Not Especially Wild Bour

...so Mike Trout is an absolute beast. That much is absolutely true.

Unfortunately, so far that seems to be the main story out of Anaheim. You saw what this team looked like without Trout: that man holds up the team like it's his damn job. Without him, you see the major flaws- too many bloated hitters who can't hit for average, and literally just Lucroy, Goodwin, Pujols and Fletcher are hitting over .200. It's a very paltry, sad lineup made up mostly of obligations.

At the very least, the rotation is better. Trevor Cahill, Felix Pena and Tyler Skaggs have had good starts, but there's a lot of boilerplate elsewhere. The bullpen is minimal, and not especially spectacular, despite a rising season from Cody Allen.

The Angels have become what they've feared...a team that cannot survive without its flagship star. They're the 2017 Cavaliers of baseball. Trout is dragging this team by the waist, and thank god he's wrapped up for the rest of his career. Where they're gonna get into trouble is the weeks when he's injured, because...

...oh, hell, the Angels have to be better than THIS. I mean, come on. Andrelton Simmons is on this team, and he's a pro. Kole Calhoun can't hit sub-Mendoza. Zack Cozart can't be playing this poorly. This has to be chalked up to slow starts, right?

...RIGHT???

Because if this is how this thing is gonna go, and it looks like it might...maybe the extension was a bad idea. Maybe the Angels SHOULD have given up Trout.

I guess we'll see as the season rolls on.

Coming Tomorrow- It felt wrong to see him in any other uniform, but here he is...playing like a pro.