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What it would take for the 2020 Angels to pull off what the 2014 Angels did?

JustATroutFan

By JustATroutFan
in LA Angels | MLB Daily

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JustATroutFan

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Time flies but the 2014 Angels went from a sub-.500 team to a 98 win team in just one year. The offseason still is not even close to being over but lets take a look at what the 2020 Angels need to do to boost their win total by a big amount from the previous year, or what the 2014 team did.

1. Starting pitching. Big must. Ohtani coming back to the starting rotation should help but the team really need another star starter in their starting rotation. Cole would work. Not expecting him to put up another 2.50 ERA next year but I do expect him to have another great year on the mound. But even if they sign Cole and have Ohtani back in the starting rotation, they need at least another surprise contributor. In 2014, Richards and Shoemaker were the surprises in that starting rotation. Heaney, maybe? It feels like it's been years but he did put up a solid year with the team in 2015. ERA that year was under 3.60. 

2. Trout stays healthy and have another Trout-like year with the bat. Not worried about his outlook for 2020, even though his 2019 slash line looks a lot like his 2014. Very good batting average with elite power but the big difference is the plate discipline. 2014, he struck out a lot and walked 83 times, a low number for him. In 2019, he walked 110 times and struck out 120 times for a 20.0% strikeout rate, close to being in line with his career. 

3. Solid supporting cast in the lineup for Trout. Goodwin and La Stella both had solid years at the plate in 2019 but they still need to prove that they can do it again. Ohtani's big bat should be a plus but Upton needs to bounce back and hit well like he did in 2017, or something close to it. Pujols' just a whatever for me at this point. Just a wasted roster spot and continues to steal money from this franchise.

4. Solid bullpen. Robles was terrific last year out of the bullpen. He's got the makeup of a closer. Stuff is great and confidence is at its highest ever. Bedrosian was actually mostly solid last year outside of a few rough games. Could still add another big time reliever in the free agent market. Betances, Will Harris, Joe Smith (former Angel), Morrow (injury concerns, however). 

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Docwaukee Hall of Fame

Docwaukee

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an advantage that the 2014 team had was that the rest of the AL west wasn't very good.  There were actually a fair amount of parity league wide.  We led the AL in wins with 98 and the most losses were the Rangers with 95.  Detroit won the central with 90 wins.  

Compared to last year which had huge gaps.  I didn't realize this until right now but only one team won between 80 and 90 games.  The red sox at 84 wins.  Three 100 loss teams and three 100 win teams.  

Anyway, back on topic. 

The 2014 got a few nice performances on offense that didn't happen again.  The entire starting lineup had an ops+ above league average yet only Trout was truly elite.  I think Ohtani, La Stella, Upton can all be in the 120 ops+ range.  Rengifo, Fletcher and Goodwin can be avg. to slightly above.  Maybe Simmons as well considering he was in 2017 and 18.  If Albert get 500+ PA again then that will be a hole with his 94 ops+ and it would surprise me if he doesn't drop even more.  If Rengifo can displace La Stella to 1b or Thaiss can progress then the only true gap in the lineup is catcher.  It's not looking good that we'll have a league average bat from the C position as it stands right now with what we have and what's available.  They should make up some ground defensively but how much.  While I think the offense will be very good, a few important things need to happen in order for it to be elite.  First, La Stella has to repeat what he did last year.  Upton and Simmons have to be who they were the previous couple of years.  And the rest is on the kids.  Thaiss, Rengifo, Adell, Walsh etc. have to provide a kick.  As good and balanced as the 2014 offense was, there were some nits.  The bench was awful and Ibanez was the DH for awhile.  So 2020 doesn't need to be perfect or get career years from everyone.  

Starting pitching was pretty mediocre actually and they were 25th in innings.  Richards was great but easily reproduced by a guy like Cole.  Weaver was very good too but I think a guy like Wheeler could do something similar.  CJ Wilson was meh but gave us innings.  Something I think Heaney could do.  Shoe was great but only pitched 121ip.  Santiago was decent but also only threw 117 ip as a starter.  Skaggs was ok in his 113 ips.  I think Ohtani could reproduce Shoe pretty easily, and Canning/Sandoval/Barria and Suarez could fill in the rest.  Overall, I think the starting staff could be better than the 2014 version and with greater long term sustainability.  They could make up for an offense that in 2020 is probably not as good as the one we saw in 2014.  

The pen was a complete wild card in 2014.  Not very good in the first half with most of the innings coming from Jepsen, Joe Smith, Mike Morin, and Fernando Salas and a decent chunk also going to Kohn and a terrible Ernest Frieri.  The got shored up by the additions of Grilli who wasn't great but solid, and Huston Street who was terrific at locking down the end of games.  Cory Rasmus was also really good for us in the second half.  The 2020 pen could be very good.  They're an elite guy short of being excellent and they aren't likely to get that elite guy though.  But Robles needs to not turn into a pumpkin and Buttrey needs to be better which is likely with a lesser or at least more specific workload.  Middleton could be that x factor.  He looked so good prior to his TJ and even though he held things together in a small sample at the end of the year, he clearly wasn't the same guy.  Hopefully the additional 5-6 months of off season recovery will bring him back to where he was headed prior to injury.  I think Noe and Cam are fine for the 5th or 6th and for when the team is behind.  Anderson is another guy who needs to step up his game.  Someone we can use in the 6th, 7th and 8th to bridge from Cam/Noe to the back end.  One more decently reliable guy would be huge though.  A Petit type who can go multiple innings.  I don't see guys like Jewell, Bard, Cole or any of the others on the roster filling that role.  Maybe one of them surprises us but I wouldn't rely on it.  Would be great is a couple guys like Mattson or Austin Warren can move quick enough to help in 2020.  I think overall, the pen is on par and could be even better with a solid multi inning guy.  

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