Weekend Notes: Mike Trout and an Angels Reality Check

On Friday, the Angels released 38-year old veteran Bobby Abreu and called up the much lauded prospect Mike Trout. The 20-year old outfielder was putting up a .403/.467/.623 line in Salt Lake City, Triple-A. The Pacific Coast League is hitter-friendly but since joining the Angels organization Trout has done nothing but hit (minus a cold streak during a big league stint late last year).  The Angels hope Trout can add a jolt to an anemic offense that has scored a total of nine runs in the last six games.

In two games so far, Trout has gone 0 for 7. However, he has struck out only once, putting good wood on the ball regularly. In yesterday's game Trout worked the count full twice and yielded a walk during a crucial situation with men on first and third, two outs in the 8th and the Angels down by two. He may not have a hit yet but he looks good.

While the offense continues to struggle, both Dan Haren and Ervin Santana pitched well in their respective outings against the Indians. Santana went into the game with an ERA over 7 and having given up already ten home runs.

In an attempt to fish for positive signs in an otherwise bleak road trip, Torii Hunter hit two home runs in Cleveland as expected/predicted in last week's post on Hunter and Pujols home run droughts.  Pujols still continues to struggle.

While the season is early and there is still plenty of time for the Angels to start playing to their potential, it isn't entirely unrealistic to believe that the Angels have already lost the division to the Texas Rangers. As Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein tweeted last night,

Even if the Angels start playing like people thought, you really think they're going to outplay the Rangers by 10 games? 'Cause they're not.

— Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) April 30, 2012

It's not impossible that the Angels could catch the Rangers, especially with the injury history of players like Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz. Still, the Rangers are tough team. As written previously here, the Rangers are still a great team and no one should have expected them to just roll over and give up this division. 22 games into the season, they have continued their winning ways while it's the Angels who have imploded thus far and already find themselves 9 games out of first.

So can the Angels still make the playoffs? Sure. It more likely would come from one of the two wild card spots at this point, though. Even then, the question that Goldstein proposed in his tweet remains in regards to the contending wild card teams. Right now, the Angels find themselves with a 7-game difference with the two first place teams in the AL East -- Rays and Orioles (!), with a five-game difference between them and the second place Yankees.

Can the Angels outplay the Rays, Yankees or even the Orioles by 6-8 games for the rest of the season? It's possible but the Angels have certainly dug themselves a deep hole rather quickly. To salvage their season the Angels would ideally tally up a few, long winning streaks over the next 25-35 games. Or, at the very least, not fall any further behind than they already are.  Otherwise, barring late-season meltdowns by the previously mentioned teams, 2012 will quickly become a huge disappointment for a team that came in with high expectations.

Finally, Angels reliever LaTroy Hawkins with the quote of the week:

"If it’s this time next month and we’re still playing like this? Then the panic button will be the size of your head and the color of my shorts."

 True words.

The Scioscia Shuffle: Does the Order of a Batting Lineup Matter?

One critique that has come up over the first 18 games of the season for the Angels is Scioscia’s lineup shuffles. Thus far, the Angels have rolled out 16 different lineups in 18 games. That seems like a lot. However, from a more practical viewpoint, it makes, at least, some sense. The Angels have logjams all over the place. A brief look at their 25-man roster reveals at least five to six players who could viably start in the outfield, three third basemen and three to five players to fill the DH role. They have five players have hit 20 or more home runs in a season.

Judging from comments from fans throughout the web seem to be rather obsessed about the Mike Scioscia lineup shuffle and are convinced that it is, at least partially, part of the Angels early season woes. Reoccuring complaints seem to want Wells out of the lineup, Trumbo hitting cleanup everyday, and Angels prospect Mike Trout called up from Triple A to bat lead-off.

There’s a lot about baseball that is ingrained and taken for granted. The common lineup construction includes a speedy leadoff hitter with a decent OBP. The power hitters hit three thru five and the worst hitters hit 8th and 9th. Like most things in baseball, though, these common ideas have been challenged and the question arises: does a batting lineup for a baseball team even matter?

To put it simply: yes, but barely. Statistically, there has been a lot of studies and exploration out there into this question (See here, here, here and here to start). The general consensus is that the difference between an “optimized” lineup (arranged in order that through rigorous sabermetrics research would yield a team the most runs) opposed to the least efficient lineup (like letting the pitcher hit cleanup) is 5-15 runs over an entire season. The "stat-heads" have determined that this averages out to about 1 more win a season. What has been determined, for the most part, is that three best hitters should bat first, second and fourth. Even then, failing to do so would likely only cost a team 1 win a season.

Still, one win can mean something when it’s all said and done. It certainly would have helped the Boston Red Sox last year make it to the playoffs. And as Matt Klaassen points out, “wins are wins, and money is money. Teams talk big about doing “whatever it takes.” As the league gets smarter, it gets more difficult to find the new market inefficiency, the Extra 2%, as it were.”  So optimizing that lineup and spending the extra money to get a player to give you as little as one more run a year, could potentially make a difference.  Is the batting order that a manager trots out worth getting worked up over, though? Probably not.

What does matter, clearly, is what players are in that lineup opposed to who is riding the pine. This is something that Scioscia seems to be struggling with deciding and probably more deserving of a fan's ire.

Next week we will use use 2012 PECOTA projections and a method devised by Cyril Morong via Beyond the Boxscore to try and construct the “optimal” Angels lineup.

Probably not thinking about the lineup.

Stupid Facts: The Last Game of the Ryan Express

Deadspin's excellent "Better Know An Ump" series recently covered umpire Ed Hickox. Amongst the rundown was this little tidbit:

Claim to fame: Worked third base on September 22, 1993 for Nolan Ryan's final game. (The Express faced six batters and didn't record a single out.)

Did Ryan really not even get out of the first inning of his final game? Sure enough, he didn't. After a lead-off single by Omar Vizquel (still playing baseball), Ryan walked three batters in a row to load the bases. Then he gave up a grand slam to some guy named Dann Howitt. He then walked another batter and got yanked. Rough ending to a legendary career.

Back to Dann Howitt, though. Howitt has the claim to fame to being the last guy to ever hit a home run off of Ryan and it was a grand slam at that.  To make things even stranger, Howitt in his career hit only five home runs. That's it.  He also never played more than 35 games in a season while kicking around the league from 1989 to 1994 as a utility outfielder and first baseman for three different teams.

Baseball is a strange game.

\

Killer 'stache, Dann

Rich Thompson's Keeps it Humorous

Relief pitcher Rich Thompson was DFA’d (designated for assignment) by the Halos last week. Out of options, he got picked up by the A’s, pitched one inning and got DFA’d again.

Since he’s out of options, Thompson likely will not clear waivers and find yet another new team in less than two weeks. Three teams in two weeks! Thus is the life of a journeyman relief pitcher... which Thompson has just become.

At least he's keeping a good sense of humor about it.

Well time to break out the photoshop again

— Rich Thompson (@Chopper_54) April 25, 2012

Also check out out his current profile pic. He's not kidding!

Pujols and the Angels Home Run Drought By The Numbers

Last night, David Price threw a complete-game shutout against the Los Angeles Angels. It was a lackluster performance offensively for the Angels that also saw yet another day Albert Pujols failed to hit a home run.

 This is the longest Pujols has started a season without a home run. His previous home run drought to start a season was 27 ABs in 2008. As of today, Pujols sits at 69 ABs (74 plate appearances). However, it should be of note that this is not the longest Albert has gone without a dinger. Last year, Pujols went 118 at-bats without knocking one out of the park. Last year, he also ended up with 37 long-balls.

What about all the other power-hitters in Angels lineup?

Trumbo and Wells seem to be providing home-run numbers that are status-quo for them. Wells has knocked 3 out in 61 plate appearances. If you add up the amount of plate appearances Wells has had in seasons where he has had more than 450, Wells averages 630 PAs a year. That would put him on pace to hit about 30 in 2012. Trumbo has knocked 2 in just 34 plate appearances. Since Trumbo has been platooning more and only has one full season under his belt, its hard to estimate how many he will hit over the fence. However, if Mark gets 450 PAs, he's on pace to hit 26.

Kendrys Morales hasn't seen major league pitching since 2010, so it makes it tough to look at what we should and can expect from Morales.

What about Torii Hunter? So far, this isn't the longest Hunter has gone with out a home run either. Right now Hunter sits at 64 PAs. In 2011, Torii went 116 PAs without knocking one out of the park from May 31st to July 3rd.  Before that Hunter had twice gone over 80 PAs without a home run both in 2009 and 2010. That being said, this is the longest Hunter has gone to start a season without a dinger.

The Angels are currently sitting 21st in team home runs with the Yankees (28) and Rangers (27) on top and the Pirates (7) and Cubs (5) on the bottom. Interestingly enough, the Yankees and Rangers are also the top 2 teams in OPS, RBIs, and Runs. They both are also, unsurprisingly, in first place.

Looking at these drought numbers of Pujols and Hunter, it seems likely that both should be knocking one over the fence in the next 20-30 PAs or so. If they don't, they will pushing career streaks without a home run.

(Stats and numbers compiled from Baseball-Reference. See a mistake? Let The 'Stache know! Mistakes will be made.) 

Better Days Come With Bat Flips

Better Than Your Favorite Walk-Up Song: Don Carlos - "Lazer Beam"

Once a week, a walk-up song is selected that isn't being used by anyone in the MLB but that should be. Sometimes, a player will be assigned the song.


Song: "Lazer Beam"
Artist: Don Carlos
Album: Lazer Beam

Comments: A early dancehall reggae track may seem completely out of place in a baseball stadium. Admittedly, it's an odd pair. However, that was probably what was thought when the first hip-hop song was played in a stadium. Or the first reggaeton track. So why not reggae?

 "Lazer Beam" isn't exactly a fist-pumping offer but it does get your head bobbing. Plus with the chorus, "Pass me the lazer beam, so I can wipe out the wicked and clean," the song involves destruction (or any similar and related verbs) in a playful, sort of unrealistic, comic-book nerd kind of way. It would fit well with one of the more colorful characters in baseball. Like a Nick Swisher. Except, Nick Swisher isn't really funny at all and rather seems more of just a frat-boy prankster. You get the picture, though.

 It would also work for a Jamaican-born player. However, the only Jamaican born baseball player in the league right now is Justin Masterson. Yep. Weird, huh? His dad was the dean of a theological seminary in Kingston. Masterson mostly grew up in Indiana and Ohio, though.

How Long is Mike Scioscia's Leash?

Note: This was originally published on Halos Heaven on 4/19, though still written by The 'Stache. It's been edited slightly.

Twelve games in at a 4-8 record, Angels fans should not be stressed at this point. However, as most of us would agree, Scioscia has been faltering a bit in his decision making over the past couple of years. There seems to be some chinks in the armor. One can't help but wonder if his success had less to do with him and maybe something else. Like the coaches he surrounded himself with. Or maybe just a really good, core group of players. Or maybe luck.

As everyone should know, Scioscia is signed to be the Angels manager for a long time. Through 2018 to be exact. Still, a manager can be fired. And the question arises: How long is Scioscia's leash right now having missed the playoffs for two years in a row?

Now he's off to bad 2012. At the very minimum, Scioscia's leash extends deep into summer. However, likely it's much longer. But what if the Angels don't make the playoffs this year? What if they having a losing record? The possibility of firing Scioscia has to be discussed right? Right??

Let's pretend everything goes wrong this year. Losing record, no playoffs, Trumbo gets 100 ABs, the works. Will The Soth be shown the door? Would it happen before the season's out? Will Jerry and Co. keep their faith and give him yet another year?

Let us speculate!

**

The poll result taken at Halos Heaven consisted of three choices for answers, see them below along with the results from 859 voters as of 7pm EST, April 20th:

A.  He'd be out by the all-star break (11% -- 99 votes)
B. He'd be gone at the end of the year (22% -- 194 votes)
C. He'll stick around come hell or head-high fastballs (65% - 568 votes)

Erick Aybar and Advanced Defensive Stats

Using advanced stats to learn, impress your friends and work towards a greater, personal nerdiness.

***Update: Aybar signed 4 year deal for 35 million ***

The Stats: UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) and to a lesser extent: RngR, and ErrR

The Player: Erick Aybar

The Back-story: As rumors have it, Erick Aybar might be on the verge of signing a hefty contract-extension with the Angels. Undoubtedly, Erick's defense will be discussed, something his agent will be touting, possibly with Aybar's 2011 gold-glove acting as his paper-weight.

UZR explained: To put it simply, UZR attempts to determine how good a fielder is or is not compared to the league average. To do this, UZR utilizes a somewhat complicated method and various components to ultimately put a run value to defense in an attempt to quantify how many runs a player saved or gave up through their fielding abilities (or lack of).

Couple of other things: A players UZR rating tends to fluctuate greatly from month to month. Therefore it is encouraged that to get an accurate look at a players UZR, you look at the last three years and find the average. Furthermore, for comparing players with vastly different sample sizes to pull from, UZR/150 is probably better to use, which attempts to scale a players UZR rating on a 150 game scale.

Unfortunately, the data which determines and calculates UZR is not easily accessible. Thus, while it's a better stat than most defensive stats out there, fans are left to mostly rely on sites and publications that publish the information.

A good reference for a player's UZR score is to look at 0 as a player with average defensive ability and increasingly better the higher you go with roughly +15 as gold glove caliber with the same decrease the other way with -15 being just downright awful.

For in-depth look at how it is actually compiled, check out this article by Fangraphs and a primer by Big League Stew .


Let's Put It To Use: Using Fangraphs, Erick Aybar at SS has a lifetime 7.7 UZR and a 1.9 UZR/150. Looking at this exclusive, Aybar's defense at the number 6 position is above average/good and under if we consider +10 as great.

Aybar's UZR last year, his gold-glove year was 1.2, which is below his career best. However, let's not forget sample size. Aybar had more plays in 2011 than any previous year. For the past three years, Aybar has logged over 1,000 innings at shortstop each year. So let's take a look at his average UZR over those three years.

His UZR from the past 3 years looks like this:

2009: +4.5
2010: -2.0
2011: +1.2

Fangraphs encourages we drop the decimals and take an average which, comes to a +1 or +1.3 if we be nice to Erick and round up his 2009 UZR to +5.

As always, determining a players prowess shouldn't be determined by a single stat. Taking into consideration other stats is important and the same goes for UZR. So let's take a look at DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) which very similar to UZR, measures in "runs" to determine whether the fielder is question is above or below average. DSR is even more complicated and I will avoid it for the sake of clarity but if you want to delve in check this out via Fangraphs. Finally, DRS will be easy for us because the number rating is the same as UZR with 0 as league average, +10 as great, and +15 as gold-glove caliber.

Here is Aybar's DRS stats over the past 3 years:

2009: 1
2010: 4
2011: -1

Well, look at that, three year average comes out to 1.3. Almost exactly the same as UZR.

Not much else fluctuates when looking at Aybar's other defensive stats.

Aybar's average RngR over the past 3 years = -0.7 (The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity.)

His ErrR over the past 3 years = .53 (The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by the number of errors he makes as compared to an average fielder at that position given the same distribution of balls in play).

When using advanced defensive stats, Aybar rates as a league-average shortstop. It should be of note that this doesn't necessarily mean Aybar isn't a great or gold-glove caliber shortstop. One thing about these stats used is that they don't necessarily take into consideration what exactly is happening on the field (i.e how difficult the play was, defensive alignment at the time of the play, etc). The bigger the sample size, the more we hope that things even themselves out. However, the caveat still exists.

In regards to Aybar's contract extension talks, clearly other things are coming into play. Still, it will be interesting to see what the final number and years are taking this all into consideration.

(Stats and numbers taken from Fangraphs. See a mistake? Let The 'Stache know! Mistakes will be made.)

The Panic Button, Slow Starts and Adding Fuel to the Stupidity Fire

The Angels have gotten off to a bit of a slow start this year in this very very young season. In fact, the season is so young, I don't think you can even consider it a "slow start" yet. What do we call it?

Let's not call it anything yet. In fact, let's not even mention it. As Bobby Valentine was apt to point out to a scrutinizing Boston media after the Red Sox started 0-2 this year,

"I don't know what a ‘start' means. Is two games a start? Is a month a start? I think we can still get off to a good start.''

It's always surprising how fans and sports writers alike are quick to pass judgement on a baseball team so early in the season. Yet sure enough, there they are, fiddling with the panic button less than 10 games into the season.

You have seasoned Angels sports writer for the OC Register Bill Plunkett writing about Pujols "slow start." You have Landon Hall of the same paper writing things like "The Angels are supposed to have one of the elite starting pitching rotations in the majors, if not the very best. But three games into the young season, only Jered Weaver is living up to the label. "

Strange to say that since the rotation has five pitchers. Maybe save statements like that until the entire staff has taken at least one turn. After all, a week further into the season and CJ Wilson has looked excellent. While Weaver had somewhat rough start against the Twins.

To be fair to Hall, he did mention that it was only three games into the season. And his words were hardly as dramatic as Red Sox writer for the Boston Globe Dan Shaughnessy comparing the Red Sox to the Titanic, after only two games. Really, beat sports writers shouldn't be criticized too much, though. The grind of writing about baseball for 160+ games is tough and filling those word counts can imaginably hard. Still, such sensationalism only adds fuel to the stupidity fire.

Instead, here is an offering of 5 sobering examples of why the "start" to a baseball season is vague and often times, doesn't even matter.


* 2006 St Louis Cardinals had the lowest winning percentage of any World Series winner of .533%

* 1995 Seattle Mariners were 2 games under .500 on August 1st and won their division in a one-game playoff

* Angels fans should remember that their 2002 World Series championship team started a ugly 6-14 in their first twenty games.

* The 2005 Houston Astros were 15-30 after 45 games. They clinched the wild card spot and saw their first ever appearance in the World Series.

* The 1987 Minnesota Twins were an even .500 ballclub 40 games into the season. They ended up winning the World Series despite have an atrocious road record of 29-52.

Lay off that panic button, pal. Crack a beer and watch some basketball (or hockey) for a bit before you start pulling your hair out over the beginning of your favorite baseball teams' "start."

Better Than Your Favorite Walk-Up Song: At the Drive-In - "Arcarsenal"

Once a week, a walk-up song is selected that isn't being used by anyone in the MLB but that should be. Sometimes, a player will be assigned the song.

SONG: "Arcarsenal"
ARTIST: At the Drive-In
ALBUM: Relationship of Command

COMMENTS: The long, instrumental intro could cause problems if you are looking for some vocals. However, since it sounds like the sonic equivalent of a sixteen wheeler ramming through a bridge with THX speakers in the back, it could work in and of itself. With lyrics like "sink your teeth in," "have you ever tasted skin" and "beware!" it might work better as an entrance song for a closer with a 95mph fast ball and shitty command.

Another (Tardy) Rant About the Stupidity of Sports Journalism in Regards to the Signing of Albert Pujols

Upon the signing of Albert Pujols, you make have heard a lot of sports and baseball writers talk about the huge risk the Angels took signing Albert Pujols, who is 32, to a 10-year deal worth over 200+ million dollars. All we heard the week he was signed was, "its a huge investment, it's a big risk, it's a lot of money," blah blah blah.

This is stupid, lazy journalism and this is why: no matter who signed Albert Pujols this off-season, the writers would be saying that. That was the going price for Albert Pujols. Some team was going to pay it. No matter what. The market deemed Albert worth over 200 million dollars and so no matter who signed him that was the price they would have to pay. So in other words, all these sports writers were essentially spewing canned-responses. It probably looked something like this on the cue-card:

"The (INSERT TEAM HERE) signed Albert Pujols for the amount of (INSERT AMOUNT). Well, it's a great signing but definitely a lot of money and a risk for the (INSERT TEAM NAME)."

Yes, it is a bit ridiculous to sign someone until they are 42. Especially when future Hall of Famers Vladimir Guerrero and Johnny Damon (both under 40) can't find teams to play with this off-season. However, as stated before, that was the going price and someone was going to do it. In fact, three or four teams were trying to sign the man known as The Machine.

Also, here is something else that so few writers wrote about. Simple question: Do you think that Albert Pujols is going to play firstbase at age 38, 39, 40, 41 or 42? No. He's going to DH. What were the other two teams bidding on Albert? Cardinals and Marlins, who are both in the NL, which has no DH. So essentially, its actually smarter for the Angels to have signed him than either the Marlins or the Cards. They would be stuck with a 40 year old first basemen. The Angels have the flexibility to put him in the DH spot and while we don't know for sure, it's seems likely that Albert was thinking about that.

By signing with the Angels, Albert will likely get 300-500 more ABs over the span of his last four years with the Halos than he would've with the Marlins or Cards and he'll save himself the wear and tear of playing first. It's a lot of money and clearly too much. But that was the market price, if it wasn't the Angels, it would've been someone else. The Halos made the move and landed one of baseball best hitters who will likely shatter a few records while in Anaheim.

Fidel and Bud Down By The First Row Seats

Current commissioner of baseball Bud Selig once watched a baseball game sitting next to Fidel Castro.

True story. I wonder if Ozzie is jealous.

(h/t Big League Stew)

A (Tardy) Look at the Los Angeles Angels of 2012

This was perhaps the strangest off-season for an Angel fan to ever take place. After many years of the Angels always being contenders for high-profile players but almost always coming up short, the Angels pulled the trigger and landed Pujols, one of the best hitters to play the game (see that SI cover?).

All these moves are good moves. Wilson makes our already strong rotation now one of the best in baseball. Iannetta has a great on-base percentage despite not yet living up to his potential offensively. Irregardless, he's still young and better than Jeff Mathis who was redefining the Mendoza line. Despite SI and 18 ESPN "experts"(God, I hope that doesn't include John Kruk) for the Angels to win the World Series, expectations should be tempered. Texas Rangers were one strike away from winning the World Series twice last year. Somehow, they blew it. That was their second straight appearance there. Don't kid yourself, this team isn't just going to roll over and lose the division. They lost CJ Wilson but they picked up Yu Darvish, Japan's best starting pitcher for the past few years. Who knows how well he will make the transition but most scouts agree he will definitely be a solid #2 starter. Furthermore, the Angels really only added one offensive weapon this year -- Albert Pujols. Mind you, that's a massive offensive addition but he can't carry the team on his back. Last year, the Angels didn't have a single player bat over .300, one player with an on-base percentage over .360 and didn't have a single player hit over 90 RBIs with only 2 breaking 80. Compare that to the insanity of Texas' offense and its just downright embarrassing.

Albert's happy to see you

However... Kendrys Morales is back for the Angels this year after missing an entire season due to a freakish ankle injury and will undoubtedly add some offensive spark if his ankle can stay in place. Plus, Howie Kendrick, who will most likely be hitting in the 2-hole and in front of Albert Pujols who will be likely hitting third. That means HK will be getting a lot more strikes this year since pitchers don't want to be pitching to Pujols and/or pitching to him with a man on first. So they will throw strikes at Kendrick. If a pitcher throws more strikes then theoretically the batter sees better pitches to hit. That's a good thing for HK who seems to have a medical aversion to taking a walk. He once was praised as a future batting champion but his inability to take a walk has revealed that such predictions were a bit far-fetched. Nevertheless, HK is a good hitter who has shown increasing pop over the last three years. So expect a better Angels offense. It will still not be as powerful as the Texas Rangers but its possible, as years past have proven, that Halos will be able to win the division and keep the race close with their excellent pitching staff.

Other concerns exist, though, when it comes to pitching depth. The Angels don't have really anyone to replace a starter if one of them gets injured. In the off-season they acquired to young hurlers name Eric Hurley and Brad Mills. Both have been excellent in spring training but aren't much to write home about. If an Angel starter goes down for a significant time, it will be on the offense and bullpen to really step their game up. If they don't, the season could be lost. As for offensive depth, new GM Jerry DiPoto did a great deal to add depth to almost every position. Even if,  Pujols landed on the DL, the Angels have Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo (who hits 29 bombs last year) to play 1st. Hell, even journeyman Jorge Cantu and his low average but high-power batting approach, is waiting in the wings to fill a spot. Both are power hitters with a lot of upside. If everyone stays mostly healthy and Mark Trumbo gets regular ABs in-between bobbling balls at third, the Angels have potentially six 20+ HR hitters in their lineup. They gotta stay healthy though and show more consistency at the plate than they did last year. Plus, the one weak spot from last year that didn't get entirely patched up -- our bullpen -- is still a question mark. Finally, one has to expect injuries. Two of the Angels outfielders (Wells & Hunter) are on the wrong side of 35. Its a long season, people get hurt. Fortunately, this year, the depth is a lot strong on the offensive side of things.

Making predictions this early about a season is stupid.  However, I expect the Angels, even if they suffered injuries, to do a lot better than they did last year. That being said, Texas is going to give them a run for their money and is still poised the hold onto the division for a third straight year. The biggest blow to the Angels season would be one of their aces -- Weaver or Haren -- getting hurt for significant amount of time. If those two studs can stay healthy,  the Halos seemingly, should at least make the playoffs this year. Where they go from there; who knows? That's the whole reason for watching the game.