The Angels Blame Game

April has come and gone, and with it, the first month of the Major League season has passed as well. In the AL West, everyone is right around where we expected them to be.  The Texas Rangers lead the division and look every bit the contender that everyone expected.  The Oakland Athletics are playing the role of overachieving upstart again, even with last week’s slight swoon.  The Seattle Mariners are treading water, staying near .500, but well on their way to their expected finish of 90+ losses.  The Houston Astros are as bad as predicted, losing 19 of their 27 games and will assuredly finish with the AL’s worst record.

 

However, there is another team that is defying the odds.  The Los Angeles Angels, many an expert’s pick to win the AL West, scuffled through the month of April, going 9-16.  What makes this record worse is the opponents that the Angels have lost to.  The majority of the opening slate has been AL West opponents.  L.A. is 1-3 vs. Seattle (EDITORS NOTE: EEK!), 2-4 vs. Texas (ED: Okay..), and 0-5 vs. Oakland (ED: GOO!!).  If you add in the 2-1 record versus Houston (which honestly, they shouldn’t even count, since Houston has the talent of a AAA team), the Angels are a combined 5-13 versus the rest of the AL West. You can’t expect to compete for a playoff spot if you can’t win games in your own division.

 

Who’s to blame for the Angels putrid start?  To me this is a no brainer: The Angels starting pitchers.

 

The Angels starting rotation consists of Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Joe Blanton, Jason Vargas, and Tommy Hanson. Weaver is currently on the DL, but still managed to post a 4.91 ERA before getting hurt.  Perhaps he gets a small pass because he only had two starts, but the others have no such saving grace. Wilson is doing decently, but playing well below the Cy Young level pitching he’s capable of.  He has a 4.30 ERA with a 1.53 WHIP.  For a comparison of how bad this is from his normal production, in 2011 with the Rangers, he had a 2.96 ERA with a 1.19 WHIP and he pitched half his starts in hitter-friendly Arlington.  Hanson’s numbers are slightly better with a 3.91 ERA and 1.39 WHIP, but hitters are hitting .275 off of him.  The most guilty culprits are Vargas and Blanton.  Vargas is 0-3 with a 4.85 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, and a .325 average against. Blanton is 0-4 with a 7.09 ERA, 2.10 WHIP, and a .379 average against.  How are these two still in the starting rotation? L.A. is a combined 1-9 in their starts. You’re basically giving up 2 games out of every 5 you play.  Long reliever Jerome Williams has been called for cleanup duty more times than a janitor.  Case in point: Williams has been placed in long relief 8 times (EDITORS NOTE: Or as Joe Torre calls it, not nearly enough times).  His 21 innings pitched are only 5 less than Blanton and 8 less than Vargas, but he’s posted a 1.69 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and .203 average against.  How is he not starting?

 

If your starters cannot give you consistent quality starts, then you spend the rest of the game playing from behind, where opposing teams can set up their relief patterns, so that your hitters are consistently facing the opponents best relievers in key late inning situations. The Angels must get better starting pitching if they are to reverse the trend they set by their play in April.
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