My take on the current team

[mtangelsfan]

Ok, I think the Angels will compete for a playoff spot.  This is partly because of a solid pitching staff and partly because of Mike Trout.

 

However, I don't believe the staff is great, just solid.  Hitting will be the biggest question mark.  After Trout and Calhoun it really is just whether or not the rest of the supporting hitters have good enough seasons.  I think the two key hitters are going to be Cron and Hamilton.  If both those guys have better years than last year things will be good.

 

What I do know is that team defense and speed are both going to be below average.  Other than Aybar at SS and Pujols at 1B the infield defense is going to be weak.  Considering that Trout is the only real burner on the entire team and that Freese, Pujols and Ianetta are as fast as a 1926 tractor there aren't going to be a bunch of extra bases being taken this year.

 

I think the team going forward is going to be "good" for years to come but unless some other moves are made or some new rookie blows us away I don't see the team as being great going forward.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Considering that Trout is the only real burner on the entire team and that Freese, Pujols and Ianetta are as fast as a 1926 tractor there aren't going to be a bunch of extra bases being taken this year.

 

No big deal. We will just bunt them into scoring position.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Agree with a lot of your concerns, but hamilton one of our key hitters? Yikes

Im hoping cron and freese suprise us

[Adam]

The league is void of great teams right now fortunately. Hopefully they Angels can take advantage of that. Good post, though I don't know that Hamilton is key at all. 

 

Pujols will need to at least be consistent with what he did last year for the next few years

[ten ocho recon scout]

Hamilton will probably get caught with 'keys' before he is key.

[Blarg]

Team speed is not really a concern, the Angels were not comprised of any speed burners other than Trout last season and he only swiped 16 bags. I doubt that he is going back to his rookie numbers ever again.

[eaterfan]

I think you give too much credit to Calhoun and not enough to other players.

Calhoun is a solid player for a RF offensively but I'd he better than his peers compared to Ianetta, Aybar and Pujols? I think you have to give all those guys credit or none of them.

[nikkachez]

Definitely agree with you, mtangelsfan. I think this team will live-and-die with their pitching (which could be reeeally good). I think this was kind of the plan though. Build a nucleus to work with, add whenever a need pops up, keep draft picks and get back into the international market to build up the farm. Think of the nucleus of this club, a 23-year old Mike Trout. Maybe a few more solid seasons from Pujols (he's finally looking healthy) if he gets more DH time. Aybar is a vital role player at an equally vital position. Calhoun obviously looks like a great contributor for the next 4-5 years. Cowgill, Navarro, Featherston, Cron, and Perez could all make a solid supporting cast. We'll see what Kubitza, Baldoquin, Johnson, Stamets, Yarbrough in upcoming years. The pitching has tons of club-control of Richards, Heaney, Shoemaker, Tropeano, and Skaggs. 

 

I think this year may be more of a transitional year. Heaney, Tropeano, Bedrosian, Gott, Snodgress, and Perez will all get chances to carve out a role with the team heading forward. They'll get another first round pick to add to the system. Heading into 2016, you have Skaggs returning, Newcomb knocking on the door, a massive surplus of pitching to deal from. We'll see what Kubitza can do to replace Freese, Johnson is a guy to keep an eye, might be a darkhorse to steal the second or third base gig depending on what happens there. Have this upcoming off-season to focus more on adding bigger pieces for that final push. Jerry made us worse in 2015, to make the team better from 2016 and beyond. I think the focus will be on replacing Joyce's role, solidifying second (if Johnson or Yarbrough can't step up), figuring out the catcher position, and adding some more pen depth. 

[Second Base]

The Angels should be a contender every year for at least the next 4-5 years. Once they finished spending major money on Pujols, Wilson and Hamilton and saw it wasn't working, Dipoto went back to what he does particularly well.

Trade.

We have young pitching depth because he knows how to trade (Santiago, Skaggs, Heaney Tropeano). We have OF depth (Joyce and Cowgill) because Dipoto saw the field and worked out deals. We don't have to deal with Jeff Mathis or Bobby Wilson anymore because Dipoto dealt for Iannetta. We finally have a very good bullpen because Dipoto built it through trade (Street, Pestano, Ramos, Salas).

You may think the Angels are merely good right now and that's fine. Dipoto's approach the last two winters hasn't been sexy like the Mariners, but sexy doesn't win a World Series. Pitching and timely hits do.

Given his trading acumen going all the way back to Arizona, would any of you put it past Dipoto to pull off some sort of a deal that puts the Angels in the driver's seat?

[nikkachez]

I think you give too much credit to Calhoun and not enough to other players.

Calhoun is a solid player for a RF offensively but I'd he better than his peers compared to Ianetta, Aybar and Pujols? I think you have to give all those guys credit or none of them.

Yeeeeah I love the core of Trout, Calhoun, Pujols, Aybar and Iannetta. Rock solid foundation to build an offense around. It's filling in the pieces around them that's the big question to me. 

[tomsred]

This is the greatest team the Angels have ever fielded, mostly because they are all in the best shape of their lives.  Hamilton is excluded, but he will help this team in the best possible way, by contributing back salary so we can sign additional players who are also in the best shape of their lives.

 

We will win 93 games, and that will be enough to win the division because the other four idiot teams will fall all over themselves chasing us all year long.  This year's playoffs will not have a team as hot as Kansas City, and we will have starting pitchers to spare.  We are going to cruise through the American League playoffs, and then have a life and death struggle with the Dodgers in the greatest Inter city World Series ever.  We will prevail, and you will all want the current set of players, coaches, front office staff, and owner to stay here forever.

 

Edited March 20, 2015 by tomsred

[iiisenordingdong]

Everybody relax.

 

I have secured us a spot in the world series this year by offering my super lucky friend free tickets to the world series if (When) they make it. Its science. Just sit back and enjoy the show until October. Thank me later.   

[mtangelsfan]

I think you give too much credit to Calhoun and not enough to other players.

Calhoun is a solid player for a RF offensively but I'd he better than his peers compared to Ianetta, Aybar and Pujols? I think you have to give all those guys credit or none of them.

 

My point was that we pretty much know what we are going to get from most of those guys.  The two big question marks are Cron and Hamilton.  I guess you could put Freese as a question mark.

[Angelsjunky]

Good post, mt, but I think the team is better than good, more like very good with the possibility of being a bit better.

 

One of the best things about this team is the starting pitching depth, not just this year but for years to come. Consider who is under club control through various years:

 

2016: Weaver, Wilson

2017: Santiago

2018: Richards

2019: Skaggs

2020: Shoemaker, Heaney, Rasmus, Alvarez, Tropeano, Rucinski

2021+: Newcomb, Smith, etc

 

And those are only starters (and potential starters, like Rasmus). Looking beyond Weaver and Wilson, you have a bonafide ace in Richards, a potential ace in Newcomb, a group of potential #2-3s in Shoemaker, Skaggs, and Heaney, and some solid #4-5s in Santiago, Rasmus, Tropeano, Rucinski, Smith and Alvarez - and one or two of those could suprise and be #3s.

 

The bullpen looks strong for 2015 and it seems Dipoto has a knack for putting a solid pen together, so I have no worries going forward.

 

The Angels could clearly use another star-caliber position player, a big bat to complement Trout. Pujols and Hamilton were supposed to be that but clearly aren't. There really isn't anyone in the farm that looks like a future star position player, with only Kubitza and Baldoquin looking like potential average regulars. The rest seem more like average players at best or bench players (although I have some hopes for Delgado). That said, plenty of teams have won World Series with a team composition of one superstar and a bunch of average or above complementary players. That's what the Angels had last year and it led to 98 wins and a MLB-leading offense.

 

But I am hoping that Dipoto focuses the next draft on a medley of high-ceiling high school bats and more polished college hitters. The pitching really is set for years to come. I know he likes to draft the best available player, but I think it is time to focus on the position players for a couple years.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Angelsjunky

[Mark68]

Hamilton will be key. The way that he will be key is *if* he plays this year, it might not be a good thing. We're probably a better team without than with Hamilton at this point.

 

This would actually make Matt Joyce a "key" player.

[Troll Daddy]

The 2015 team is weaker than last year. Angels were solid up the middle with Aybar and Kendrick ... one of the best combo's in baseball. I think Conger's presence will be missed behind the dish. Losing Jepsen also weakened our bullpen. He got some tough outs for the team last season and will be missed. The starting pitching is pretty solid and is one of the best in the league.

 

On the plus side ... I think some of our young players will be better this season. I like the Joyce trade and it should pay dividends this season. I'm not down on Hamilton like most of you. I'm hoping for the best and I think he's a very important piece of the puzzle.

 

I'm ready for baseball ... and done with speculating the future!

[UndertheHalo]

Im a bit concerned with our pitching. I think its possible that Weaver could end up being unreliable, I have little faith in CJ Wilson being any good and who knows what we'll get out of Heany and Santiago.  Even Richards is something of a question mark and Shoemaker is certainly a possible candidate for regression.  Plenty that can go wrong with our group.  I think our offense should be fairly similar. Not to worried about that.

Edited March 20, 2015 by UndertheHalo

[Chuck]

MT, you need to watch the Dipoto interview. 

 

Point is, the Angels are not 10 games better, nor are they 10 games worse than the 2014 club. 

 

Remember, this team could have easily won more than 98 games if it wasn't for injuries to the staff down the stretch and being completely void of a productive LF and DH for most of the season. 

 

The bullpen is solid and we have better pitching depth. I'm not counting on getting anything from Josh Hamilton, but I do believe our LF production (Joyce and Cowgill in a platoon) and Cron as the full-time DH will improve the over offense. Howie was good offensively, but he wasn't a juggernaut. 

[nando714]

Imo there are question marks with heaney Tropeano Shoemaker and Wilson in the sp rotation. Still in favor of adding a SP before the spring is over or sometime in the beginning of the season

[Chuck]

Imo there are question marks with heaney Tropeano Shoemaker and Wilson in the sp rotation. Still in favor of adding a SP before the spring is over or sometime in the beginning of the season

 

There were more question marks going into last season. We finished with 98 wins.

[Jason]

I can't but be a little worried about the starting roatation. Many of the pitchers that are being discussed here most likely will not contribute to 2015. With that said I think the org has been doing a good job of late in planning for the longer term future. I think this team will be about the same as last year (which was good).

[HaloFan85]

My main concern is the rotation and the overall health of the entire staff.  The offense is the least of my concerns.  They got along fine without Josh last year and the loss of Howie shouldn't hurt too much.  A full season of Cron will help a lot.

[ELEVEN]

Last year we hung around after a slow start and then went on a tear toward the end of the season and blew past the field. That hot streak was the difference between 98 wins and a WC contender.

 

Without another run like that we are still in the hunt this year.

 

 

 

 

...Oh yeah, and Rutledge is brutal at 2B.

[Chimi]

Imo there are question marks with heaney Tropeano Shoemaker and Wilson in the sp rotation. Still in favor of adding a SP before the spring is over or sometime in the beginning of the season

 

I agree with this.  I'm not as sold on the pitching staff as others seem to be.  Not that I think they're going to be bad, but I'm just taking the wait and see approach.

[Guest]

Haha that bit about Hamilton makes you seem clueless.