Like us on Facebook here

Sunday, April.14, 2013

Albert Pujols kicked off the 2012 year by struggling brutally for the 1st 6 weeks. This year the man is off to a hot start – and can’t be faulted for the teams failures so far. The Active Leader for Batting Average at .325 is back to his MVP form. The most telling stat the he is in the Zone is his Walks to Strikeout Rate being 11 – 3. The 33 Year old is also the Active Leader for OPS among players at 1.022.

By Josh Jones (Angels Correspondent): Follow @joshjones4

For the second consecutive season the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have come out of the gates at an utterly slow pace. The 2013 version of the Angels followed in the footsteps of the 2012 team which started 6-14 and found themselves failing to dig themselves out of the April hole when it came down to making the playoffs.

The 2013 Angels have actually started worse than their 2012 campaign, posting a meager 3-8 record through 11 games. If it wasn’t for Albert Pujols’ 2 -run Double which gave the Halos a walk-off victory a few hours ago, this team would have been 2-9 and looking at the worst record to start the season in franchise history.

LA Angels Preview – They haven’t lived up to the Hype yet:

The Angels struggles so far have to be placed a heavy percentage on the Free Agent OF Hamilton. He has a 3 Slash Line of .186/.260/.562 with 1 HR and 5 RBI. He has an alarming amount of Strikeouts (15 – 11 games) .

The bad:

Still, the Angels find themselves in dead last place of not only the AL West but the entire American League. Time for a look at what has been so sour from April 1st to April 13th:

Errors: A Mike Scioscia-led team will always emphasize pitching and defense, yet this team is doing neither. First off, the defense which is supposed to be a strong suit of the club has been dramatically awful.

The team has tallied 11 errors in the first 11 games, which is a pace that is breathtaking when you consider that their defense looks like a Top-5 defense on paper.

Every night we have seen lazy plays such as Josh Hamilton failing to get in front of a ball and Peter Bourjos missing the cut-off man and leading to the base-runner advancing to second and eventually scoring.

The team will have to clear this up quickly if they want to make the second half of April unlike the first.

Pitching:

You know that any team that goes 3-8 in an eleven game stretch did not have quality pitching night-in and night-out to compete.

The rotation has had quite a bit of trouble to start the year, and those troubles were magnified by Ace and only “sure-thing” Jered Weaver breaking his left elbow and missing approximately one month.

C.J. Wilson, Jason Vargas and Tommy Hanson have been very inconsistent and Joe Blanton has been plain awful (9.00 ERA, 17 hits and 4 Home Runs allowed in 10 Innings).

The Bullpen has been equally as bad, magnified by Scott Downs (6.75 ERA in 4 Innings) and Kevin Jepsen’s (9.82 ERA in 3.2 Innings) struggles. Both individuals are going to be a vital part of the 2013 Bullpen, and they have not been as good as the Angels need them to be.

The Good:

Albert Pujols: Pujols has been putting those beliefs that his body is breaking down to rest so far in 2013, compiling a gaudy slash line of .324/.480/.595. His swing looks much more fluid than it did in April of 2012, when he hit under .200 and hit a whopping 0 homers.

Look for an MVP-caliber year from The Machine, as he has settled down in Anaheim as well as the American League.

Ernesto Frieri: The trade of the year for the Angels in 2012 (Acquiring Frieri from the Padres in return for Alexi Amarista and a pitching prospect) is paying more dividends in 2013 with the Angels having a sure-thing flame-throwing righty at the end of their Bullpen.

Ernesto Frieri has only one save so far this year, but has Struck out 6 batters in 4 Innings and looks to be just as dominant as 2012 when he posted a 2.32 ERA in 54.1 Innings with 23 Saves.

Baseball is the ultimate game of resilience, and there’s no doubt that the Halos will go on a roll sometime soon and even out their atrocious record. But the fact is that they are currently sitting at 3-8, and as a wise man once told me “the only guarantees in baseball are those W’s in the standings”. Let’s Go Angels!

The Angels have to be carrying a serious case of urgency. They know more than anyone else that a club can lose a Division in the 1st month. The team went 8 – 17 before recovering 81 – 56 to end the campaign. At 3 – 8 this year, the Angels are already 5.5 Game Behind Oakland and 4.5 Games Behind Texas for the AL West.  The Halos end a 3 game set versus the Astros before playing a 3 game Series against American League’s “Get Well Card” Minnesota Twins.  The team should strive to win 3 out of 4 contests – considering they then host the defending AL Champion Tigers next week in LA.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***

A big thank-you goes out to our ‘Angels Correspondent’ Josh Jones for preparing today’s featured article.  Josh Jones claims to be the biggest Angels fan there is. He has been religiously following the team since 2005 and have watched every game since. 

His girlfriend and him attend about 40 games a year and love every minute of attendance. Josh is currently a senior at California State University, Fullerton working towards his Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing. Josh wishes to thank all of the readers for viewing his posts.  Follow Josh on twitter  Follow @joshjones4

Please e-mail me at: mlbreports@gmail.com with any questions and feedback.  You can follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.  To subscribe to our website and have the Daily Reports sent directly to your inbox, click here and follow the link at the top of our homepage.

Like us on Facebook here