OC Register: Why Angels pitching struggled and what needs to be done

[AngelsWin.com]

After a winter of fans and analysts saying the Angels didn’t do enough to address their pitching, Manager Joe Maddon spent much of spring training, and the subsequent summer camp, telling anyone who would listen that the pitching was better than the perception.

Now, it’s the fall. And the Angels are likely to miss the playoffs, mostly because the pitching wasn’t good enough.

As they prepare for another winter, they’ll be going through the process of evaluating their pitching staff and trying to determine who is a part of the answer and who isn’t.

Certainly, there is more reason to be optimistic now than a month ago. The recent improvement has encouraged Maddon that maybe, given a full season instead of 60 games, his assessments wouldn’t seem so inaccurate.

“There is a limited window to watch all this occur,” he said. “I really believe, give these guys a little longer runway this year, and you’d have continued to see even greater improvement.”

The Angels’ rotation, which was a disaster at times early in the season, now looks to have a solid foundation, in need of perhaps one big addition or a couple smaller ones.

Dylan Bundy has been the surprise of the staff all season, carrying a 3.29 ERA into his final start. Bundy, 27, has used his off-speed pitches more to reinvent himself.

Andrew Heaney has a 4.02 ERA, including a 2.70 mark over his past five starts. Heaney, 29, essentially made the opposite adjustment as Bundy, throwing more fastballs. He also showed the ability in his last start to change gears mid-game when necessary, bouncing back from allowing three first-inning runs.

Griffin Canning has a 3.99 ERA, including 3.14 in his past five starts. His adjustments have been the typical ones that any 24-year-old in his second season might make, including getting ahead in the count and altering a game plan.

“I think there’s another level of Griff that’s going to be very interesting to watch,” Maddon said. “His overall pitchability, knowing what to do with all the different weapons. The command continues to get better. The guy is on the cusp of really putting things together.”

Beyond those three, the rotation is less certain, although still potentially promising.

Jaime Barria, 24, has a 3.62 ERA in seven games this season, the result of some changes to his pitch-usage and a return of the confidence he had in 2018. Patrick Sandoval, 23, was a favorite of Maddon, based on his stuff, but he had trouble harnessing his emotions and throwing strikes. His three extended relief outings since returning from Long Beach have been encouraging.

And then there is the Shohei Ohtani question. Ohtani, 26, didn’t even complete three innings this year before suffering a season-ending injury, but one of those innings was dominant. He was throwing 96 mph fastballs and diving splitters. The stuff is there, and he’s done it in the majors before, so the Angels and Ohtani won’t give up just yet.

The hope is a normal spring training, and another six months removed from his October 2018 Tommy John surgery, will allow Ohtani to pitch to his potential.

At this point, though, it seems the Angels have to put him in the rotation in pencil, and have ample backup plans.

Ideally, the Angels would have someone to put in front of all of those pitchers at the top of the rotation. That’s easier said than done.

Trevor Bauer is the best pitcher on this winter’s free-agent market, and after that there are dozens of pitchers with varying degrees of question marks because of age, injury or recent poor performance.

Trading for a top-of-the-rotation starter is even more difficult, because they simply aren’t available. When they are, the price is exorbitant. More likely would be acquiring a mid-rotation pitcher with some upside, as they did with Bundy. Maybe someone like Detroit’s Matthew Boyd or Pittsburgh’s Joe Musgrove.

The Angels also could use some help in the bullpen, and finding relievers from outside the organization is even more dicey. One of the reasons general manager Billy Eppler doesn’t spend big on the bullpen is he believes the chances of success are almost as good with waiver-wire pickups as with $8 million relievers.

The biggest success stories in the 2020 Angels bullpen have been Mike Mayers (claimed on waivers) and Felix Peña (picked up in a minor trade).

The three pitchers who were supposed to anchor the bullpen, though, were disappointments. Hansel Robles (10.43 ERA), Ty Buttrey (6.04) and Keynan Middleton (5.25) had all been successful late-inning relievers at various times. If even two had pitched to their potential this year, the Angels’ season might have gone in a different direction.

Now the Angels have to figure out if their issues this year were a small sample-size blip. Are they still pieces of a winning bullpen in 2021?

“It’s true they maybe they weren’t up to what you had thought, but that doesn’t mean over the course of six months they would not have been,” Maddon said. “I don’t know that. Great arms, really good arms. Some are still learning. One guy (Robles) is more of a veteran. It’s just hard to specifically understand whether it would have gotten better or continue to regress.”

The Angels also still have Cam Bedrosian, whose monthlong absence with an adductor injury is one of the underrated reasons for the Angels’ bullpen failure. In the nine games he’s pitched, Bedrosian has a 2.84 ERA, following 3.80 and 3.23 marks in the previous two years.

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Still, relievers are almost impossible to project from year to year. It’s difficult to know whether Mayers and Peña will still be good or Robles and Buttrey still struggle next year. The trick is to have a lot of relievers with potential and hope you can figure out quickly enough into the season which ones are on their way to good years.

The Angels didn’t have that chance this year. They – and the rest of the world, honestly – are hoping for a return to normalcy next year.

“There’s shining lights out there,” Maddon said. “There are parts of it. We weren’t able to recover in a shortened season. It’s the end of the year. I get it. But it’s two months. You normally have time to correct things, and now we don’t.”

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[Angelsjunky]

Good summation, but not much in the way of "what needs to be done." I suppose it is relatively straight-forward, with several routes:

1) Offer Bauer a competitive deal.

2) If that fails, go strongly after one of the better mid-rotation guys like Gausman, Odorizzi, or Stroman.

3) Kick the tires on trades.

4) Look for a savvy pick-up like Bundy.

5) Clean peanuts.

6) Sign a reliable reliever or two.

 

I think the rotation is a bit more straight-forward than the bullpen, because there is a clear tiered path to follow (1-5 above). The bullpen is trickier because of the volatility factor. In a best-case budget scenario, the Angels would bring everyone back and fill in the gaps with excess starters like Sandoval and Suarez, and supplement with Detmers, C-Rod, Soriano, and Yan when they're ready. But it also makes sense to bring in at least one guy with a proven track record.

[totdprods]

In many ways, I kinda wish someone like Darvish, deGrom, Scherzer, or Corbin would come up in trade talks this winter. The Angels would actually be in a great position to trade for an expensive but top-flight vet like that. They have the money to work with, and those contracts can help keep prospect capital a little more fluid to work with.

Those clubs obviously have plenty of reason to keep those guys and there are NTCs to work around, but with Bauer being the only ‘ace’ available this winter, savvy teams could see opportunity to get a good deal on those guys, freeing up payroll and getting prospects back. Washington certainly doesn’t need too, but they could use some freed up payroll. Chicago could save some money and their farm is poor. They’re about to start losing some vets too. The Mets are an enigma as always.

Edited September 24, 2020 by totdprods

[Angel]

29 minutes ago, totdprods said:

In many ways, I kinda wish someone like Darvish, deGrom, Scherzer, or Corbin would come up in trade talks this winter. The Angels would actually be in a great position to trade for an expensive but top-flight vet like that. They have the money and enough prospects to work with.

Those clubs obviously have plenty of reason to keep those guys and there are NTCs to work around, but with Bauer being the only ‘ace’ available this winter, savvy teams could see opportunity to get a good deal on those guys, freeing up payroll and getting prospects back. Washington certainly doesn’t need too, but they could use some freed up payroll. Chicago could save some money and their farm is poor. They’re about to start losing some vets too. The Mets are an enigma as always.

We could save money too, God knows how much Arte has lost during the pandemic, and honestly our rotation isn't nearly as big of an issue as it's being made out to be, and we have plenty of arms in the wait already (Ohtani can't be sidelined with his ability) Ohtani will leave us if we don't give him the opportunities he deserves.  It's our defense and volatile bullpen, and if you recall RISP issues AND the lineup totally screwed us out of tons of wins early on in the season.  The hitting coaches seemed to have figured out what our young guys needed, and Callaway seems to be correcting the bullpen/rotation too as we speak.  We really don't need to make any changes this off-season, except maybe a reliable bullpen arm and a reliable backup infielder.  The team chemistry is there and you can feel it, haven't felt this since 2009.

I really feel like someone's feelings (Arte etc) are going to end up damaging our chances next season.  Doing things because the record didn't line up with their prior expectations,  gutting our future to potentially gain a few extra wins in the near term.  God, I hope Arte doesn't interfere.

[Make Angels Great Again]

1 hour ago, AngelsWin.com said:

Maybe someone like Detroit’s Matthew Boyd.

 

God damnit I'm tired of hearing this mother effer's name. This dude flat out sucks.

[Angelsjunky]

On 9/24/2020 at 5:16 PM, Angel said:

We could save money too, God knows how much Arte has lost during the pandemic, and honestly our rotation isn't nearly as big of an issue as it's being made out to be, and we have plenty of arms in the wait already (Ohtani can't be sidelined with his ability) Ohtani will leave us if we don't give him the opportunities he deserves.  It's our defense and volatile bullpen, and if you recall RISP issues AND the lineup totally screwed us out of tons of wins early on in the season.  The hitting coaches seemed to have figured out what our young guys needed, and Callaway seems to be correcting the bullpen/rotation too as we speak.  We really don't need to make any changes this off-season, except maybe a reliable bullpen arm and a reliable backup infielder.  The team chemistry is there and you can feel it, haven't felt this since 2009.

I really feel like someone's feelings (Arte etc) are going to end up damaging our chances next season.  Doing things because the record didn't line up with their prior expectations,  gutting our future to potentially gain a few extra wins in the near term.  God, I hope Arte doesn't interfere.

Boo-hoo, poor billiionaires.

Anyhow, the answer is nothing. His net worth was 3.3B in April, and is 3.4B now. So he didn't increase by an obscene amount like Bezos, Fuckerberg, and Gates, but he's doing OK.

Forbes gives him a 2 on the philanthropy score (out of 10). Great guy.

[tdawg87]

The bullpen just fucked us in the ass while Teheran held us down on the pinball machine.