For much of 2015, things have been a bit hellish for the Los Angeles Angels. They began the year by raising a ruckus over Josh Hamilton's latest relapse. More recently, the running feud between Jerry Dipoto and Mike Scioscia finally boiled over, resulting in the former's ouster.
That only happened two weeks ago. And at the time, it was easy to see the Angels as a dead team walking. Surely, ahead of them lay only doom with a side of gloom.
Or not, as it turns out.
After going 37-37 in their first 74 games, the Angels finished the first half on an 11-3 run that catapulted them into first place in the AL West at 48-40. Rather than let an ugly situation snowball, they've put said ugly situation in the rearview mirror by playing their best baseball to date.
According to the man in charge, they've been able to do so because they haven't let all the turmoil rob them of their focus.
"I think the focus is good; there's really not a lot of distractions there," Scioscia told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com earlier this month. "We've had a lot happen the last couple weeks, and these guys keep playing baseball. That's what we're going to focus on."
This is a good thing. Focused baseball is better than unfocused baseball. And in these recent times, what it's meant for the Angels is a return to the form of their MLB-best 98-win season from 2014.
Above all, what stood out about the 2014 Angels was how well they could swing the bats. Led by Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, they had a deep collection of quality hitters that produced more runs than any other team.
The Angels offense has largely struggled to carry on the torch in 2015, ranking 11th in the AL in runs. The reason we can say "largely," though, is because the Angels offense has pulled off a Ben Affleck-like turnaround in recent days.
In their first 74 games, the Angels scored only 3.9 runs per game. But in their last 14 games, a dive into the numbers at BaseballSavant.com goes to show that the offensive gears in Anaheim finally started to turn:
Now, the obvious caveat here is that the Angels offense has erupted over a very small sample size. We're not looking at definitive proof that the Angels will score 5.6 runs per game the rest of the way.
And yet, this offensive explosion hasn't come out of nowhere.
Mike Trout has helped the cause by doing Mike Trout things with a .360 average, 1.292 OPS and seven dingers. Fellow Angels regulars Kole Calhoun, David Freese and Erick Aybar have also found their strides. Calhoun has an OPS of .907 in this stretch, while Freese has a .733 OPS. For his part, Aybar is hitting .455 in his last 11 games.
Regarding Aybar specifically, the Angels have had a hand in his improvement. His hot stretch has coincided with a move into the No. 5 hole, which MLB.com's Andrew Erickson highlighted as a spot that allows Aybar to hit more like his "slasher" self than a top-of-the-order spot.
It's not just Angels regulars who have awoken, however.
Also awakening has been slugging designated hitter C.J. Cron, who was ranked by Baseball America as the Angels' No. 2 prospect not too long ago. Since returning from the minors in late June, he's hit .459 with a 1.326 OPS and four homers in 10 games.
This is after Cron OPS'd just .505 in 35 games to open the season. That's a big difference, but Scioscia says it's reflective of a big difference in Cron's approach.
"There's no doubt he's in the batter's box with a little more confidence. I think he feels like he's better equipped right now. The time spent down in Triple-A was well-served," Scioscia told Erickson. "There's no doubt he needed to work out some things and find his timing, and he did and he's really been attacking the ball well while he's been up here."
Rather than some random occurrence, the Angels' offensive surge thus looks like the result of the best player in baseball looking the part, two established guys living up to their talent, one guy getting put in the right spot and a talented young hitter finding his happy place. That's a mix that could have some staying power, and the Angels offense will continue to thrive if it does.
And lest we forget about him, odds are Pujols isn't going to stay as cold as he's been. There's also the possibility that the Angels will acquire a hitter before the trade deadline, preferably one who swings left-handed and who can bat leadoff and play left field. Someone like, say, Ben Zobrist or Ben Revere.
Whatever the case, the Angels' recent offensive surge should prove to be a good warm-up for the second half. If so, they won't need much in the way of pitching.
But as it happens, they're pretty well off in that department too.
The Angels didn't catch fire before the break just because their offense caught fire. Their pitching also had a hand in it, as the Angels allowed only 2.8 runs per game in those last 14 games.
The difference between the Angels offense and their pitching, however, is that the latter has been kicking posteriors for a while now.
For the season, the Angels have a 3.64 ERA that ranks fifth in the American League. Angels pitchers have been even better recently, posting a 3.22 ERA over the last 30 days.
The main explanation for that? Well, it helps when four of your five primary starters are getting results:
Of these five, only Matt Shoemaker hasn't pitched well. And though we could dive into some really nerdy numbers and nitpick how legit the success of the other four is, the reality is that their numbers are accurate enough reflections of their talent.
C.J. Wilson, for example, is a veteran left-hander with a deep repertoire who has fixed the control problems that plagued him in 2014. Hector Santiago has also improved his control, and he's benefited from being a fly-ball pitcher with one of the league's elite outfield defenses behind him. Garrett Richards, meanwhile, is a guy with overwhelming stuff who posted a 2.61 ERA last year.
The one wild card in the mix is Andrew Heaney. He's been successful in his four starts, but those are the only four starts he's made in an Angels uniform. That, combined with the fact that he got lit up in his first taste of the majors with the Miami Marlins last year, should raise suspicions.
And yet, Heaney's hot start does have a tinge of believability to it.
Heaney did come into the year as a consensus top-50 prospect, after all. And though that talent didn't translate in 2014, the Angels managed to diagnose why that was and go about making fixes.
As Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register reported, the Angels stopped Heaney from reaching across his body with every throw. The result has been better velocity and better command than he showed in his underwhelming debut in 2014. Hence, better results.
Assuming Heaney's breakthrough is legit, then the Angels have at least four starters to rely on. The return of Jered Weaver could make it five if his stint on the disabled list somehow leads to him recovering some lost velocity. If not, oh well. Four out of five is still pretty good.
Even better is that the Angels rotation need not do all the heavy lifting. After having one of baseball's best bullpens in the second half of 2014, it could be the same old story down the stretch this year.
The Angels have already been operating with an excellent late-inning duo, as right-handers Huston Street and Joe Smith both own ERAs under 3.00 and the peripherals to back them up. But in the person of Trevor Gott, the Angels may now have a third shutdown reliever.
The 22-year-old right-hander has only made 13 appearances, but that's been enough for him to make an impression. He's allowed only 13 baserunners in racking up a 2.77 ERA. And though he's struck out only seven, he's shown good command of his high-90s fastball and an ability to keep the ball on the ground.
If Gott lives up to what he's teased so far, then the Angels stand to push their way through the second half with a shutdown bullpen, a solid starting rotation and a much-improved offense. That, certainly, doesn't sound like a team that's likely to fade after finally showing up just before the All-Star break.
And if it helps, they're not expected to by the computers.
Though they disagree on whether the Angels will be the AL West's best team down the stretch, both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus project them to finish the season on top for their second straight division title.
It thus doesn't take a pair of human eyes to see that the Angels should continue being about as good as they've looked recently. That's commendable even without context, but the context in this case makes it look so much more so.
Seemingly poised to fall apart just weeks ago, what the Angels have done instead is come together. If that does indeed lead to another AL West title, it'll make the victory taste that much sweeter.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.
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