Angels GM Perry Minasian did minor additions at the trade deadline rather than making moves for the future. The goal, he said, was to have the team play meaningful games down the stretch. Since the deadline, the Angels have gone a woeful 9 and 15.
Thankfully 3 of those wins came in a second series sweep of the Dodgers. Yes, the Angels went 6 and 0 against the Dodgers this year. But that sweep is the only series win of the month and is counterbalanced by a home sweep against the Cubs.
In a game dominated by numbers, the team is still playing meaningful games in many ways. The standings simply are not one of them, unless staying out of last place holds value to you.
With 29 games left on the season, the Angels have all but clinched the #1 spot for most strikeouts in the league. And it there’s still an opportunity to end up with the worst on base percentage. Unlikely, but with our bottom third of the order, not impossible. Finishing worse than the White Sox in and of itself would be quite an accomplishment.
Can the Angels crack the top 25 all time K list as a team? Yes. The question is how high can they climb.
The Angels currently strikeout at a rate of 9.8 per game, which would tally 1588 on the year. That tally would place the Angels 8th all time. At their current rate, they should displace the 25th ranked 2018 Phillies with a week so spare. Of course, more starts by Kavadas, Moore, and Peraza could accelerate both timelines.
In better news, Jose Soriano was an absolute stud this week. His outing on Monday was as good as we’ve seen him.
Taylor Ward and Jo Adell are mashing home runs. They became the first set of Angels teammates to notch 30 home runs seasons since some guys named Trout and Ohtani. Taylor Ward is also the first player to 30 home runs and 30 doubles on the year. The kid is slugging.
For Adell, he notched his 30th dinger under the eyes of his mentor, one of my all time favorite players Torii Hunter. I could go with either player for the Highlight of the Week, but the best clip I saw on the twitterverse was Adell’s. So here it is.
With the MLB team scuffling, the best thing to do is look at the farm. And there’s some good news there.
Mitch Farris had himself a great outing and leads all Angels farmhands in strikeouts this season. He was a bit of an afterthought this off season, but is showing plenty of swing and miss stuff.
Meanwhile, a couple of levels below Farris, Angels hurler Dylan Jordan needs some shine.
Dylan Jordan is getting some love from Baseball America. The 5th round pick in last summer’s draft was promoted to the Cal League at the end of July and went on a tear. In 20.2 innings he’s allowed a slash line of .188/.269/.217 and a very nice 1.31 ERA. Control is often an issue for youngsters, but the 19 year old has notched 22 K’s against 6 walks since his promotion.
Continuing with the theme of links to Taylor Blake Ward, check out this one on Nelson Rada.
And I’ll give you one last TBW tweet just because I really like this kid and appreciate TBW. It isn’t hard to dream on Trey Gregory-Alford. He just has that look about him and the stuff backs it up. He’s a long way off, but just look at the kid and the stuff.
From around baseball:
Giancarlo Stanton is crushing baseballs again. Is he back back?
Cal Raleigh has set a record and evened the MVP race.
Cal’s competition for the hardware is Yankees slugger Aaron Judge. The Yanks demolished the Nationals this week, including a 15 hitter, 41 minute half inning.
The Mets and Phillies played a huge series this week. New York swept the Phils largely thanks to a masterful performance by rookie Nolan McLean.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. Be thankful for the workers who came before us and struggled for the 40 hour work week, pensions, and health benefits we are losing by the day. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do but it will involve my family.
