help that C.J. Wilson has been atrocious since the ASB (6.38 ERA/1.67 WHIP) and their big acquisition Greinke has not transitioned well at all (6.19 ERA/1.59 WHIP)

 

4) With the exception of Weaver and Wilson, they don't have a single starting pitcher with an ERA under 4.33:

 

• Jered Weaver - 2.74
  C.J. Wilson - 3.62
  Garret Richards - 4.33
  Jerome Williams - 4.72
  Dan Haren - 4.90
  Ervin Santana - 5.46
  Zack Greinke - 6.19

 

5) Their bullpen also isn't exactly shutting down the opposition...

 

• Ernesto Frieri - 39G, 1.88 ERA
  Scott Downs - 41 G, 2.97 ERA
  Latroy Hawkins - 38 G, 3.79 ERA
  Kevin Jepsen - 30 G, 3.86 ERA
  Jason Isringhausen - 44 G, 3.92 ERA
  Jordan Walden - 33 G, 3.99 ERA
  David Carpenter - 28 G, 4.76 ERA
  Hisanori Takahashi - 42 G, 4.93 ERA
  

 

6) Albert Pujols didn't start mashing the ball until May (to a degree, he only mustered an .800 OPS but had 8 homers in the month), which was when Mike Trout had his first full month on the team. Coincidentally, the Angels record in April (which Trout only had 3 games in) was 8-15. In May, when Trout turned on the jets, Pujols starting to heat up, Trumbo had his ridiculous month (1.077 OPS), and Weaver and Wilson were holding down the top 2 spots in the rotation (Wilson had a sub-3.00 ERA for 13 games up until this month and had it as low as 2.33 at the start of July), the Angels' monthly record the next two months was 18-11 in May 17-9 in June... then 14-12 in July, which was when the wheels started to come off...

 

7) They are 6-13 in August. Greinke and Wilson have been embarrassments, and Trumbo's magical season is starting to wear off (.594 OPS this month).

 

8) Three players can only take you so far on offense. For the season the combined OPs of Trout, Trumbo, and Pujols is .923. The combined OPS for the rest of the team's primary players/subs is .681:

 

• Bobby Wilson, C - 182 PA, .593 OPS
  Howie Kendrick, 2B - 450 PA, .713 OPS
  Erick Aybar, SS - 408 PA, .716 OPS
  Alberto Callaspo, 3B - 390 PA, .689 OPS
  Torii Hunter, RF - 417 PA, .783 OPS
  Kendrys Morales, DH - 386 PA, .774 OPS
  Maicier Izturis, IF - 269 PA, .630 OPS
  Peter Bourjos, CF - 186 PA, .612 OPS
  Vernon Wells, LF - 177 PA, .649 OPS
  Chris Iannetta, C - 139 PA, .717 OPS
  John Hester, C - 95 PA, .617 OPS
  

 

9) In an effort to get Trumbo's bat in the lineup they play him primarily in LF, where he has, for what it's worth, a pretty bad UZR rating (-3.3 UZR and a -6.9 UZR/150) and also a poor dWAR (-0.8), which is offsetting his offensive contributions to a degree.

 

I'm sure there's a plethora of other reason far more complicated than the ones I focused on. All I really did was single out the obvious stats (ERA, WHIP, OPS, etc.)... but it's pretty obvious underperforming superstars and Mike Scioscia's love of defense is likely hurting them. I know Iannetta isn't setting the world on fire with his bat, but he's still a vast improvement over the other two options, and if Scioscia actually believes in the catcher ERA and game calling ability, he needs to take a look at how his pitchers are doing cause they're not doing too hot, no matter who he tried to justifiably throw out there

[Clem Fandango]

Well [expletive]... in the time it took me to do all that others did a lot of it for me, and in less work, lol.

[bukie]

Don't feel bad, some of us appreciate the 32 trillion SCS's worth of effort you put into that post.

[C.C.]

similarly, the Tigers have three 900+ OPS players, four of the top 14 starters in the AL for FIP, and three relievers with 127 ERA+ or better, and they're barely keeping afloat

 

They are only 1.5 games out of first.

[sneakypower]

1.5 games out, in the worst division in baseball

 

they have the same record as Oakland, and Pittsburgh

[C.C.]

1.5 games out, in the worst division in baseball

 

they have the same record as Oakland, and Pittsburgh

 

So what? They are 10 games over and 1.5 games out and have a great shot at the playoffs.

[Guest]

1.5 games out, in the worst division in baseball

 

they have the same record as Oakland, and Pittsburgh

 

So what? They are 10 games over and 1.5 games out and have a great shot at the playoffs.

 

and they should be a lot better, which is the whole point of this conversation

 

it's always interesting when C.C. ventures out of the social forum