BETTER BE BETTER
Lots of questions for a team with Mike Trout looking to end playoff drought
The Angels haven’t won a playoff game since 2009. For the 2018 team to have any chance of ending that streak, here are the five most important questions it must answer: 1. Can the nontraditional six-man rotation stay healthy and be productive?
Who knows how good this group of Angels starters can be? Certainly not the Angels, who, because of injuries, never have seen these individual pieces work together as one for an extended period.
Garrett Richards possesses top-of-the-rotation talent, but failing body parts have limited him to six starts in each of the last two seasons. He has looked dominant at times this spring and appears to be 100%.
JC Ramirez and Parker Bridwell are the returning starters coming off their best seasons. Ramirez seems to have solidified his spot this spring, while the Angels’ current depth is such that Bridwell might open the season in triple-A Salt Lake.
Tyler Skaggs, Matt Shoemaker, Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano all have had solid big league stretches over the last few years, right up until something broke down.
Heaney’s spring was interrupted by elbow inflammation that has clouded his immediate future.
“We just didn’t get far enough into games last year to really make a dent,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “Even though we came close, we know there are things we need to do better.”
Then, of course, there’s that new guy everyone keeps talking about… 2. What will the Angels get from Shohei Ohtani?
The most famous photo from the spring featured Mike Trout, his mouth agape in the fashion of a crazy person, barreling around the Angels’ complex behind the wheel of a golf cart with Ohtani in the passenger seat.
They might have been just starting down the road to the playoffs or perhaps already struggling to keep the entire operation from careening wildly off course.
Ohtani is attempting to make history as the first player to regularly pitch and bat with success in the majors in nearly a century. In his first spring training, however, Ohtani mostly made a mess.
He struggled with his command as a pitcher and appeared uncomfortable (at best) and overmatched (at worst) as a hitter. He looked a lot like most top prospects in their first big league camps: ready for the minors.
Still, the Angels remain committed to Ohtani’s two-way development and place on the roster, though they definitely are prioritizing his pitching.
“If we can get him out there and getting the 23, 24, 25 starts whatever it might be,” Scioscia said, “we’re going to be a better team.”
In terms of his issues on the mound, remember, because of an ankle injury, Ohtani pitched sparingly last season in Japan. 3. How will the relievers jell, especially when it comes to finishing games? Saying a team’s success hinges on the bullpen is a little like saying the best way to win is by scoring more runs than the other guys. The concept is pretty much a given.
But there’s added emphasis with the Angels, who begin 2018 without a definitive closer, the back of their bullpen still in flux, and the situation could remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Blake Parker, Cam Bedrosian and Jim Johnson all have closed in the majors, but there are reasons why Scioscia has not anointed one of them as his full-time ninthinning choice.
Instead, the Angels probably will enter the season in matchup mode as it relates to the late innings, Scioscia’s decisions based almost exclusively on the game's circumstances.
This will be a group that’s expected to be flexible, with the Angels using this spring to prepare multiple relievers — Jose Alvarez, Keynan Middleton, Felix Pena and Luke Bard among them — to pitch more than one inning.
Whatever happens, the Angels’ bullpen this season figures to be an ever-evolving one. 4. Can a lineup that looks deeper produce like one that actually is, you know, deeper?
General manager Billy Eppler re-signed Justin Upton, signed Zack Cozart and traded for Ian Kinsler in moves that addressed three positions that haven’t been offensively fruitful of late.
With those moves, left field, third base and second base suddenly stopped being opening day concerns for Angels executives, who are now free to worry about everything else.
“On the offensive side,” Scioscia said, “we’re really confident that we’re going to be more productive, and we need to be.”
Only eight teams scored fewer runs than the Angels did in 2017. They also were 27th in slugging percentage and OPS, results that are more stunning seeing how they had Trout.
True, he missed six weeks because of a thumb injury. But Trout was around long enough and playing at a level high enough that it sure seemed like the Angels should have been better offensively.
As of today, thanks to Eppler’s dealings, they appear to be better again.
“It was not a circumstance where we ever really exhaled and said, ‘Wow, that was amazing. What a run,’ ” Eppler said of his off-season. “We did not have those kinds of feelings or conversations. We were doing what we’re supposed to do.” 5. It wins championships, sure, but can defense win the American League West?
OK, the Angels have a serious problem if they are intent on trying to claim the division. That problem is the Houston Astros, who are the reigning World Series champs and have promised they won’t suffer a title hangover.
But everyone knows the Angels under Scioscia and now even more so under Scioscia/Eppler are committed to run prevention, only part of which is the responsibility of the pitchers.
Any hopes of securing a wildcard spot will depend greatly on whether the Angels’ defense proves to be as good as it’s being touted. “It just gives you confidence in the guys behind you,” Skaggs said. “We have a lot of Gold Glovers. That’s all you can ask for out of a defense.”
Last season, most advanced measures had the Angels in the top three overall. With Cozart and Kinsler added, they should be even better.
Since 2013, Andrelton Simmons and Cozart, who will play third base this season, ranked first and third among all shortstops in defensive runs saved.
In Martin Maldonado, the Angels also have a Gold Glove catcher, so a team that will need a lot of things to go right this season is at least founded on something very solid.