Already 1/4 of the season is done! What are your grades for the team and players?

[aznhockeyguy]

I'd give this team an A right now.  It would've been an A+, but the last series in Texas brought this grade down.  Had the lead late in all 3 of those games. 

 

Hitting: A+

Starting Pitching: B+ (Still trying to figure out that 6th spot, everyone else has been rock solid and surpassed expectations.)

Bullpen: B+ (Mostly because of the last 3 games)

Defense: A- (Adell's play really brought this down.)

 

Specific player grades:
 

Ward: A++++

Where did he come from?!?!  Obviously, most Angels fan have casually heard of him but now he's turned into post-steroid using Barry Bonds.  He's always had a good eye (~8-9% career walk rate coming to this season) and most people would've been happy if he hit .270/.340/.450 with solid defense in the OF for a full season this year, but obviously he's doing much better than that.  He won't keep hitting like this all season, but it's been great to watch.  

 

Trout: A+

He looks healthy, now can he stay that way? When he plays, he's great and does it all. 

 

Ohtani: A-

After a season for the ages last season, can he do it again?  Though he got off to a slow start hitting wise, it looks like he's starting to figure it out.

 

Marsh: B+ 

Small sample size but looks like he's adjusted after his debut last season.  Looks more comfortable hitting this season and the number show the improvement so far and his defense is substantially better than Adell's.

 

Walsh: B

His numbers are down from last season but the league isn't hitting much better either which is why his OPS+ is the basically the same as last season. 

 

Velazquez: B-

Feels like every game, he does something amazing on the field.  His hitting has improved last couple of weeks.

 

Rendon: C+

He's starting to heat up a little bit, but he looked broken at the start of the season as he couldn't rotate his hips and generate power.  If he can get back to his old form with the bat, the lineup will be that much more dangerous.

 

Wade: C

He started off hot but cooled off considerably.  He's a huge threat when he gets on base.

 

Stassi and the catchers: C-

I was hoping that Stassi can keep up his numbers from prior seasons and for the most part he has in the power and walk department, but he's been striking out a lot.  The rest of the catchers have been meh due to low playing time and injuries.

 

Syndergaard: B

We had no idea how he'd perform or if he'd be able to stay healthy, but with the exception of his latest start he's been good.  The low K numbers concern me, but if he keeps giving the Angels solid innings, it doesn't matter.

 

Lorenzen: A

Why give him an A when I gave Syndergaard a B? Because he was a reliever and the history of relievers turning into starters isn't great and also because he's putting up similar numbers but has gone deeper into games and is being paid a lot less than Syndergaard.  He's been a pleasant surprise.  Much like Syndergaard, the low K number concern me, but as long as he's effective it doesn't matter too much. 

 

Loup: A+

Dude's been unhittable from the pen.

 

Sandoval: A+

My pick for breakout player this season and he's been doing exactly that.  He's been unhittable at times, but he's also wild.  If he learns to better control his pitches, he'll be a great starter and a solid #2 behind Ohtani.

 

Detmers: C+

Take out the no-hitter and Detmers hasn't been great and not going very deep in some of his starts.  Some of that is on Maddon giving him an early hook.  He's still young and has good stuff and he's still a rookie.  Hopefully he figures it out sooner rather than later.  I'm still high on him.

 

Tepara: D

He's looked awful hittable and not fooling anyone. His strikeouts has plummeted from prior seasons.  I'm very worried that he might have some arm trouble he's trying to play through or he's lost something.

 

Hegret: B+

He's been great lately and has saved the bullpen by going long in some of the games he's appeared in. 

 

Ortega: A+

Same story here.  Though his walk and strike out numbers concern me.  Smoke and mirror candidate here.

 

Barria: A

Same story here as well.  Long guy that's saved the bullpen the times he's come in pitching multiple innings. 

 

Iglesias: B-

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Looked unhittable early and then the last week, blow a save and gave up 2 walk off homeruns with the lead.  The long ball has plagued him his entire career.  His history of production indicates he'll figure it out.

 

 

 

 

[Don]

If you told me in late March that this team would be 24-16 through 40 games I would’ve been ecstatic.

[Reveille1984]

Overall we've surpassed all expectations up to this point.

Our bullpen is still ass though, even before the Texas series.  They don't miss enough bats (bottom three in K rate) and give up a ton of hard hit balls which are turning into XBH.  These things are volatile and could shift at a moment's notice, but in these games where our offense doesn't show up we're going to have to clench our cheeks pretty hard.

[Taylor]

Hitting: B

Starting Pitching: A-

Bullpen: B-

Defense: A-

Overall: B+

[Jay]

22 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Hitting: B

Starting Pitching: A-

Bullpen: B-

Defense: A-

Overall: B+

sounds about right

[Angelsjunky]

I'll bite, as I need a reason to procrastinate weeding. I'll take a slightly different approach, with a key, with all grades relative to their track record and reasonable expectation, and adjusted for major league rankings.

A. Performing significantly above expectation and pre-season talent level, and/or having a great year.

B. Performing as expected, and/or having a good year.

C. Performing below expectation, but still contributing.

D. Performing significantly below expectation.  

F. A dud (so far).

Unfortunately Fangraphs doesn't separate player performance by position, so the ranks are for the primary player only - and among all players with any playing time at the position. As a general rule, top 5 is elite, 6-10 is good, 11-20 is average, 21 or lower a mediocre to bad regular, or bench player. But I'm grading the position itself over the the main player.

Catchers: C- (Stassi 0.3 WAR, 26th of 82 in MLB). Stassi injured (again), Suzuki sucks (again) and injured, Wallach had an HR but can't hit, and Romine is a third-stringer. But it hasn't been awful.

1B: B- (Walsh 0.5, 17th of 57). Walsh is slowly improving (122 wRC+, 0.5 WAR), but still below last year's pace (127 wRC+, 2.4 WAR).

2B: C+ (Rengifo 0.2, 27th of 72). Hopefully Rengifo can win the everyday job. Wade is useful if not over-used, and he's been a bit over-used. Duffy (-0.3) has been poor, but had a rough go of it. 

SS: B (Velazquez 0.5, 23rd of 65). Velazquez is one of the biggest surprises this year, but until he gets his hitting up a bit more, I'm going to hold off giving this an A grade. Plus, Fletcher's performance brings this position down a bit.

3B: C+ (Rendon 1.0, 12th of 77). Rendon is getting better, and his triple-slash of .237/.333/.412 is better than it looks due to the dead ball -- his 121 wRC+ is still good, and not much worse than his career average of 127. Plus, it is hard to be too bummed about a 1.0 fWAR through 1/4 season, but we expect more, and I still think he'll end up with a 130+ wRC+ and around 5 WAR. Mayfield continues as a vaguely adequate replacement level player.

LF: B (Marsh 0.9, 6th of 84). Consider that only four left-fielders have a higher WAR than Marsh, who is performing about as good as could be reasonably expected - a big step forward from last year, and a spark-plug in the outfield and at the plate. He would get an A-, but Adell's -0.6 WAR drags this down. Fun (and disturbing) fact: Adell's career -1.9 WAR is 4th worst of 391 Angels players with 100+ PA; the only guys below him are Dan Briggs (-2.6), Dean Chance (-2.7) and, gulp, Brandon Wood (-2.9).

CF: A (Trout 2.6, 1st of 69). Nice to see Trout mashing again - and one of his best starts. He won't hit for a 221 wRC+ all year, but I think he's back to his 2017-19 180ish form, which means he's still the best hitter in the game.

RF: A+ (Ward 2.6, 1st of 86 - tied with Judge). What to say? He's not just beating expectations (which an optimistic view would have been a 120 wRC+, 2-3 WAR), he's demolishing them. He'll settle down somewhat, but the fact that a 140-150 wRC+ now seems a moderate expectation is crazy.

DH: C+ (Ohtani , 120 wRC+, 12th of 29). He's improving but still well below last year's 152 wRC+. He's too talented not to reach the elite level of 140 - and it looks like he'll get there.

Starting Pitching: A (3.6 WAR, 9th in MLB;  3.65 FIP, 12th; 3.22 ERA, 4th). Ohtani has pitched like an ace, Sandoval like a #2, Syndergaard like a #3, and Lorenzen and Detmers both like solid #4s. And the fill-ins--Silseth, Diaz, and Herget--have all pitched very well. Only Suarez has been bad. It is easy to focus on the warts, but the starting pitching has been excellent. The only downside is that FIP would indicate some regression, but on the other hand, if you look at the starters, player by player, there's more reason to expect more improvement than not).

Bullpen: D (0.1 WAR, 26th; 4.25 FIP, 27th; 3.72 ERA, 15th). There's no way to white-wash it: the very expensive bullpen has been (overall) quite disappointing. Maybe a week ago I'd have given them a C or C+, but Raisel's two walk-off losses alone warrants a lower grade. That said, I expect the bullpen to improve. Really.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Angelsjunky

[aznhockeyguy]

Damn nice write up junky.  Didn't realize the bullpen has been bad.  The recent 3 game meltdown didn't help. 

[HanfordGuy]

I say A-. They are playing .600 ball and winning on the road. Some stars are underperforming so there is room for improvement. Let’s Go Halos!

[stormngt]

I gave an A-.

It's like a student taking 100 question exam.  They answer the first 90 correct but bombed the last 10.

I am concerned on the bullpen.  O think our starters ate fine and it looks like we have depth.  I think the back end of the bullpen will end up with good numbers despite the last week.  Middle relief is where I am concerned.

 

[Second Base]

It's all relative because of differing standards. If an A exceeds expectations and a C is merely meeting expectations then Mike Trout gets a C and Brandon Marsh gets an A. 

As I teacher, I can confidently say that grades mean Jack squat. Some of the most gifted people I've ever met got terrible grades and the dumbest people I know, all have degrees. 

[Jason]

2 hours ago, aznhockeyguy said:

Damn nice write up junky.  Didn't realize the bullpen has been bad.  The recent 3 game meltdown didn't help. 

The pen is still crap in 2022. Iglesias WAS the only one I felt some confidence with but he’s looked awful lately 

[Torridd]

A week ago I would have given them an A-. A sweep really dropped a grade for them. B+

[Torridd]

5 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

I'll bite, as I need a reason to procrastinate weeding. I'll take a slightly different approach, with a key, with all grades relative to their track record and reasonable expectation, and adjusted for major league rankings.

A. Performing significantly above expectation and pre-season talent level, and/or having a great year.

B. Performing as expected, and/or having a good year.

C. Performing below expectation, but still contributing.

D. Performing significantly below expectation.  

F. A dud (so far).

Unfortunately Fangraphs doesn't separate player performance by position, so the ranks are for the primary player only - and among all players with any playing time at the position. As a general rule, top 5 is elite, 6-10 is good, 11-20 is average, 21 or lower a mediocre to bad regular, or bench player. But I'm grading the position itself over the the main player.

Catchers: C- (Stassi 0.3 WAR, 26th of 82 in MLB). Stassi injured (again), Suzuki sucks (again) and injured, Wallach had an HR but can't hit, and Romine is a third-stringer. But it hasn't been awful.

1B: B- (Walsh 0.5, 17th of 57). Walsh is slowly improving (122 wRC+, 0.5 WAR), but still below last year's pace (127 wRC+, 2.4 WAR).

2B: C+ (Rengifo 0.2, 27th of 72). Hopefully Rengifo can win the everyday job. Wade is useful if not over-used, and he's been a bit over-used. Duffy (-0.3) has been poor, but had a rough go of it. 

SS: B (Velazquez 0.5, 23rd of 65). Velazquez is one of the biggest surprises this year, but until he gets his hitting up a bit more, I'm going to hold off giving this an A grade. Plus, Fletcher's performance brings this position down a bit.

3B: C+ (Rendon 1.0, 12th of 77). Rendon is getting better, and his triple-slash of .237/.333/.412 is better than it looks due to the dead ball -- his 121 wRC+ is still good, and not much worse than his career average of 127. Plus, it is hard to be too bummed about a 1.0 fWAR through 1/4 season, but we expect more, and I still think he'll end up with a 130+ wRC+ and around 5 WAR. Mayfield continues as a vaguely adequate replacement level player.

LF: B (Marsh 0.9, 6th of 84). Consider that only four left-fielders have a higher WAR than Marsh, who is performing about as good as could be reasonably expected - a big step forward from last year, and a spark-plug in the outfield and at the plate. He would get an A-, but Adell's -0.6 WAR drags this down. Fun (and disturbing) fact: Adell's career -1.9 WAR is 4th worst of 391 Angels players with 100+ PA; the only guys below him are Dan Briggs (-2.6), Dean Chance (-2.7) and, gulp, Brandon Wood (-2.9).

CF: A (Trout 2.6, 1st of 69). Nice to see Trout mashing again - and one of his best starts. He won't hit for a 221 wRC+ all year, but I think he's back to his 2017-19 180ish form, which means he's still the best hitter in the game.

RF: A+ (Ward 2.6, 1st of 86 - tied with Judge). What to say? He's not just beating expectations (which an optimistic view would have been a 120 wRC+, 2-3 WAR), he's demolishing them. He'll settle down somewhat, but the fact that a 140-150 wRC+ now seems a moderate expectation is crazy.

DH: C+ (Ohtani , 120 wRC+, 12th of 29). He's improving but still well below last year's 152 wRC+. He's too talented not to reach the elite level of 140 - and it looks like he'll get there.

Starting Pitching: A (3.6 WAR, 9th in MLB;  3.65 FIP, 12th; 3.22 ERA, 4th). Ohtani has pitched like an ace, Sandoval like a #2, Syndergaard like a #3, and Lorenzen and Detmers both like solid #4s. And the fill-ins--Silseth, Diaz, and Herget--have all pitched very well. Only Suarez has been bad. It is easy to focus on the warts, but the starting pitching has been excellent. The only downside is that FIP would indicate some regression, but on the other hand, if you look at the starters, player by player, there's more reason to expect more improvement than not).

Bullpen: D (0.1 WAR, 26th; 4.25 FIP, 27th; 3.72 ERA, 15th). There's no way to white-wash it: the very expensive bullpen has been (overall) quite disappointing. Maybe a week ago I'd have given them a C or C+, but Raisel's two walk-off losses alone warrants a lower grade. That said, I expect the bullpen to improve. Really.

Even with back to back blown saves the bullpen doesn't deserve a D. I'd give them a C+.

[Angelsjunky]

6 minutes ago, Torridd said:

Even with back to back blown saves the bullpen doesn't deserve a D. I'd give them a C+.

Again, the numbers: 0.1 WAR, 26th; 4.25 FIP, 27th; 3.72 ERA, 15th

Also, 6 blown saves - tied for 5th in the majors.

So average ERA, near the end of the pack in WAR/FIP, and more blown saves than 21 of 30 teams. At best, they've been below average - which is far worse than what the expectations were, considering that the Angels just spent over $30M AAV on the bullpen.

SO yeah, I'm sticking with a D - at least as I defined it.

[halodground]

I’ll say B. Solid, but plenty of room for improvement. The bullpen definitely is the weakest link so far, I’d rate it C-. I want to say D but I’m giving them a little credit for this week and hoping that is just a blip and not a reflection of their true ability.

[tchula]

9 hours ago, aznhockeyguy said:

I'd give this team an A right now.  It would've been an A+, but the last series in Texas brought this grade down.  Had the lead late in all 3 of those games. 

 

Hitting: A+

Starting Pitching: B+ (Still trying to figure out that 6th spot, everyone else has been rock solid and surpassed expectations.)

Bullpen: B+ (Mostly because of the last 3 games)

Defense: A- (Adell's play really brought this down.)

 

Specific player grades:
 

Ward: A++++

Where did he come from?!?!  Obviously, most Angels fan have casually heard of him but now he's turned into post-steroid using Barry Bonds.  He's always had a good eye (~8-9% career walk rate coming to this season) and most people would've been happy if he hit .270/.340/.450 with solid defense in the OF for a full season this year, but obviously he's doing much better than that.  He won't keep hitting like this all season, but it's been great to watch.  

 

Trout: A+

He looks healthy, now can he stay that way? When he plays, he's great and does it all. 

 

Ohtani: A-

After a season for the ages last season, can he do it again?  Though he got off to a slow start hitting wise, it looks like he's starting to figure it out.

 

Marsh: B+ 

Small sample size but looks like he's adjusted after his debut last season.  Looks more comfortable hitting this season and the number show the improvement so far and his defense is substantially better than Adell's.

 

Walsh: B

His numbers are down from last season but the league isn't hitting much better either which is why his OPS+ is the basically the same as last season. 

 

Velazquez: B-

Feels like every game, he does something amazing on the field.  His hitting has improved last couple of weeks.

 

Rendon: C+

He's starting to heat up a little bit, but he looked broken at the start of the season as he couldn't rotate his hips and generate power.  If he can get back to his old form with the bat, the lineup will be that much more dangerous.

 

Wade: C

He started off hot but cooled off considerably.  He's a huge threat when he gets on base.

 

Stassi and the catchers: C-

I was hoping that Stassi can keep up his numbers from prior seasons and for the most part he has in the power and walk department, but he's been striking out a lot.  The rest of the catchers have been meh due to low playing time and injuries.

 

Syndergaard: B

We had no idea how he'd perform or if he'd be able to stay healthy, but with the exception of his latest start he's been good.  The low K numbers concern me, but if he keeps giving the Angels solid innings, it doesn't matter.

 

Lorenzen: A

Why give him an A when I gave Syndergaard a B? Because he was a reliever and the history of relievers turning into starters isn't great and also because he's putting up similar numbers but has gone deeper into games and is being paid a lot less than Syndergaard.  He's been a pleasant surprise.  Much like Syndergaard, the low K number concern me, but as long as he's effective it doesn't matter too much. 

 

Loup: A+

Dude's been unhittable from the pen.

 

Sandoval: A+

My pick for breakout player this season and he's been doing exactly that.  He's been unhittable at times, but he's also wild.  If he learns to better control his pitches, he'll be a great starter and a solid #2 behind Ohtani.

 

Detmers: C+

Take out the no-hitter and Detmers hasn't been great and not going very deep in some of his starts.  Some of that is on Maddon giving him an early hook.  He's still young and has good stuff and he's still a rookie.  Hopefully he figures it out sooner rather than later.  I'm still high on him.

 

Tepara: D

He's looked awful hittable and not fooling anyone. His strikeouts has plummeted from prior seasons.  I'm very worried that he might have some arm trouble he's trying to play through or he's lost something.

 

Hegret: B+

He's been great lately and has saved the bullpen by going long in some of the games he's appeared in. 

 

Ortega: A+

Same story here.  Though his walk and strike out numbers concern me.  Smoke and mirror candidate here.

 

Barria: A

Same story here as well.  Long guy that's saved the bullpen the times he's come in pitching multiple innings. 

 

Iglesias: B-

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Looked unhittable early and then the last week, blow a save and gave up 2 walk off homeruns with the lead.  The long ball has plagued him his entire career.  His history of production indicates he'll figure it out.

 

 

 

 

[Docwaukee]

defense and offense are a B+.  Offense is performing at A- but could have been better.  Defense is good mostly cuz of Vazquez and Rendon.  

SP is an A-

Pen is a D

Overall I gave them a B+