Reid the Room

 

Further adventures with the Angels. They kept Ohtani, but have lost Trout to injury again, and are now without their starting centerfielder, one of their best starters and their closer thanks to the trade deadline. And there's still more to lose.

With all the uncertainty of everything, including Thor leaving and Canning getting injured again, I think one of the biggest shocks of this season is how good the rotation in Anaheim still ended up being even as the team regressed. I think this is the first season where Shohei Ohtani is having a better season on the mound than he is at the plate, and I couldn't be any more here for it. A couple years ago I was worried that he would just transition to being the everyday DH without mound appearances, but now here he is, a 9-7 record, 2.83 ERA and 152 strikeouts. Even for a guy who DOESN'T have to pick up a bat the other 5 days, that is pretty damned good. 

And it's still good even beyond Ohtani, and without Syndergaard. Reid Detmers has built upon his early no-hitter, and despite a demotion for a week or so, has delivered a pretty solid full rookie season, with a 3.62 ERA and 75 Ks. Patrick Sandoval might be the proper ace here, and though his ERA has ballooned to 3.41 since his unhittable start to the season, he's still a sturdy and reliable guy to have around. And strikeout artist Janson Junk is beginning to acclimate to the rotation after a second straight year of showing up near the end of the season to try some stuff out. 

I am not sure who they're planning on using consistently in the ninth, as Jimmy Herget and Jose Quijada have both saved games so far. I'd guess they'd go with Quijada, but I also guessed the Marlins would go with Quijada in the ninth in 2019 and, suffice to say, that didn't happen. Or it could be Loup or Tepera. Who knows going forward.

The Angels do have a few more wrinkles to them now that they have more room with some people gone, but at the same time, a great season for them will be determined by whether Jo Adell, Jhonathan Diaz, David Fletcher and Griffin Canning are A.) the right people to be relying on, and B.) will be capable of actually performing for them. It can't just be the Trout and Ohtani show every year. The young kids need to step up, and it's about time they decided to.

Coming Tomorrow- A third baseman who's had a breakout year for a troublesome team.