The Angels! I know, I know — the Angels? Yes. The Angels. At 24 games into the season, these Los Angeles Angels feel like a wholly different team than they did for really the entirety of 2017. They’ve got a 16-8 record, an 11-1 record on the road, and they’re currently sitting at the top of the AL West by half a game. And they got there by beating the Astros, 8-7, Tuesday, on the back of a Shohei Ohtani start and homers from Mike Trout and Andrelton Simmons.
The Angels could be something special this year
In Wednesday’s Say Hey, Baseball, we look at what’s going on with the Angels, the Rockies shredding Twitter trolls, and the five stages of grief for the Orioles’ season.
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There are obvious answers for why the Angels are doing so well. The first is Shohei Ohtani, who has impressed as both a pitcher and a designated hitter. He chose the Angels out of 30 teams in the offseason and has clearly energized the team. The second is Mike Trout, of course. He’s the best player on the planet, and has been since 2012. He’s the first player in baseball to hit 10 home runs this year, he’s hitting .308/.418/.692, and he makes it look so, so easy.
But there’s more to it than just those two guys. Andrelton Simmons is off to a blistering start, hitting .317/.398/.476. (And those two home runs against the Astros didn’t hurt.) Luis Valbuena is off to a better start than expected. All the Angels bench guys are doing well in limited at-bats. Starting pitcher Tyler Skaggs looks fantastic through five starts, and is carrying an ERA under 3.00. Nick Tropeano is rounding into form after missing 2017 for Tommy John surgery. And closer Kenyan Middleton has been lights out so far.
There could be even more to come. A number of the Angels’ regular guys haven’t gotten hot yet, like Kole Calhoun and Zack Cozart. Starting pitcher Garrett Richards doesn’t look like himself, but has a lot of time to figure it out. There could be something special happening with the Angels this season, and it’s going to be fun to see where it goes.
- Position players pitch in blowouts when a team is losing, but what about the opposite kind of blowout, when a team is winning big? Grant Brisbee explores this weirdly unexamined concept.
- After the Braves lost an extra-innings game to the going-nowhere Reds last night, they decided it was time to call up uber prospect Ronald Acuña. Should it have happened at the start of the season? Probably. But who cares, because now he’s here.
- MLB.TV’s draconian and inexplicable blackout rules made Purple Row writer Renee Dechert miss Jenny Cavnar’s play-by-play debut, and she was understandably not happy about it.
- The Rockies’ Twitter account wasn’t taking any crap from trolls after Cavnar’s debut.
- The Phillie Phanatic, the best mascot in all of sports, is celebrating his 40th birthday by heading to Japan next week, where he’ll hang out with the Yakult Swallows baseball team and just generally be awesome.
- Dusty Baker is an interesting guy, and an honest interview. The newly-hired Giants special assistant talked to Bob Nightengale about seeing the Nationals for the first time after his firing, but he talked about a lot more. An interview with Baker is always worth reading.
- Things are not going well for the 2018 Orioles, so Camden Chat walked us through the five stages of grief over a season that represents the end of an era.
- The Red Sox’s hot start has come to a grinding halt, as they lost their third straight game last night thanks to a blown save by ... Craig Kimbrel? Apparently so.
- Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin grew up a Yankees fan, his enire family are Yankees fans, and he’s not being shy about wanting to pitch for the Bronx Bombers in the future.
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