The Los Angeles Angels won their first and only World Series Championship in 2002. Since then the Angels have tried to regain World Series glory only to fall short. Angels owner Arte Moreno is willing to spend the money in the effort to bring another championship to Southern California, but it hasn’t worked out. After the 2011 Major League Baseball season, Moreno signed free agent first baseman Albert Pujols to a 10-year, $264 million deal and free agent starting pitcher C.J. Wilson to a five-year, $75 million deal. Last year Moreno saw the Angels finish the season with a record of 89-73 as they were four victories shy of making the postseason. This past off-season in the efforts to make the Angels a playoff team, Moreno opened up his piggy bank once again as he signed free agent outfielder Josh Hamilton to a five-year, $125 million deal. To this point on the season, the Angels have a 54-66 record as they are 15.5 games behind the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West and 14 games behind the Oakland Athletics for the final AL Wild Card. If baseball were like Las Vegas, Moreno would have come in as a high roller on a leer jet and he would have lost so much money that he would have returned to Orange County via the Greyhound.
Before joining the Angels, Pujols enjoyed an illustrious 11-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals. During that time in St. Louis, Pujols was a three-time National League MVP and a two-time World Series Champion. With the Cardinals, Pujols enjoyed six seasons in which he hit 40 or more home runs. So far with the Angels Pujols has only hit 47 total long balls and that number will remain for awhile as Pujols’ season appears to be over after battling a plantar fasciitis injury in his foot.
Before joining the Angels, Hamilton was the feel good story of the baseball world as he turned his life around after a long battle with substance abuse. Hamilton won the American League MVP in 2010 and he helped the Rangers make consecutive World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011. Now Hamilton has been mired in a season long slump as he is only sporting a .228 batting average with 17 home runs and 58 runs batted in. At the plate Hamilton looks lost and not focused which has resulted in Angels manager Mike Scioscia dropping him as far down as 7th in the batting order.
For Wilson he has never been the ace of a pitching staff, but he got paid like one. 2011 was Wilson’s last year with the Rangers and he sported a 16-7 record with a 2.94 earned run average. The Angels signed Wilson to a lucrative deal that winter despite the fact that he became the first pitcher in MLB history to be the losing pitcher in the All-Star Game as well as losing a game in each round of the playoffs. On the season, Wilson leads the Angels in wins (13), earned run average (3.40), and strikeouts (146), but it hasn’t been enough to get the Angels over the hump.
The Angels pitching staff has been a huge disappointment all season as they are 14th in the American League in team earned run average at 4.48 which is a far cry from a 4.02 earned run average in 2012 when they were 8th on the Junior Circuit. After last season, Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto decided to part with starting pitchers Dan Haren and Ervin Santana. Haren was released and subsequently picked up by the Washington Nationals while Santana was traded to the Kansas City Royals. This season the Angels pitching staff is 13th in the American League in opponent batting average (.265), 14th in opponents on-base percentage (.330), and they have allowed 101 stolen bases which is tops in the AL.
Starting pitcher Jered Weaver has been far from the ace of staff with a 7-6 record to coincide with a 3.49 earned run average. Weaver’s last start took place this past Wednesday against the New York Yankees as he surrendered 9 runs in 5 innings of work in an 11-3 Angels loss.
Starting pitcher Joe Blanton has been an up and down pitcher throughout his MLB career, but he has hit rock bottom this season as he was relegated to the bullpen with a 2-13 record and a 5.86 earned run average.
Aside from another stellar season being produced by outfielder Mike Trout who is the reigning AL Rookie of The Year, the Angels have been extremely hard to watch. If it were not for the horrific season currently being orchestrated by the Houston Astros, the Angels would be in last place of the division that they were expected to win.
Moreno cannot be thrilled of the notion of having a losing team as the Angels $127 million payroll is 7th in Major League Baseball; especially when the Los Angeles Dodgers have caught fire and they appear to be a lock for the playoffs. These are the kind of seasons that will get a manager fired and that is where Scioscia comes into play. Scioscia has led the Angels to tremendous success and he has more wins than any other manager in Angels franchise history, but when you’re expected to contend for the World Series like this team was, changes are coming down the pike. The large contracts of Pujols, Wilson, and Hamilton aren’t going anywhere so the Angels must get creative in producing talent around them. We have seen major disappointments in baseball before and the 2013 Angels are no different from those teams.
Source:Baseball-reference.com
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