In 2023, famously, the Los Angeles Angels, upon sweeping the New York Yankees midyear, suddenly decided they were ready to compete, and thus traded for tons of helpful stars, including Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk. Then they...stopped winning games, and had to waive most of them. It was a classic case of overconfidence that cost a lot of people their jobs, and led to Shohei Ohtani leaving for the Dodgers.
Well...the Angels just took three from the Yankees again, including a couple where they couldn't get runs out of them. And now they're at .500, lapping the Rangers. If they don't mess this up, they could be hanging around 2nd by the end of the first half. Which would be insane, seeing as the Angels have so many pieces that simply aren't working, and so many great players [from Mike Trout to Taylor Ward to Christian Walker] who are doing good things but not consistently enough to be having great seasons.
This team has already tried so much that has outright failed. Banking on a Tim Anderson reclamation project, yeah that unsurprisingly went nowhere. Giving Yoan Moncada a try, well after a month he got hurt, like he always does. Giving Kyren Paris more playing time, well, his start was phenomenal but he truly evened out and now he's hitting below .200. Getting a healthy year from Luis Rengifo--that's a -1.3 WAR that man is working with this year. When signing Kyle Hendricks, who has a 4.83 ERA, is comparatively one of your better ideas, you know things have gone wrong.
I do admire the Angels's ability to just get rid of what isn't working. Prior to the season, the Angels did away with the 'homegrown rotation' idea cause none of them could stay healthy. And while they were right about Patrick Sandoval, Griffin Canning is having a rebound year in New York. Honestly, the central trio this year of Yusei Kikuchi, Tyler Anderson and Jose Soriano has been pretty great. Kikuchi has 99 Ks and a 2.79 ERA, he's just built for this division. Soriano's ERA is around 3.50 and he has 80 Ks. Anderson's a little more even but he's still a crucial workhorse. The Angels have gotten starts from five pitchers and no one else [so far], which not even the Mariners can say this year. Even if Jack Kochanowicz is bringing up the rear of the rotation, he's still making all his starts and he's still capable of great moments. They haven't needed Reid Detmers to swing over, and they haven't needed to call up Caden Dana or Sam Aldegheri for much else other than mop-up duty.
I do kinda wish the lineup had better luck, as there's still some holes. Nolan Schanuel, at least, has gotten off to a better June, he's now hitting .274 with 6 homers and 30 RBIs. Jo Adell, regardless of a lack of dimension, still has 17 homers and 41 RBIs. Mike Trout, despite this being his most human year yet, has hit 12 homers and has 29 RBIs. And rookie Christian Moore, even if he hasn't gotten his average up yet, has 3 homers and 6 RBIs, and is already a proven Yankee killer. Even if it isn't always pretty, this team can produce, and this team can still get past tough teams. They're not a full competitor to me yet, but if they keep at this pace they could shock a lot of people.
Coming Tomorrow- I think about the fact that the Mariners didn't especially need Jean Segura and traded for him anyway, thereby costing them a 2nd baseman for life. And you know how many 2nd basemen the Mariners have corrupted since then. Frazier, Wong, Polanco. It could have been so much easier..
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