ASTON’S ANGELS REPORT VOL. 2, ISSUE 2
“I’m so excited… and I just can’t hide it.” Luckily for anyone who knows me, I wouldn’t dare sing that aloud, but I can’t help the fact that song runs through my head when I think about the upcoming opening day for my favorite sports team, the Angels. To me, they are the California Angels, but technically they are labeled as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but whatever you want to call them, the Angels should be one of the best teams in baseball, and I simply can’t wait for their season to finally start. I watched virtually every televised spring training game, even to the point that I would record games if I wasn’t able to watch them live, which I would admit is probably on the extreme [fanatic] side, since they are exhibition games with minor league players (who have no shot of playing in the majors this season ) playing half of the game each time. I missed baseball so much, any viewing of the team I love playing the game I love was absolute must-see television for me (even though I fast-forwarded or quit watching in the final few innings of some of the games, when they turned into minor league games).
The way this team is presently constructed it would be a huge disappointment if they weren’t able to make the playoffs, especially with the implementation of the new double wild card system this season, which allows for two wild card teams in each league (instead of one). Although this new system allows for more teams to compete for the playoffs, and enables many more teams to have a chance going into the final month than at any time in the history of baseball, it also makes winning the division much more important, because the two wild card teams have to fight each other in a one-game “play-in” for the right to play in the division series of the playoffs, and the loser of that game goes home. That means a team could potentially win 95 games or more, earn the #1 wild card spot, and they could still miss the playoffs if they lose that play-in game. It now becomes virtually imperative for teams to win their division, not only to avoid the one-game play-in, but also in order to set their pitching rotation so they can save their #1 starter for the first game in the playoffs (instead of game 163 or whatever that play-in will be called). This increases the overall excitement for nearly every team in the major leagues, ensuring that nearly every game important (which hasn’t been the case in most prior seasons, when teams used lock in their playoff spots before the season ended, so other teams were eliminated from contention early), but it also puts much more pressure on the great teams to avoid that pre-playoff game. I am confident that this should be one of the most exciting seasons in the history of the sport, and it’s already started off with a bang.
The Angels are one of the last teams to make their season debut, as many played on Thursday (yesterday), and many others play early on Friday, if they weren’t one of the four teams who started the season earlier. The Mariners and Athletics played in Japan last week, in what was technically the season-opening series, and split the two game series, before coming back to the US to play a few more preseason exhibition games, as part of the most peculiar scheduling in sports. About a week or so later, the “stateside opener” was played on Wednesday between the Marlins and Cardinals, which acted more like the true season opener, as it was on ESPN during primetime, as opposed to the Japan series, where game 1 wasn’t even televised until 12 hours later, and game 2 aired at about 2 am. It was the only game of the day, and the world champion Cardinals beat the Marlins in the first game played in the Marlins new, extremely colorful park, and then both teams left to play other teams, after the only one-game series of the season (I assume).
Sometimes too much of a good thing becomes a problem, and that seems to be the only issue with this season’s Angels team; they have too many good players and not enough roster spots for them to fill. They obviously added maybe the best player in baseball history, Albert Pujols, to play first base and on the same day they announced that they signed one of the league’s best pitchers over the past two seasons, CJ Wilson to bolster their already great pitching staff. When you look at their position players, they have talent and depth at every position, with the only possible exception at catcher, and they have added to the best pitching staff in the American League from last season, so there just isn’t room for some players that could have made major league rosters on some other teams.
They now have one of the very best starting rotations in the majors this season, and each one of the top four pitchers, Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, and the new addition CJ Wilson, could be #1 starters for many other teams in the league, and they have potential talent in the #5 spot, with Jerome Williams (who still start on the disabled list but should be ready to pitch by the middle of April) and rookie Garret Richards, who seems to be in line for the #5 spot after his stellar performance in spring training and his healthier status. Last season, the bullpen has some issues to start the season, but then got their act together to support the starters and help win games, as the season progressed and a few changes were made (most notably, moving rookie Jordan Walden into the closer role). They have made a few more changes to the bullpen this season, bringing in a few solid veteran relievers to (hopefully) improve their bullpen depth even more. They signed veterans LaTroy Hawkins, Jason Isringhausen, and it looks like Kevin Jepsen has gotten back to the impressive form he showed in 2012, after a very poor season last year (highlighted by the wild-pitch-on-an-intentional walk debacle that resulted in his being sent down to the minors for the remainder of the season). This means that they have about 5 or 6 very dependable setup men, with the two left-handers from last year, Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi (who are even more valuable since they aren‘t just specialists who only get left handed batters out), and another impressive right-hander from last seaosn, Rich Thompson . I’m not exactly sold on the reliability of Isringhausen, who is getting a little long in the tooth, so to speak, but he pitched well last year for the Mets, so he could be valuable even if it is in a limited 6th inning role (which might not be necessary because the starters expect to pitch though the 6th or 7th inning in most of the games). Unfortunately, this also means there isn’t room for some of the younger relievers like Bobby Cassevah, Michael Kohn, and one of the more impressive minor leaguers I saw during this spring training, David Carpenter (remember the name, because I think he could be a factor in the majors some time this year). Cassevah and Kohn will start the season on the DL with an injury, and will pitch in the minors as part of their rehabilitation, and all three will be ready to fill in bullpen spots if there is an injury. If Richards doesn’t fill the 5th starter role well, the Angels can come back with Jerome Williams, who pitched exceptionally well in his few starts for the Angels at the end of last season, or they could go to another one of the more impressive minor leaguers from spring training, Brad Mills (who is also a left-hander, which adds a point in his column, since the only other lefty in the possible rotation is Wilson).
The team has an even better assortment of position players, that could become an issue as the season progresses, just in terms of getting them all playing time on the field. With the addition of Pujols, who is penciled in to play every game of the season at 1B, and the return of Kendrys Morales from his two year absence due to injury, there just isn’t enough room for some of the familiar players from the past to play very often. Last year’s runner-up in the rookie of the year voting, slugger Mark Trumbo, who led the team in all power categories last year, is attempting to move from 1B to 3B, in order to keep his bat in the lineup, which means that Alberto Callaspo will get much less playing time than last year, and utility man Maicer Izturis will get even less playing time, unless there is a significant injury or two on the team. They have carried three catchers in previous seasons, but there was only room for two this time, so the high hitting potential of Hank Conger will have to start out in the minors, to work on his defense and wait for his chance to come back to the majors. The team’s catchers performed very poorly last season on the offensive side, so new addition Chris Iannetta should provide some much appreciated offense (both with slugging and on-base percentages) , and fairly solid defense, while back-up baskstop Bobby Wilson is primarily a defensive specialist with a great throwing arm, to go along with solid pitch-calling and ball-blocking abilities. The outfield is probably the best fielding trio in the majors this season, with Vernon Wells in left, Peter Bourjos in center, and Torii Hunter in right field. Wells and Hunter have each won multiple gold glove awards as centerfielders in their careers, and Bourjos was absolutely robbed last year of what should have been a gold glove season, so there will be very few balls that drop out there again this season. The only possible issue in the outfield will be their offensive consistency, mainly with Vernon Wells who hit for a terrible average last season, as he seemingly refused to hit the ball to right field. Hopefully I don’t spend much time yelling “Hit the ball to right!!“ like I did last year, and have done on a few occasions during the spring. If the Wells and Hunter meet their power potential that they have established in the past, and Bourjos cuts down his strikeouts and gets on base, their offense could be one of the best in the majors, which is a few cry from last year, where the pitching carried the team for the entirety. Now that Morales appears to be back from his ankle injury, he can probably only play in the Designated Hitter role, which is the main reason that Trumbo has to move to 3B, but it also pushes some other players out of the hitting rotation, most notably Bobby Abreu.
Abreu was relegated to the DH role when he played last season, because of the excellent players they have in the outfield already, along with his diminishing speed and skills, as he gets older, but now there is a log jam at the DH position too, so there doesn’t seem to much of a role for poor ol’ Bobby this season. I have been one of the biggest Bobby Abreu advocates the past couple of seasons, even calling for him to hit leadoff before last season started because of his excellent patience (and decreasing power), but I’m sorry to say it might be time for him to go. I think he could be one of the best pinch hitters and part-time, backup DH’s in the game, if he wants to fill that role. He voiced his objection to that potential role early in the spring, saying that he wants to get his usual 500 at-bats, and basically that he isn’t happy filling a bench role. I can understand that he wants more playing time, as a high performing veteran for more than a decade, as most players do (especially when they get older, because they sometimes need more time to get into their hitting groove). Unfortunately, there simply won’t be enough playing time to fit him in to play anywhere close to 400 at-bats (about 100 games as a starter), barring [at least one] injury, so he may have to be traded, if he remains unhappy with his role. There was a rumor that he may be traded to the Indians near the end of spring training, but that never came to fruition, nor were the rumors ever really acknowledged. Another problem is that there probably won’t be too many teams looking for the services of an aging outfielder/ designated hitter, whose value has decreased significantly after the last two seasons where he hit about .250 as a regular player for the Angels. I hope he stays, because I think he can be valuable on the bench, almost like a coach, helping his teammates with their patience, pitch recognition, situational hitting, and things like that, but I fully understand if he thinks he only has a season or two left in him, and wants to fulfill his final potential as he heads to retirement, on another team. The Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia has always been good at rotating players in and out of the starting lineup to keep them fresh (see Maicer Izturis the last couple seasons) but even he won’t be able to get Abreu many at bats, with the outstanding depth on the roster this season.
The team may have to make a decision of Abreu’s future with team soon, but they had some other tough decisions to make at the end of spring training. As I mentioned before, the pitching depth is almost too good, so a few high-potential players were sent back down to the minors, but they also had to make a couple tough decisions with their potential utility men. The main battle for the final roster spot was between the young IF/OF Alexi Amarista, who made his major league debut last season, and the veteran IF Jorge Cantu, who was on the Padres last season. They both performed exceptionally well in the spring training games and are valuable in different ways, but the Angels chose to go with Amarista and sent Cantu to the minor leagues. I would have rather seen both make the team, and it is quite possible that Cantu will end up on the major league roster, given the possible Abreu trade situation, as well as the high possibility of an injury (Izturis is probably the prime candidate for that, given his past history of trips to disabled list). Amarista can play each outfield spot and the middle infield positions, to give the starters a day off, and on offense, he has surprising power for such a little man, as well as great speed so he provides pinch-running potential which the team could definitely use, so I fully understand why he was chosen. Cantu is a proven hitter and RBI producer in his past, as well as solid defender as a corner infielder, but there isn’t much room for him to fill in that role, with depth at 1B and 3B already on the team. So far he has remained very professional with what has transpired, and hopefully he chooses to stay in the organization, because he could be a valuable asset to the team later in the season.
The overall depth of the organization looks good this season, and I have to mention a few other players that impressed me this spring training. I mentioned Carpenter and Mills on the pitching side already, but I was even more impressed by left hand hitting OF Cole Calhoun, who hit close to .400, even though he hit against left handed pitchers in many of his at-bats, making his performance even more impressive. 2B Taylor Lindsay looked good as well, SS Andrew Romine showed some potential and great speed, as low minor league players, but obviously the Angels have those two position filled at the major league level with potential all-star Howie Kendrick and last year‘s gold glove winning shortstop Erick Aybar. The future certainly looks great for the Angels, and it is a welcomed sight to the diehard fans, such as myself.
I will continue my Angels report, adding an entry after every game this season, but there will be some (welcomed) changes this time, as I have come to realize that great detail doesn’t always make for an entertaining article. I took excessively detailed notes on each game, which I will look forward to doing again, but I will alter the format of my posts, so that I’m not documenting every out (and sometimes every pitch) of every game because there’s just too much information, and very few people want to read all that stuff. I have plans to compartmentalize my details, in sections like “Game Changing Plays” and “Outside of the Box Score” to better summarize the details, and hopefully add increase the entertainment value of each for my readers (if there are any). I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I will enjoy watching the games, and writing them…. I can’t wait!!
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