3 Things To Improve All 30 Teams — The Los Angeles Angels
The 2021 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim finished the season with a record of 77–85 good enough for 4th in the AL West. In 3 time manager of the year winner Joe Maddon’s 2nd season at the helm, they finally figured out how to handle Shohei Ohtani’s unique ability to be a star hitter and star pitcher. That wasn’t enough for the Angels to make the playoffs, however, as injuries and poor pitching from guys not named Ohtani plagued them. Today we find 3 things that will lead the 2022 Angels of Anaheim to a better record than last year’s.
1. Keep Mike Trout Healthy
This is the easiest and most obvious bullet point there will be in this entire series. If Mike Trout can not stay healthy and on the field, the Angels can not be succesful. Mike Trout is hands down the best player in the game and he makes everyone around him better. He can’t do that from the sidelines.
With the 25th pick of the 2009 draft the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim selected Mike Trout. Debuting just 2 years later at the age of 19 on July 8th, 2011, he very quickly made his mark on the League and in a few short years staked his claim as it’s best player. In 11 years, Trout won the AL RotY, has been voted an All Star 9 times, is an 8 time Silver Slugger award winner, and 3 time AL MVP. He’s definitely got the hardware to back up his claim as the best player in baseball.
Mike Trout’s only downfall throughout his career has been his durability. He has had the opportunity to play in 1,591 Major League games but has only played in a total of 1,288. That’s a rate of 80.9 (81%) or 131.1 games a year. He did play 53 out of the 60 games in 2020, but he hasn’t played 150+ games in a single season since 2016.
Over his 11 years in The Bigs, Mike Trout has a career line of .305/.419/.583 with a 176 OPS+ and 310 homeruns over 5,660 plate appearances. With 2 40+ homerun seasons under his belt and 6 30+ homerun seasons, coming into his age 30 season he still has an outside shot at 600 career homeruns as long as he can get past the injury bug. Giving him more days at DH should help that as most of his injuries have occurred while fielding. Should Trout stay healthy and play 150+ this year, expect another 8 wins.
2. Hope The 6 Man Rotation Works
Joe Maddon and the Angels have confirmed that they will be utilizing a 6 man rotation this year in order to give Shohei every opportunity to succeed as a hitter and a pitcher. They have subtracted Andrew Heaney (now a Dodger), Alex Cobb (now a Giant) and Dylan Bundy (now a Twin) from last year’s rotation and added Noah Syndergaard and Michael Lorenzon (also a 2 way player). This now gives them a projected 6 man rotation of Shohei, Syndergaard, Jose Suarez, Lorenzon, Patrick Sandoval, and Griffin Canning.
The 4 guys the Angels have left over from last year combined for an ERA of 3.829 (3.83) over 378.1 innings and 64 starts. Syndergaard returned to the Mets from his TJ surgery recovery in September and made 2 starts that were only 1 inning each and gave up 2 earned runs total. Over his career, he holds an ERA of 3.32 with a 2.93 FIP, a 119 ERA+, and 777 strikeouts over 718 innings and 120 starts. Having him as the 2 hole pitcher in a 6 man rotation should help him get stretched back out and he should post a 3.4 ERA with 200~ strikeouts.
Michael Lorenzon has been used primarily as a relief pitcher for most of his career, but is still listed as a starting pitcher. The Reds also never fully utilized his two way abilities, but with the Angels history, we can expect that to change. Lorenzon has a career ERA of 4.07 over 473.1 innings pitched across 295 outings. Should he be used as a starter, expect an ERA closer to 4 even and a good 300–400 at bats. With the Angels utilizing a 6 man rotation and adding Syndergaard and Lorenzon to the mix, expect 3 more wins.
3. Bring In One More Infield Bat
Outside of Jared Walsh, the offensive production from the Angels infield in 2021 was atrocious once Anthony Rendon went down to injury. With David Fletcher, Jose Iglesias, and Jack Mayfield combining for a slash of .254/.286/.357. This can use some work.
Anthony Rendon should be back and healthy for this season. However, he can not fix the offensive woes of the infield by himself. This is where Kyle Seager comes in. Somehow still a free agent, Corey’s brother is coming off of a 35 homerun season at the age of 34. Should the Angels bring him in, Rendon can shift over to 2B and the Angels would add even more pop to their lineup. Keeping them all healthy, signing Seager and moving Rendon to 2B should add an extra 4 wins.
Adding an extra 15 wins to the Angels 2021 total would give them a record of 92–70. Easily the biggest win differential this series has seen thus far. A 92–70 record in 2021 would have tied them with the Yankees and the Red Sox for the Wild Card spots and with the 6th spot in the playoffs now, would have Mike Trout playing October baseball.
This has been the 13th entry in our series in which we take a look at all 30 teams individually and find 3 things from their 2021 seasons that we can improve and help them have a better 2022. Previous entries include the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Cleveland Guardians, the Colorado Rockies, the Detroit Tigers, the Houston Astros, and the Kansas City Royals. Follow me on Twitter @TroyBrock1993 for updates and more sports musings. Next up is the Los Angeles Dodgers!
