That clip from Apocalypse Now is a pretty accurate reflection of the Angels’ weekend in Texas. You have the jungle getting napalmed, kind of like Mike Napoli napalming Angels pitching on Sunday (3-for-3 in the second game of the doubleheader with 2 home runs, 1 double, 6 RBI) to essentially end the Angels season.*
* Watch this and replace Michael Martin Sheen with Mike Scioscia. Throughout the movie, Sheen descends into deeper levels of madness. I like to picture Scioscia doing this in his bedroom, as he descends into madness after Napoli, his former whipping boy, continues to crush his former team. You’re welcome for planting the image of Scioscia stumbling about in his chonies in your brain.
True, the season isn’t officially over, but the situation is dire. They trail Oakland by three games for the final wild card slot with three to play. Here’s how the Angels make the ALDS (deep breath): sweep three games at Seattle, hope Texas sweeps three games at Oakland, defeat Oakland in a one game tiebreaker (probably at Oakland but I’m not sure), win the wild card game at Baltimore the AL East second place finisher. So, yeah, it’s not happening.
Obviously, for a team with World Series aspirations, this is a disappointing season that reaffirms the cliche that championships aren’t won in the offseason, but on the field. The 2012 Angels were a very good team with some deficiencies that we all saw coming (an often leaky bullpen) and that nobody saw coming (atrocious starting pitching for large chunks of games at a time).
The season was hardly a disaster, though. I can’t be convinced that the Angels aren’t one of the five best teams in the AL. Many of the problems with the club are easily remedied, such as simple home run rate regression for the starters or having Mike Trout for the full 162. The club has talent and there’s no reason they won’t be in the mix in 2013, as myself and the other Halos Daily writers will cover this offseason. The team needs a couple tweaks to become a player for the 2013 AL crown, not a massive overhaul. I see no reason why they can’t win 95 games next year just with internal improvement and some better luck on the pitching front.
It’s still too early to say the 2011 Winter Meetings were a failure. We’re only 10% done with Pujols and 20% with CJ Wilson. We knew Pujols was a massive overpay at the time, and it’s starting to look like Wilson is too. But neither player needs to carry the club. With Trout’s emergence, Pujols doesn’t need to carry the offense. Wilson just needs to be a reliable #3 or #4 starter, something that will happen if he limits the walks.**
** For as bad as Wilson has looked at times, he’s still likely going to finish with a sub-4.00 ERA. Not great, but if he’s their 4th best starter next season (I’m banking on a bit of a Dan Haren-rebound; I think the back injury in spring threw his whole season out of whack), that’s fine.
2012 was often miserable for Angels fans. April and August were mind-numbingly bad for a team with this much talent. But 2012 was also the season Mike Trout asserted himself as the best all-around player in baseball. Jered Weaver threw a no-hitter and reminded everyone that he’s one of the best pitchers in the game even without having jaw-dropping “stuff.” Kendrys Morales had a great season considering he hadn’t played baseball in almost two years; we may see a bump in his production next season.
No they didn’t win the World Series or even make the playoffs and that sucks, but unless you believe the Mayans, this isn’t a one-year deal. Ownership is aggressive (sometimes a detriment) and you can bet the club’s weaknesses will be addressed. There’s a new GM still implementing his philosophy and he’ll have a first round pick in June 2013. Trout will likely improve, if you can believe that. Who knows, 2012 may just be a blip in the radar for a team that finds sustained success for the next decade.
The beauty of baseball is that we, as fans, don’t know anything. I picked the Orioles and A’s to come in last place and lose close to 100 games and I know I wasn’t alone. The Angels and their fans should be humbled today and this offseason. That doesn’t mean the team should be written off.
Probable Pitchers, according to ESPN
Mariners
Monday: CJ Wilson (3.86 ERA) vs Felix Hernandez (2.86)
Tuesday: Dan Haren (4.32) vs Hisashi Iwakuma (3.32)
Wednesday: Jered Weaver (2.73) vs Blake Beavan (4.68)
3 Bold Predictions
1) Weaver wins his 21st game, finishes third in Cy Young voting behind David Price and Justin Verlander.
2) Trout steals two more bases, reaching 50 for the year. He’ll finish second to Miguel Cabrera in MVP voting even though he was the best player in MLB this year.
3) Vernon Wells plays his last game as an Angel.
“Mike Trout For MVP” Sewing Circle
Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrewkarcher
Don’t you mean 3-for-4 on Sunday? He could have really hurt the Angels with a ninth inning pinch hit instead of ending the game weakly. Funny how we only remember the very best or very worst on any situation.
The ESPN box score says 3-for-3 with a walk.
Oh I see. You were including the first game of the doubleheader as well. I should have made it more specific I meant only the second game. But then yes, you are correct, he went 3-for-4 overall on Sunday.
“I can’t be convinced that the Angels aren’t one of the five best teams in the AL”
Hmmm….Yankees, Orioles, Rays, Rangers, and A’s beg to differ. Yes, the Rays are currently tied with the Angels record-wise, but that blistering head-to-head is hard to ignore. Be happy at 6th best instead of 12th best where it looked like this team was in mid-May.
“Many of the problems with the club are easily remedied, such as simple home run rate regression for the starters…better luck on the pitching front.”
Banking on statistical regression and/or luck is decidedly NOT a recipe for success and reeks of more than just a little bit of denial of possible flaws in strategy and approach as well as a declining skill set among certain players to explain these sudden and glaring weaknesses.
“…or having Mike Trout for the full 162.”
There are two sides to this coin. As this season showed, Trout, like all other players in MLB, is human (despite a whisper campaign that he may actually be super-human). He showed obvious wear as he exceeded 120 games played. Obviously, a worn down Mike Trout is still better than most other players and you certainly want him available for a full 162, but just don’t expect that full season to resemble his May-August this year and for him to easily put up a .340/.400/.575 line. The counter-argument, of course, is that any setback from being exposed to a full six-month grind will be (more than) offset as he continues to develop and mature as a hitter, and that’s fair. The other thing is you can’t really pretend you’ve gotten an abbreviated version of Mike Trout this year. He’ll wind up playing nearly 140 games and getting 625 PAs. So let’s not pretend that him playing in 20 extra games is a difference-maker here.
“I see no reason why they can’t win 95 games next year…”
After this season’s humbling experience, you trot this crap out? Unabashed homers never learn. The quick recount why 95 looks like a stretch at this point. Your starting pitching suddenly looks mediocre if not an outright weakness next year if you don’t retain Zack Greinke. Santana is done as an above average starter (and will likely be allowed to walk as a result), and you’d be foolish to expect too much out of Haren. You openly admit that Wilson is really just a 3/4 guy. Williams/Richards can hold down the 5 spot, I guess, but there’s nothing there that really scares anybody, even with Weaver still leading the way. The bullpen is below average, period. Maybe that’s where DiPoto/Moreno will expend their efforts this offseason, but as of now, it’s a definitive weakness. Pujols will be 33. Based on the past few years, would you really wanna put money on the line and bet his OPS tops .850? Remember, he’s your number 3 hitter, which is supposed to be reserved for the best overall guy. Maybe Trout should go there and bump Pujols down to 4-5. Pitchers have found a big hole in Trumbo’s swing. Hunter will be 38. How likely is it that he re-creates this year’s magic? You’ve still got the Wells albatross. Bourjos somehow gets lost in the mix and may wind up being just a solid 4th outfielder anyway. Nothing overly inspiring about your role players such as Aybar, Callaspo, Kendrick, and Ianetta. The bench? Yeah, not much there either.
Keep Greinke and this team can probably still win 85-90 games and be on the fringe of postseason consideration (you’ll need to add David Wright and possibly one other big addition and tweaking of the bullpen before I’ll be convinced this is a 90+ win team in 2013). Lose Greinke and make few if any other changes, and this will likely be an 80-85 win team and possibly struggle to finish .500 if the injury bug hits (keep in mind the Angels were generally fortunate, injury-wise, this year compared to most teams).
“Ownership is aggressive (sometimes a detriment) and you can bet the club’s weaknesses will be addressed.”
This is where Pujols/Wilson come back into play. DiPoto/Moreno were aggressive LAST offseason while most other teams smartly held back. If they hold up, even a little, this year trying to avoid over-committing to 1-2 more star players, some other team that’s been managing its money better will easily outbid them for top free agent talent. Many Angels fans don’t seem to understand this….your ownership group doesn’t operate in a vacuum.
“Who knows, 2012 may just be a blip in the radar for a team that finds sustained success for the next decade.”
I’m looking for something clsoer to a decade of mediocrity, but we’ll see. The game’s played on the field, right?
Yep, I’m a homer even after I’ve been saying the last month the Angels wouldn’t make the playoffs and continually have bashed on players on this team (Trumbo, Jepsen, Aybar, etc). But hey, if you need an enemy, I’m your man.
Note that I didn’t say they would, simply they could win 95 games. Hell, they might win 91 this year. Four more games isn’t anything to get worked up about. We’ll be covering the 2012 failures more in depth later and projecting towards 2013 down the line. And yeah, personally I think this team could be better next season. My opinion. Your opinion is obviously very different. That’s fine. I simply wanted to encompass this past season and touch on some brief things to look forward to next season. I don’t think I said anything too “out there.”