Let’s assemble the best possible Angels team by letter of the alphabet to begin a player’s last name. Like the letter “i”, the letter “Q” did not have enough players to field a team so we move on to the letter R today. 79 men whose last name started with “R” played major league baseball in an Angels uniform.
C – Buck Rodgers
1B – Joe Rudi
2B – Johnny Ray
3B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Luis Rengifo
OF – Frank Robinson
OF – Mickey Rivers
OF – Rick Reichhardt
DH – Roger Repoz
The trouble with Buck is he caught more games than you could ever imagine but was not a great bat, probably cost the Angels many games over the years based on his total usage, but he was THE catcher. Ellie Rodriguez and his 112 OPS+ in 778 Plate Appearances as an Angel gets the short stick here. Despite Rodgers, this is a great lineup, though, the Angel R squad will score a shit-ton of runs.
SP – Nolan Ryan
SP – Garrett Richards
SP – JC Ramirez
RP – Francisco “Frankie” Rodriguez
RP – Minnie Rojas
Minnie Rojas over Hansel Robles is the only quibble in a stellar pitching staff. All in all the R team of Angels might be the best we have seen so far.