Angels left-hander Michael Roth has gone from a college star, who scouts thought had a minute chance to contribute at the big league level, to a key part of the Angels’ bullpen in less than a year.

Obviously, the Angels have one of the worst bullpens in baseball. The group, which has been coined as the “blowpen” or “buLOLpen” by some, ranks 25th in the majors in bullpen ERA. But even with a thin relief crop, Roth’s climb to the majors has been nothing short of fascinating. For one, Roth pitched just 31 innings in the minors before making his debut with the Angels. He posted a 3.48 ERA in 14 appearances between the Rookie level Orem Owlz and Double-A Arkansas Travelers. However, in those 31 games, Roth managed to allow 28 hits while walking 14 batters and striking out 25, for a rather lackluster K/BB ratio of 1.79 and WHIP of 1.36. While not horrible, those numbers are underwhelming considering how advanced Roth was thought to be coming out of college.

For the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, Roth tore up the SEC (widely regarded as the best conference in college baseball) during his four-year tenure, including a dominant 2011 season in which he went 14-3 with a 1.06 ERA. He entered the 2012 draft as a lightly regarded potential LOOGY who was likely to go off the board between the fifth and tenth rounds as a senior who would sign for under slot.

The Angels grabbed Roth in the 9th round with the 297th overall pick. Roth signed for just $20,000. Baseball America ranked him as the 30th best prospect in the Angels organization entering 2013 and had this to say regarding his prospect status:

On pure stuff, Roth would just be another arm in the organization, a senior sign who saved money in the ninth round with his $20,000 bonus. But his stellar college track record and performance on college baseball’s biggest stage are hard to ignore. A reliever for most of his first two seasons at South Carolina, he made his first two starts (including a shutout of Clemson) at the 2010 College World Series as the Gamecocks won their first national championship. As a junior, he topped NCAA Division I in wins (14-3) and ERA (1.06) as South Carolina repeated as national champions. He led the Gamecocks to a national runner-up finish in 2012, setting career CWS records for starts (eight) and innings (60) while ranking second in wins (four) and fifth in ERA (1.49). While scouts respect what Roth did in college, there are obvious questions about how well his skill set will translate to pro ball. He has outstanding savvy, but his fastball parks around the mid-80s and peaks at 89 mph. He has a deceptive delivery, varies his arm angles and moves the ball around the strike zone. His best pitch is his changeup, which has deep action and late sink. He mixes in an upper-70s slider, can bust cutters in on the hands of righthanders and throws an occasional slow curve. His funkiness could work in relief, where he doesn’t have to get through a lineup multiple times. He could begin his first full year in high Class A because he’ll be 23.

As you can see, the odds were stacked against Roth. Players that young throwing sub-90 MPH fastballs generally don’t make an impact at the highest level. And while Roth had deception, track record, and the fact that he was a lefty working for him, he was a likely candidate to move to the bullpen despite his success in the Gamecocks’ rotation.

Michael Roth has allowed just 2 extra base hits this season.

So, when the Angels called up Roth on April 13th, it came as a surprise to many. Roth made his big league debut that day, pitching two perfect innings en route to his first major league win, a 5-4 victory over Houston. Since that game, Roth has made eight more appearances, posting a 14-3 strikeout-walk ratio while allowing 21 hits and a dreadful 14 earned runs in 14 innings on the season. However, it hasn’t been all bad, as Roth has been extremely unlucky BABIP-wise. Though it’s just a small sample size,  Roth’s .447 BABIP is an astronomically high mark. His FIP (1.67) and xFIP (2.70) are well below his bloated 9.00 ERA.

So, while Roth’s surface numbers make him seem like a well below-average relief option, in reality he is actually a serviceable pitcher. He has already accrued a 0.4 WAR, which is tied for second best among Angels pitchers this season. He has also been able to minimize damage, allowing just two extra base hits this season, which both came in a May 13th outing against the Royals. His ground ball ratio of 50 percent is among the best on the team and largely explains the lack of extra base hits.

Click to enlarge.

Velocity wise, Roth is right in line with his normal self, averaging 88.1 MPH on his fastball, the third lowest mark on the team among pitchers who have logged at least a single inning this season. Roth has also managed to post the highest contact rate on the team with a 84.5 percent mark. In essence, Roth has been among the better pitchers on the Angels this season, even with sub-par stuff.

So what can we expect from Roth going forward? Most likely, he’ll continue to be used by the organization as a reliever. The Angels did give Roth one start earlier this season, but he allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings. Still, Roth does have some value in his ability to log innings, making it a reasonable assumption that his ultimate role may be that of a long-relief option.

Although it’s still very early in his career, Roth has already exceeded evaluators’ expectations and looks to have a potential lengthy big league career ahead of him. From College World Series hero to ninth round draft pick to the major leagues, Michael Roth has had a heck of a year.

You can follow Justin Millar on twitter at @justinmillar1, or email him at Justinmillar1@gmail.com. Comment below to join the discussion.

An unbuttoned Jason Vargas doing his best Heathcliff Slocumb imitation.

Final Score:  Angels 6, White Sox 2

Halos Daily Player of the Game:  Jason Vargas (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 6 SO, 3 BB)

Apple Valley High School graduate Jason Vargas stood on the pitcher’s mound on a sunny Southern California Sunday afternoon and did what Jerry Dipoto expected he would do for the Angels: pitch deep into the game and give the Angels’ offense a chance to win.

Vargas pitched seven innings, struck out six batters, and allowed only two White Sox base-runners to reach second base safely.  Vargas’s solid performance against the fourth place ChiSox lowered his ERA to 3.55 for the year, good for the team lead in that category.

With two runners on base in the third inning, Erick Aybar hit a two-run double, scoring Chris Iannetta and JB Shuck.  In the eighth inning, Howie Kendrick hit a two-run double of his own, plating Mark Trumbo and Josh Hamilton.  The Angels went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position today, and when you combine that with good pitching, you usually wind up with a victory.

The White Sox scored their first run when Dane De La Rosa took over for Vargas in the eighth and walked a batter, then an RBI-double to Alex Rios.  Manager Mike Scioscia, looking forward to avoid another relief pitching nightmare, promptly walked to the mound, tapped his left arm, and brought in Scott Downs, who struck out Adam Dunn.  Scioscia then went to Ernesto Frieri, who jammed Paul Konerko and induced a pop up to close out the inning.

Frieri had trouble in the ninth, walking three and giving up one run, but part of the blame lies with home plate umpire, John Hirschbeck, who was having a particularly bad game calling balls and strikes.  Pitchers would throw strikes that were clearly in the zone, but he would call them balls.  When hitters had two strikes on them, they didn’t know whether to swing on pitches that were six inches off the plate or spit on them as Hirshbeck called them strikes half of the time.  Hitters, pitchers, and the two managers were all frustrated with Hirshbeck’s calls.

Mike Trout and Adam Dunn both had three-strikeout days at the plate.

Random Notes:

White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy looks exactly like Steve McQueen.

I love that Scioscia is bringing in Frieri for four-out saves.

Even though it was Little League Day at Angel Stadium, there were still whale-sized chunks of empty seats in the stands.

Angels broadcaster Victor Rojas’s dad is Cookie Rojas, five-time All-Star second baseman for the Phillies and Royals.  Cookie also managed the Angels in 1988, guiding the team to a fourth place finish.

Chris Iannetta took two more walks today, moving into a tie for fourth place in the American League with 25 base-on-balls this season.

Josh Hamilton needs to score 11 more runs to reach 500 runs scored in his career.

He has started to show signs of life. The ultimate projection might be closer to seventh-inning reliever than impact starter, but you can’t ignore the stuff; his fastball is routinely working 92-96 with a 78-82 mph breaking ball that profiles as a solid-average offering.

Bedrosian has struggled since the Angels took him with the 29th overall pick back in 2010, but it’s encouraging to see some “signs of life” as Parks puts it.

The Angels’ rotation misses Jered Weaver dearly.

The Angels aren’t winning. I thought they were going to, but they haven’t. I believe that over the course of 162 games, players show you what they can do. You can’t comfortably project what a player—or a team—will do in a 40-game stretch, but you can make a pretty good guess as to what a team will do over an entire season.

Six weeks ago thought the Angels were going to be one of the best teams in baseball this season. I still look at the roster and think that they’re significantly better than they’ve played thus far, but now I think they might have been doomed to mediocrity all along.

In this series, I’m going to break down each aspect of the Angels’ performance thus far and weigh it against my own expectations entering the season. We know generally what this team’s issues are, but careful examination of each part of the team will allow us to identify what has really gone wrong with this team. With that, here’s a look at the starting rotation.

Entering the season, I thought the Angels’ rotation would surprise people. If healthy, I thought it would be among the best in the American League. It hasn’t been.

If you told me that Jered Weaver would have allowed just six runs through the middle of May, I’d probably assume that he was on his way to his fourth consecutive finish in the top five in Cy Young voting. Instead, Weaver has made just two starts, courtesy of a freak injury in early April. The staff ace is due back in late May or early June.

Weaver’s absence is huge. Not only do the Angels lack an intimidating presence in their rotation without him, they’ve had to replace him with sixth starters. That’s not good.

I expected Weaver to be Weaver, to induce poor contact, utilize his defense and have an ERA under 3.00. I think that was a reasonable expectation, and I don’t think anyone can be faulted for counting on Weaver, who’s made at least 30 starts (in the majors or minors) in each of the past seven seasons.

I had high expectations of CJ Wilson, who was excellent in the first half of 2012, then pitched through bone spurs in his elbow in a less-than-stellar second half of the season. I thought Wilson was a sleeper, who could perform like a very good no. 3 starter. He hasn’t been terrible, but he hasn’t been good either.

In 2011, Wilson’s best season, he walked just 2.98 batters per nine innings. In 2012, that number was up to 4.05. I blamed Wilson’s command issues on his injury, which was probably a mistake. In his first 17 starts of the year, he walked 3.97 per nine; in his final 17 starts that number rose, but only to 4.13. His command issues were probably not a result of his injury, and I should have seen them coming. This year, Wilson is walking 5.18 per nine. He’s never had a mark this high in his career, so we might see some regression, things just aren’t going to be the way they were in 2011. Wilson’s inability to command will prevent him from being a true rotation cog.

Tommy Hanson has completely lived up to my expectations. He wasn’t going to be a top-of-the-rotation starter, but I thought he’d be a very solid back-of-the-rotation piece. Despite making 31 starts in 2012, Hanson was thought of as “damaged goods” and I braced myself for him to miss time with an injury. That hasn’t happened, but Hanson has dealt with personal matters that have caused him to miss three of his eight scheduled starts. When he has been on the field, he’s given the Angels a decent chance to win in all but one of his starts. Outside of his five-run miscue against Houston, Hanson has gone at least five innings and allowed three runs or fewer in every outing.

Jason Vargas has also given the Angels a chance to win more often than not. I loved the Vargas trade for the Halos at the time, and I still love it. Kendrys Morales was expendable, and Vargas’s peripherals are a perfect fit for the Big A. He’s known for his reliance on fly balls, which usually turn into outs when you have Mike Trout, Peter Bourjos, and Josh Hamilton.

In eight starts, Vargas has four quality starts. (It’s almost five; he pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed one run in his Angels debut.) He’s struggled at times, but generally been very good.

I liked the Joe Blanton signing, but I don’t like it any more. I looked at his splendid 4.88 strikeout-to-walk ratio from 2012 and thought more balls would stay in the park. They haven’t; he’s already allowed eight home runs. I thought he’d eat innings and quietly put together a strong season. He hasn’t; in half of his starts he’s failed to record more than 15 outs. Blanton is the rare example of a player with excellent control but horrendous command. I was wrong about him.

Batters have put 181 of Blanton’s pitches into play this season. 92 of those went for either a fly ball or line drive. While Blanton’s home rate rate is grotesque in it’s own right (15.4 percent), 27 percent of his non-ground balls have resulted in extra base hits. That’s ugly.

In the absence of Weaver and Hanson, Garrett Richards, Jerome Williams, Barry Enright, and Michael Roth have made 10 starts. In those starts, they’ve posted a 6.79 ERA and pitched an average of just 5 1/3 innings. As a collective unit, they’ve put the Angels in poor situations. Mike Scioscia has needed to go to the lackluster bullpen earlier than he should have to, and the offense has had little chance of coming from behind.

After last night’s start, Williams has now made two quality starts in a row. Richards has also looked good at times, but, collectively, this group has performed at replacement level or worse more often than not. That’s not good.

While the starting pitching has been a weakness for the Angels thus far, the impending returns of Weaver and Hanson should make the rotation bearable. Unfortunately for the Angels, it looks like neither pitcher will be back in the rotation in the short term.

Starting pitching is only part of this team’s problem. I, and most prognosticators, assumed that this rotation could be good enough. A quarter of the way through the season, I’ve been wrong.

The White Sox came from behind to beat the Angels on Thursday night.

Final Score: White Sox 5, Angels 4

Halos Daily Player of the Game: Dane De La Rosa Howie Kendrick (2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI)

The Angels offense looked good on Thursday night but the bullpen couldn’t help the Halos win their 16th game of the year. It was another disheartening loss, especially since it looked like the Angels had this one in the books heading into the late innings.

The first three innings of the game at Angel Stadium were scoreless for both teams and it looked like a pitching duel would be on display between Jose Quintana and Jerome Williams.

But it was not to be. Williams blinked in the top of the fourth inning, allowing a long solo homer to Alex Rios, his ninth of the year. The Angels powered back in the bottom of the inning when Albert Pujols blasted a two-run longball that brought in Mike Trout and gave the Halos a 2-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth inning, a fielding error by Erick Aybar allowed Conor Gillaspie to score and tie the game at 2-2. But Howie Kendrick’s double off the glove of outfielder Dayan Viciedo in the bottom of the sixth gave the Angels a 4-2 lead — one that the Angels should have kept for good.

On the contrary, the Angels bullpen, which entered the game 11-1 when leading after seven innings, faltered in the eighth. Dane De La Rosa gave up a single to Alejandro De Aza, who advanced to third base after a single from Alexei Ramirez. Ramirez ended up at second base when Trout overthrew his cutoff man from center field. Suddenly, there were two men in scoring position and nobody out.

Alex Rios, the next batter, struck out swinging, but the ball got away from Chris Iannetta, allowing De Aza to score from third. To the good fortune of the Angels, Rios decided to stand in the batter’s box instead of running to first base, allowing Iannetta to throw to first and get a much needed first out. Adam Dunn stepped in next and hit a sharp single to right field which brought in Ramirez and tied the game at 4-4.

Then things got weird. Michael Kohn got Paul Konerko to ground out, then decided to walk three straight batters. He threw 18 pitches, 13 of which missed the strike zone. Jeff Keppinger — who hadn’t walked all season — was the last batter to take a free pass, which allowed Adam Dunn to come around to score the winning run, charged to De La Rosa.

There were four visits to the mound and two pitching changes in the top of the eighth inning. Alas, the Angels could not recover from a horrendous late inning deflation. The Sox won 5-4.

It has been a trying time for Angels fans everywhere and with the team on pace to finish the year 59-103, the Halos need to turn this season around fast, though it seems like I have said this every night since…well, early March.

The Angels dropped to 15-26 and are now 12.0 games behind Texas, 5.0 games behind Seattle, and 4.5 games behind Oakland in the AL West. At least they’re 4.0 games ahead of Houston. Sheesh.

The Angels play the second of a four-game set with Chicago tonight in Anaheim. C.J. Wilson (3-2, 3.88 ERA) is on the mound against Chris Sale (4-2, 2.88 ERA), who threw a one-hitter against the Halos last Sunday. First pitch is at 7:05 PT.

/groan

Final Score: Royals 9, Angels 5

Halos Daily Player of the Game: Mike Trout (2-for-3; 2 BB, 2B, HR)

So much for the good will accrued from Tuesday’s win.

The Halos got back to their losing ways Wednesday night, putting Barry Enright on the mound just to make sure they didn’t accidentally win.

Enright lasted just two innings and change in his second terrible spot start of the month, allowing an RBI-double in the second and leaving the bases loaded in the third for Mark Lowe to increase his rate of inherited runners scored to roughly 88 percent. Wasn’t that considerate of Barry?

Billy Butler got the blowout started (of course) on Lowe’s third pitch with a two-run single to left, giving Country Breakfast nine RBI in the series. Not content to just allow inherited runners to score — what’s the fun if the runs don’t affect your own ERA? — Lowe then walked Eric Hosmer and allowed a bases-clearing double down the left field line to Lorenzo Cain. After a pair of outs, a single, and a run-scoring passed ball, Jarrod Dyson* put the finishing touches on the seven-run frame with an RBI-triple to right.

*Pronounced Juh-RAWD, for reasons unclear.

The Angels actually fared rather well on the offensive side of things — racking up 12 hits on the evening — but, as has been the case all season, failed to come through when they needed the knocks the most.

The team’s best chance at a comeback came in the sixth, when Albert Pujols came up with two outs representing the tying run. Mike Trout had just walked home a run (shrimp!) to make the score 8-4, and Aaron Crow didn’t seem to have his release point figured out. However, Pujols sent a harmless ground ball to third to end the threat.

It’s hard to put much blame on the bats when the pitching puts the game out of reach in the first 30 minutes. But scoring just one run in four chances with the bases loaded — on a walk, no less — is not gonna cut it in any game scenario. The Halos now have just seven hits in 37 plate appearances with the bases loaded on the year, which, like this team, is not good.

The bright spot of the night was Mike Trout continuing his Trout-esque May. The Prince Fish launched his eighth home run of the year to go along with a double and two walks, giving him 19 hits in 14 games this month, 10 of which have been of the extra-base variety.

The White Sox come to town on Thursday. Jerome Williams will take on Jose Quintana in a rematch of Saturday’s match-up in Chicago.

Ryan Madson seems to be finally nearing the end of his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

Ryan Madson pitched in the ninth inning of the Single-A Inland Empire 66ers game on Monday night in San Bernardino against the Visalia Rawhide.  This was the first game Madson has pitched in since September 28, 2011.  Madson nailed down a save for the 66ers, getting a strikeout, a ground out, and a fly ball out.

Mike DiGiovanna, who covers the Angels for the Los Angeles Times, tweeted this today:

RHP Ryan Madson will report to triple- Salt Lake Thursday to begin rehab assignment he said will last “several weeks.”

The Jose Guillen decision was a defining moment in Mike Scioscia’s tenure with the Angels.

When Mike Scioscia was a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers,  I was a teenager and a young twenty-something.  I wasn’t jealous of the Dodgers for having Scioscia because the Angels had Brian Downing, Bob Boone, and Lance Parrish catching during that stretch of time, and those three were no joke, but I did admire Scioscia’s play on the field.

He was always a decent hitter, for a catcher.  He hit two key home runs for the Dodgers in the post-season against the Expos in 1981 and the Mets in 1988.  What made him stand out, though, was his defense.  When he strapped on the face mask, chest protector, and shin guards, he was a force to be reckoned with.  Calling a game, knocking down wild pitches, standing up and shouting instructions to infielders at key points of the game, he was the epitome of what a field general should be.  He was regularly in the top five in the National League in catcher assists, double plays turned by a catcher, and runners caught stealing.  And blocking the plate?  Forget about it.  A base runner might as well have been trying to collide with the Empire State Building.

After his playing days, he served as a coach for Dodgers manager Bill Russell in 1997 and 1998.  When Russell was fired, the Dodgers went against most people’s expectations and snubbed Scioscia for the newly vacant manager’s seat, hiring Davey Johnson instead.  Scioscia was put on the back-burner in the Dodgers’ organization in 1999 and was sent to manage the Triple-A Albuquerque Dukes.

In 2000, the Angels came calling, and Scioscia jumped at the opportunity.  And what he brought to the team was exactly what it needed to enter the most successful era in franchise history.

The prevalent  philosophy in the American League at the time of Scioscia’s hire was to win by getting two runners on base and then hitting a three-run homer.  Scioscia’s teams always had sluggers, but he added small ball to the mix.  “Get ‘em on, get ‘em over, and get ‘em in” became the mantra for the Angels’ offense.  Productive outs, taking the extra base, bunting, and stealing all became part of the Angels’ repertoire.  It made for exciting baseball to watch.

I quickly became a fan of Mike Scioscia, the manager.

And then a couple of years later the World Series happened.

But what really finalized my standing as a Mike Scioscia fan is what happened at the end of the 2004 season.  The Angels were pushing the Oakland A’s for the division lead and a spot in the playoffs, and on September 25 the two teams were playing each other.  The score was tied 3-3 when Angels left fielder Jose Guillen was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning.  Scioscia replaced him with a pinch runner, Alfredo Amezaga, and Guillen was not happy.  He threw a tantrum when he entered the dugout, throwing his arms up into the air in a why-the-hell-did-you-do-that gesture, throwing his batting helmet across the dugout to where Scioscia was standing, slamming his glove against the wall.

Scioscia couldn’t sleep that night.  This wasn’t the first incident Guillen had had during his time with the Angels, but he was the second best hitter on the team that year (to Vladimir Guerrero).  Guillen was hitting .294 with 27 home runs and 104 RBI.  The Angels were just two games behind division-leading Oakland and a couple weeks away from the playoffs, but Guillen was undermining Scioscia’s authority and dissolving the cohesion a team needs to win baseball games.

Scioscia talked to general manager Bill Stoneman, and they decided to suspend Guillen not just for the rest of the season, but for the playoffs as well.  I admired Scioscia for having the courage to bench his second best player while standing at the gates of the playoffs.  Not many men would have done that.

Angels starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn had this to say at the time:

As players, we support the decision 100 percent. I was surprised, but I wasn’t shocked. Are we happy? No, because he did contribute. Was it necessary? Probably.

But now the Angels are in a rut, experiencing a three-year playoff drought.  Fans’ expectations are high (as they should be) and the fans are demanding a change.  But I don’t blame Scioscia.  Even Jimmie Johnson would come in last place in a NASCAR race if the car he’s driving has a 140-horsepower Honda Civic engine in it.  Over the last two years, this team needed pitching, but during those offseasons the Angels spent the bulk of their budget signing hitting instead.  The Angels need smarter decision making in the front office.  Maybe Jerry Dipoto needs to go.  (If he does, former Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng could be available.  Imagine the Angels hiring the first female general manager in baseball.)

But if Arte Moreno truly is considering firing Mike Scioscia, I hope he thinks about this final tidbit.  Mike Scioscia is one of the best managers in the game.  He speaks Spanish, he’s funny, and he keeps his players well-prepared.  Baseball players want to play for Scioscia, and because of this, he is one of the deciding factors in persuading free agents and players who have control over their trades to come to the Angels.  And if the Angels are ever going to retool their roster and become a championship team again, a manager like Scioscia is what they need.

Final Score: Royals 11, Angels 4

Halos Daily Player of the Game: Pass

Luis Mendoza and Kansas City were just the latest team to annihilate Joe Blanton and the Angels, recording 19 hits and defeating the lifeless Halos 11-4 in a royal ass kicking. Blanton threw only 4 2/3 innings, somehow finding a way to allow 12 hits in that span even though it sounds impossible. The Royals scored seven runs off Blanton to knock him out of the game and force Mike Scioscia to go to the bullpen early. But hey, he didn’t walk anybody and he struck out seven. That’s almost a quality start for 2013 Joe Blanton.

Mendoza had struggled this season before facing the Angels. In 24 innings, he walked 13 batters and allowed 20 runs. Nothing a game against the Angels can’t fix! Mendoza earned the quality start and the win, scattering six hits over six innings, allowing three runs, and striking out six Angels while not allowing a free pass. Nothing spectacular, but when you’re facing Joe Blanton, you pretty much just have to pitch better than a corpse to earn the victory.

The Royals’ barrage began in the first inning. After Blanton recorded the first two outs, Alex Gordon singled to right field and Billy Butler followed with an RBI-double over Josh Hamilton’s head in right field to give Kansas City a 1-0 lead. In the top of the third, Butler padded his stats with two more two-out RBI, knocking in Jarrod Dyson and Alcides Escobar.

The Royals tacked on two more runs in the fourth—courtesy of a Dyson two-run double—and two more runs in the fifth, thanks to hits from Lorenzo Cain and Salvador Perez. In the top of the sixth, the Royals officially put the game on ice against new Halo pitcher Michael Roth. Butler collected yet another two-run double and Cain added another RBI single, giving Kansas City a 10-1 lead, more than enough for a talented Royals bullpen against a mediocre Angels offense. On the day, Butler went 5-for-5 with two doubles and five RBI.

The Angels added some token runs throughout the game. Chris Iannetta had an RBI-single in the third inning, Albert Pujols collected an RBI-double in the sixth, and JB Schuck added an RBI-double in the seventh. Yippee.

The lone bright spot for the Angels was reliever Robert Coello, making his second appearance of the season. Coello ate the last two innings and struck out four Royals. In three innings this year, Coello has struck out six batters and has a negative FIP. Maybe Coello is a decent bullpen arm that the Angels lucked into. Or, more likely, he’s just a journeyman relief pitcher that will shortly get knocked around.

The Angels will look to even up the series against the Royals Tuesday night. Luckily, I will not be writing the recap for that game. The Angels are 0-6 when I do. And Blanton seems to pitch every time. I’m not sure what I did to earn this punishment.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewkarcher.

Chris Sale, AWOLNATION’s favorite baseball player.

Well at least Mike Trout is producing again. The Angels rocked the baseball world last week, compiling a 3-3 record. Progress! But seriously, they’re now 10 games back and have the fourth worst run differential in baseball. They’re bad and they’re not making the playoffs. Moving on.

Trout struggled out of the gate this April, hitting only .261 despite a .314 BABIP. And, perhaps even more concerning, he stole only four bases, even though he’s on the short list of fastest players in baseball. Once May rolled around, though, Trout remembered that he enjoyed being really good at baseball.

In May, Trout owns a .341/.396/.705 slash line, MVP numbers that probably aren’t sustainable — unless Trout is an alien, which isn’t out of the question. Trout’s early struggles probably weren’t sustainable either, though, and his slump might have been a bit overstated.

A positive sign in Trout’s game is that he’s been able to cut down the strikeouts, his rate now sitting at 17.8 percent, four full percentage points down from his 2012 rookie campaign. The walks are down a bit, too, but that also could just be small sample size noise. Besides, I would gladly trade in a couple walks if it means Trout is striking out less and putting the ball in play more. When Trout puts the ball in play, good things happen.

A fantastic sign for Trout is that his ground ball rate has increased by four percent, while his fly ball rate has dropped by about three percent. Ground balls tend to turn into hits more often than fly balls, especially in Anaheim and especially when the hitter is as fast as Trout. To wit, Trout has seven infield hits this season and had 22 last year.

So what was the early problem with Trout in the first place? Randomness, probably. Trout was never going to rekindle his 2012 magic this year, and there’s also a non-zero chance that his rookie year will be the best of his career, at least in terms of WAR. That’s how special Trout was last year. The two great thorns in Trout’s side this year look to be BABIP and home runs. His BABIP currently sits at .317, still above average, but a massive drop from his .383 mark last year. A .317 BABIP for someone as fast and gifted as Trout seems low, so he might even be due for some better luck in the near future.

As for the homers…who knows? Trout’s 30-homer campaign last year felt like a mirage even as it was happening. As I wrote in the preseason, Trout was never really projected as a 30-home run bat, especially in his age-20 season; also, he benefited from some “wall scrappers,” homers that just barely clear the wall. It may be silly for me to say Trout has a home run problem, given that he has six this year, but the rate at which he hits them is dramatically lower than last year, as his home runs per fly ball have dropped by almost six percent. This too could just be small sample size noise, but it also seems to match up with Trout’s actual current power.

Even though Trout’s 2013 slash is nowhere near as sexy to look at this year (.284/.351/.510), it speaks to his abilities that he has been “disappointing” so far, especially for someone in their age-21 season. Trout is seventh in Major League Baseball in fWAR, sitting at 1.9, less than a full win behind Carlos Gomez’ position-player-leading 2.7. If this is Trout’s sophomore slump, I can’t wait to see what he does once he breaks out of it.

This week, Trout and the Angels welcome a couple AL Central foes to the Big A for seven games in a nine-game home stand. First up are the Kansas City Royals, 1.5 games behind the Tigers and Indians in the division. Surprisingly, the Royals are riding the backs of some hot starting pitching to keep pace. Their duo of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, former can’t-miss prospects that have shown flashes of brilliance in their brief careers, have combined for just 0.3 fWAR. That figure remains unchanged if we add Billy Butler and his .319 wOBA to the mix. Alex Gordon, Kansas City’s best hitter, has walked five times this year (!) after receiving 73 free passes in 2012.

While the offense has been stagnant, the starting pitching has been surprisingly good. And it better damn well stay that way if GM Dayton Moore wants to keep his job. Perhaps the most scrutinized move of the offseason was Moore’s decision to part with uber-prospect Wil Myers, sending his bat (and other prospects of varying skill) to Tampa Bay for James Shields and Wade Davis. Shields was the prize and the assumption was that the Royals’ young offense and powerful bullpen was ready to contend, it just needed some starting pitching help. The starters have done their part, posting the fifth best ERA in the American League. Shields has done his part too, his 2.89 FIP like a cool breeze on a hot summer day for Moore. Our old friend Ervin Santana, traded to the Royals this offseason for a bag of Funyuns and some cherry Lifesavers, has been excellent, further exacerbating the hilarity that was the Angels’ offseason. He has a 2.79 ERA and has walked only 1.12 batter per nine innings. He probably can’t keep that pace up, but still, he’s been worth 1.0 fWAR for the Royals. Guess how many Angels starting pitchers can say that. Here’s a hint: it’s equal to the number of hits I had in my MLB career.

After the Royals depart, the Angels welcome the White Sox to town for a four-game weekend series. Last week, I wrote a bit about the struggles of Paul Konerko, his decline taking the Sox offense down with him. On the pitching front, Chris Sale is pretty good, yes? The Angels agree, after he almost no-no’ed them on national TV yesterday. Given his delivery, Sale may always be a candidate for injury. It’s probably why he fell to 13th in the 2010 draft and it’s why the White Sox toyed with the idea of leaving him in the bullpen.* But man, the dude can pitch. His ERA is 2.88 and his walks per nine is a microscopic 1.92. Sale is signed to a ridiculously team-friendly $32.5M through 2017, plus club options for 2018 and 2019. The move made sense for Sale, as he now has financial security in case his arms falls off. But if Sale remains healthy, this contract will prove to be robbery for the White Sox, as there are few pitchers better than the 24-year-old lefty.

* In 2010 and 2011, Sale made 79 appearances out of the pen for the White Sox.

The Angels are bad and the Ducks were eliminated from the playoffs last night. Lean times ahead for Anaheim sports. Maybe Trout can do some more Trout things to keep us all interested for the long summer.

Pitching Probables, according to ESPN

Royals

Monday: Joe Blanton (5.66 ERA) vs Luis Mendoza (6.38)

Tuesday: Jason Vargas (4.26) vs Jeremy Guthrie (2.28)

Wednesday: TBD vs Wade Davis (5.86)

White Sox

Thursday: Jerome Williams (3.06) vs Jose Quintana (3.72)

Friday: CJ Wilson (3.88) vs Chris Sale (2.88)

Saturday: Blanton vs Hector Santiago (1.69)

Sunday: Vargas vs Jake Peavy (3.03)

Three Bold Predictions

1) Star Trek will be the best blockbuster of the summer. Gut feeling.

2) The Wednesday starter will be determined by a contest. The first 100 fans through the turnstiles enter a raffle, and the winner starts the game. That person will pitch better than Blanton.

3) Trout will have a 5-for-4 game this week.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewkarcher.