The Angels trio of stars

[Angelsjunky]

Before the season started, I wrote a post about how, if healthy, the Angels trio of stars--Trout, Ohtani, and Rendon--could end up being the best trio in the game by WAR. Of course the "if healthy" part has negated that possibility, but now we have the surprising Taylor Ward picking up the slack.

Anyhow, the trio currently totals 10.1 fWAR, which is second behind the Cardinals trio of Goldschmidt, Edman, and Arenado (10.9). 

But more importantly, all three have been playing well of late. Since his career-worst slump, since June 6 (18 games), Trout has hit .317/.419/.873, 248 wRC+ in 74 PA.

Ohtani has hit .458/.583/1.052 with a 314 wRC+ over his last 8 games, or .338/.427/.663 with a 198 wRC+ going back to June 4.

Ward also had a terrible slump after being injured and missing 9 games, but has hit .378/.425/.541 with a 179 wRC+ over his last nine games.

Or to put it pictorially, I came up with a handy formula to assess the value of a batter's performance. Basically it is this:

(Hits + Total Bases + BB + SB + HBP) - (CS + GIDP + Outs)

Yes, it double counts hits because I want singles to mean more than walks, and it also double negatively counts caught stealing and GIDP, because of the impact that has (e.g. both a CS and GIDP doesn't just create an out, they erase a base).

Basically 0 or better is a solid game (green) and -1 or worse is bad (purple). Grey means they didn't play. 1-4 with a 2B is 0 (1 hit + 2 bases - 3 outs), or .250/.250/.500, a .750 OBP. 1-4 with 1B is -1, or .250/.250/.250. 0-4 is -4 (assuming nothing else). Shohei actually had one -6 game on May 18, when he went 0-5 with a GIDP. But generally speaking, a typical -4 is the worst a typical game gets.

 

I'm gradually working on such charts for Trout's entire career - I originally did wRC+, but didn't like how it didn't differentiate PA...meaning, a pinch-hit HR looked better than a 2-4 with 2 HR game. 

Anyhow, one thing to note about Trout is that he's having more big games this year than typical - but worse slumps, at least that one big one at the end of May and beginning of June, and he's generally more up-and-down. But he's evened out a bit over the last couple weeks, and his performance is more like it was in April.

Here's Brandon Marsh for comparison:

As you can see, there's a lot more purple - and June has just been awful, with the except of four games. Meaning, Marsh has been a negative at the plate in all but four games in June, and in those four games he was very good to great. 

Edited June 29, 2022 by Angelsjunky

[Angels 1961]

You do great research but still comes down to season 7 of LOSING.

[Revad]

Ward has pretty much convinced me he’s a star going forward.  What a break that would be.

[Angelsjunky]

24 minutes ago, Revad said:

Ward has pretty much convinced me he’s a star going forward.  What a break that would be.

Yeah, I think he's legit. At the very least, he's better than ANYONE expected.

Except for Jerry Dipoto.

 

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, Angels 1961 said:

You do great research but still comes down to season 7 of LOSING.

Yes, probably. But there's a good core here. Hopefully Minasian will learn his lesson and build greater depth, and not waste cash on mediocre relievers.