Why the Angels went 78-84 last year.

[Hubs]

We know the Angels struggled out of the gate, we know the pitching was sub-par and the offensive player struggled.

 

Where all of that really showed was in the division games against Houston, Texas, Oakland, and the Mariners.

 

The Angels went a ridiculously bad 4-15 against the Rangers, 9-10 against the lowly Astros who only won 55 games all season, 8-11 against the A's, and 11-8 against the Mariners.

 

That's 12 games under .500 against the division. 32-44.

 

Compare that to the records against the AL Central. 2-4 Against a playoff team like Cleveland I can understand even though they swept Detroit. But the one that stands out at me was the 1-5 record against the 66 win Twins.

 

18-14 overall. 

 

Against the East, they went 18-16, with winning records against the Rays and Jays, .500 against the World Series Champion Red Sox, 2-5 against the O's and 3-4 against the Yanks.

 

Finally they went 10-10 against the NL. Normally they Angels will go at least 3-4 games over .500 against the Senior circuit. In 2012, they went 12-6.

 

In 2012, they had winning records against the West, 30-27, East, 22-20, and Central 25-20. 

 

In 2012, the biggest reason the Angels didn't make the playoffs is their awful 1-9 record against the Rays. Every other team they either had a winning record against (O's, Red Sox, White Sox, Royals, Twins, Mariners, Rangers, went .500 against (Blue Jays, Tigers), or were down by 1 game. (Yankees, A's, Indians).

 

For 2014, they need to win games against bad opponents. They need to play .500 against the good opponents overall. They'll win that way. 

 

 

 

 

[Blarg]

The Angels should move to the AL East.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Eric Notti

[nando714]

Good thing Bud Norris isn't in Houston to start the season

[biltoo]

I think it must have been because the players were confused and half of them showed up to play in Los Angles

[Ohtaniland]

The pre-season silver lining.

 

 

2003.....77-84 

2004.....92-70 playoffs

 

 

 

2013.....78-85 

2014.....???? playoffs?

[Brent Maguire]

Going 6-0 against Detroit probably won't happen again so you have to factor in those games too.

Lets just hope that they can dominate the season against the Astros. Those games are huge when the A's and Rangers are both blowing the Astros out.

[Troll Daddy]

Easier said than done ... one game at a time. You have to tip your cap to clubs like the Astros.

[Blarg]

No you don't. You need to kick teams like the Astros around like a tin can.

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

I'm going to take a stab at why we lost 84 games.....

I thinks it's because we couldn't win #79?

Just my theory.

[ScottT]

Stuff happens.

 

Angels were 6-0 against Detroit and 1-5 against Minnesota.

 

Detroit (93-69) went 15-4 against Cleveland (92-70)

Atlanta (96-66) went 10-9 against the Mets (74-88)

Dodgers (92-70) went 9-10 against Arizona (81-81),  9-10 against Colorado (74-88), and 8-11 against San Francisco (74-88).  They were under .500 against NL West opponents, but cruised to the division title.  

[JAHV76]

Having a healthy Weaver should improve their wins in 2014

[Angels Never Die]

I think it's because they didn't score more runs than their opponents a lot more times. I think they should focus on that this year.

[Angel Oracle]

Less Blanton, more wins

 

How many more wins would they have had in 2013 if even a serviceable #5 starter was here in place of Blanton?

Edited February 19, 2014 by Angel Oracle

[YouthofToday]

Totally disagree with OP. You cannot drill down to small sample sizes such as how we performed against an individual club and blame that for our record. That is not actionable data.

The reason we lost 84 games was because of a lack of quality pitching. It ain't complicated.

[nate]

[Inside Pitch]

The pitching sucked, the defense was worse, and the offense was below league average with men on base.

Other than that, they were nails.

[yk9001]

The pre-season silver lining.

 

 

2003.....77-84 

2004.....92-70 playoffs

 

 

 

2013.....78-85 

2014.....???? playoffs?

 

 

That was back when the Angels could add big name FA's and the players actually contribute.  They got Vlad and Colon that offseason.

[mtangelsfan]

How about they just weren't very good.

[Hubs]

Totally disagree with OP. You cannot drill down to small sample sizes such as how we performed against an individual club and blame that for our record. That is not actionable data.

The reason we lost 84 games was because of a lack of quality pitching. It ain't complicated.

 

I'm not disagreeing with you. I feel the pitching wasn't as bad as everyone seems to think, but it certainly wasn't an asset. Particularly the lack of bullpen depth and injuries to the Angels #1 and #3 starters. And their #5 starter didn't pitch because of personal reasons, which really pushed the pen..

 

All I was trying to say is that why the Angels struggled in 2013 can really be shown clearly by our record against against certain teams. The 4-15 record against the Rangers is pathetic. The lack of quality pitching is very apparent in that record as they gave up 115 runs in 19 games. That's over 6 runs per game!

 

That is 1.5 runs more than the Rangers averaged for the season and 1.7 more than they averaged in all the other games. Compare that to Detroit, who scored 796 runs on the season, 2nd in the league. The Angels allowed 17 runs over 6 games, 2.83 per game. That's over 2 runs less per game than they scored the rest of the season!

 

Worse than the poor performance against two 90+ win teams though is the Angels record against three of the worst teams in baseball.

 

I pointed out the records against the Twins and the Astros, but since the Angels won the season series with the White Sox, I didn't think it was that bad. After all the Sox nearly won the AL Central in 2012, but I didn't realize how bad they were last year.

 

The White Sox scored 598 runs last year. 3.69 runs per game. Worst in the AL. The Angels allowed 4.14 runs per game to this team, and squeaked out a winning record. 

 

Houston was the second worst offense last season. They scored 3.76 runs per game. The Angels allowed them 4.05 runs per game. Here the difference is only a 0.29 runs more, not as bad as above against the Rangers. Yet they only scored 72 runs in the 19 games. Which is 3.78 runs per game. Houston also had the worst pitching staff in the league, allowing 5.23 runs per game.  They allowed the Angels 1.5 runs less than their average. 

 

The third worst offense last year was the Minnesota Twins. 3.79 Runs per game. The Angels allowed them 36 runs which is 6 runs per game. That's 2.25 runs more than their average. They had the second worst pitching staff, at 4.86 but the Angels only managed 3 runs per game.

 

Good teams may have a quirky or less than spectacular record against certain teams sometimes. Good teams do not score 2 runs less per game against the worst two pitching staffs and allow 1.5 to 2 runs more per game to the worst offenses in baseball.

 

If the Angels had played better against the Twins, Astros, Rangers, and White Sox, they'd have won a similar amount of games as in 2012.

[Brent Maguire]

Easier said than done ... one game at a time. You have to tip your cap to clubs like the Astros.

I didn't know Scioscia posted here. Welcome skipper! 

[rick99gtp]

How about we leave the past where it belongs.

[Hubs]

How about we leave the past where it belongs.

 

LMFAO.

 

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it" - Edmund Burke.

[Angel Oracle]

I sure hope Frieri has learned how NOT to melt down in Arlington.