The Week Ahead For The Los Angeles Angels: These Dudes Abide

Angels (23-23)

After seven weeks of preseason hopes despite a top-heavy payroll, a hot first week featuring an epic seven-run comeback, a completely ridiculous amount of pitching injuries, a trip to the DL for Mike Trout, a flurry of moves by Billy Eppler and the Office of the GM, Albert Pujols stealing third base, fans playing catch with Trout, the ups and downs of young Alex Meyer and many appearances by the mascot Dodgers fan envy, the Angels are right back where they started.

23 dash 23. Circling back to the beginning. Deja vu, all over again. But actually better off  than they were at 0-0. Every team was even at the beginning of the season. Now the Angels are one of 10 teams at or above .500.

Given the loss of Garret Richards, Cam Bedrosian, Yunel Escobar, Tyler Skaggs, Andrew Bailey and Huston Street, that's fairly remarkable.

These Angels abide. Angels fans should take some comfort in that.

Angels Schedule and Links

So, what now? For the next week, the Angels stay on the road after losing a series against the New York Mets. Next stop: a tour of the Sunshine State.

First up are the Tampa Bay Rays, another team that has played 46 games only to return to the balanced state of .500. J.C. Ramirez takes the mound in Game 1 of the four-game series.

After that, it's a trip down to South Florida for a weekend series against the Miami Marlins, a team currently sitting at the bottom of the National League East standings at 15-28.

The Angels have called up Nolan Fontana from Salt Lake City and sent down C.J. Cron. Fontana starts tonight at second in place of the struggling Danny Espinosa. 

 Here's more detail on Eppler's latest move, the signing of Doug Fister.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American League West Teams Ranked By Payroll 2017

If money changes everything, then how much does it affect your position where it counts - in the standings? The 2017 team payroll numbers are now available. Several sources exist, I went with the numbers from Spotrac. But before getting into what each American League West club is spending, let's look at the money vs. results for the past few years. Return On Investment In the AL West Here's what the American League West clubs spent by team last season. These numbers include the active 25-man roster, plus money wrapped up in players on the DL and money paid to players no longer on the team. The money spent on active players is in parentheses. Los Angeles Angels - $180.7 million ($89.8 million) Texas Rangers - $168.5 million ($134.7 million) Seattle Mariners - $154.7 million ($131.8 million) Houston Astros - $114.7 million ($75.4 million) Oakland Athletics - $99.9 million ($27.8 million) And the final 2016 standings: Texas Rangers: 95-67 Seattle Mariners : 86...
Read more

Weekend Long Reads: Mike Trout Is Exactly As Amazing As You Think He Is. Actually, More.

Political junkies and stat fanatics have long read the 538 site, where the famed statistician Nate Silver serves as editor-in-chief. The site has been a Mike Trout fan, but this month they laid down some startling statistics. Basically, he's the next best thing to Babe Ruth. Literally. Based on Trout's Wins Above Replacement, he's second all-time only to Ruth. They also take a look at how Trout adjusts when pitchers develop new approaches to getting him out. The short version: The new approach doesn't work very long. You can read the whole thing here . Despite rumors of its demise, baseball, as it turns out, is doing just fine, thank you. For the start of the new season, Forbes ran down the estimated value of all 30 Major League Baseball teams,.The average value of all the teams is $1.54 billion. That's almost 20 percent more than 2016. Four of The American League West teams are in the Top 14. You can probably guess the fifth. But, hey, the value of the A's in...
Read more

Thursday April 20: Astros Widen Gap, Who Will Emerge To Challenge Them? Anyone? Anyone? Hello?

The Astros continue to distance themselves from the pack. After beating the Angels on Wednesday night behind another precision performance from Dallas Keuchel, the Astros are three games ahead of the A's and already five games ahead of their bitter rival, the Rangers. They have the most wins in the American League and a fired up fan base. Which team in the sub-.500 group can emerge to challenge them? A look at each club and links below. 1. Astros (10-5) The starting rotation is really the only major concern for the Astros at the moment. Keuchel looks like Diego Velaquez out there, a controlled master painting the corners, changing speeds, keeping everyone off balance,. Lance McCuller and Charlie Morton have looked good so far, but the four and five slots are troubling. That said, they are a 10-5 ball club with this lineup. In the short term, they have earned at least a split in the four-game series with the Angels and go for the series win today with McCullers on the mound. ...
Read more