We are down to 9 regular season games on the schedule. And zero postseason games. The recent road trip has many of us hoping the 2025 Angels are put out of their/our misery soon. But come November we’ll be missing baseball again.
Despite the horrid road trip record, there have been a few shining moments this week. Watching a young kid hit his first MLB home run never gets old.
Guzman moved from AA to AAA to MLB over the course of the 2025 season. Hopefully he’s able to replace the departing Luis Rengifo and be an improvement. His stint in Salt Lake was pretty brief, but thanks to a swing adjustment and the high altitude he slashed a respectable .262/.366/.454 in the PCL.
Heading into the 2025 season, FanGraphs rated Guzman as a 40+ FV prospect due to a very below par hit tool. The glove and speed were never an issue. Read through his profile at that time and it revolves around his ability to make contact. Guzman struck out 25.4% of the time in the minors this year, so that issue is far from resolved.
Strikeouts are the theme of the season this year. In that regard, We’re Number 1, We’re Number 1! Now it is time to climb the all time rankingshttps://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/most-strikeouts-in-mlb-history-in-single-season-by-team. Here’s where things stand prior to the finale in Milwaukee:
That’s a snapshot of Perry Minasian’s Angels. The 2025 team is tied with the 2023 team and will likely surpass the all time Angels record on Friday night. Now the question turns to “how high can they climb?”
With 10 games to go as of this writing, they can climb pretty high. Take a look at the top 5.
10ks per game would vaunt the Angels into third all time with 1624. But our boys can be better than that. It will take an average of 13 per game to tie the 2023 Twins for the all time worst mark. That might be tough to do with a series in Colorado this weekend. We shall see, but a new all time MLB worst is possible.
When the Angels don’t strike out, they hit dingers. The team will likely finish top 5 in all of MLB in home runs. One guy who does plenty of both is Taylor Ward. His second home run on Wednesday night notched a 100 RBI season for the Angels left fielder and is our Highlight of the Week.
Jose Soriano was hit with a comebacker in that game on Wednesday. I thought it hit his ribs, but apparently it caught his forearm. X rays are negative but he’s in pain. No word on if Soriano will take the hill again in 2025. On the year he’s sporting a solid 3 WAR across 169 innings.
Zach Neto is shut down for the year after being hit by a pitch a couple of weeks ago. Neto was clearly the team MVP in 2025 and I’m looking forward to seeing him again next year in Tempe.
Ryan Johnson looked good enough in Tempe this season to earn a major league bullpen spot out of camp. The Angels then did the smart thing and sent him down to the farm to develop. He earned an All Star nod and was named the Angels breakout prospect of the year by MLB.Fro
From around baseball:
The Mariners and Astros are tied atop the AL West. Seattle won a rare challenge to help them win yesterday and climb atop the division.
Clayton Kershaw is a class act on and off the field. He will retire at the end of this season and makes his last regular season start tonight against the Giants.
MLB is the ultimate test of depth. Which teams have suffered the most injuries this year? That’s a very interesting take from FanGraphs. I highly recommend that link.
Manny Machado is a grand slam machine. With 14 on his resume, he is the man you want up with the bases loaded.
The Chicago White Sox will lose 100 games this season, but they’ve added some promising young players and appear to finally be back on track to winning baseball. It would be great to see an article about the Angels like that some day (even if it took 100 losses to do it).
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. I will be spending all weekend doing my son’s favorite things with him which makes me a happy guy. Add in some other family and friends and it should be a perfect weekend.
