Saturday, December 15, 2012

Predicting the LA Angels 2013 season

Last year's performance of the Angels was considered my many a disappointment, although they managed to go 89-73. However, that wasn't enough for the playoffs, which was the reason they underachieved. They were actually considered world series favorites before the season greatly because of the signing of the most prized free agent, Albert Pujols. Prior to 2012, Pujols had at least 30 home runs in each of his first 11 seasons and 6 seasons of 40 dingers or more, plus he hit over the .300 mark for batting average 10 out of 11 times. As you can probably see Pujols was and still is a future hall of famer. They also signed pitcher C.J. Wilson from their rival the Texas rangers who was an all star the year before to form a formidable starting rotation with ace and Cy Young award runner up in 2011 Jered Weaver and Dan Haren who won 16 games the previous year to go along with a sub 3.50 ERA, and not to mention Ervin Santana who was terrible in the first half of 2011 but caught on in the 2nd. The result of their pitching staff: Jered Weaver has another superb season with 20 wins and a 2.81 ERA, which is good enough for 3rd place in the Cy Young award. C.J. Wilson has a season worse than his 2010 and 2011 campaigns but he's still a steady presence in the rotation. Dan Haren is decent early on but then has back problems and he can never come back to full strength. Ervin Santana has a horrific season although he was slightly better in the final quarter of the season. Last but not least they trade 2 prospects for prized pitcher Zack Greinke. Greinke ended up with a very good season going 15-5 with a 3.48 ERA. As I said before that just was not enough. Going home disappointed, it wasn't getting much better in the offseason as key players were hitting free agency such as outfielder Torii Hunter,(my 2nd favorite player behind young phenom Mike trout) Greinke, and Dan Haren. General manager Jerry Dipoto and Arte Moreno wasted no time, by first trading Ervin Santana to the Royals for a couple pitching prospects, trading for Tommy Hanson of the Braves, who after a shocking rookie year, his ERA was increasing and he had some injury problems- 2 big red flags. for bullpen help they signed Ryan Madson, who was injured in 2012 with the Reds but was poised for a comeback season. They next left outfielder Torii Hunter go to the Detroit Tigers :(. They were in need of some pitching depth so they signed starting pitcher Joe Blanton who played with the Athletics, Phillies, and Dodgers. That same day, they picked up an underrated relief pitcher, Sean Burnett who was part of a very good Washington Nationals bullpen. They then let Dan Haren go to the Nationals and Zack Greinke sign with the Angels rival, LA Dodgers. It wasn't looking too good for Angels fans, until they signed, out of nowhere, the best free agent on the market like the year before....... JOSH HAMILTON. He was coming off a 43 home run year in 2012, and was an all star. He'll compliment Mike Trout in the outfield, and even though he's not even 22 I think Trout is the best player in all of baseball, oh and yes he hit .330 with 30 home runs and 40 stolen bases in his rookie year. Anyway, back to the main focus, the offseason Hamilton will form probably the best trio in all of baseball with him, Trout, and Pujols. Even though this still has not happened yet, I would like to make a trade prediction. The Angels would trade young outfielder Peter Bourjos and veteran outfielder Vernon Wells who is making tons of money to the Chicago Cubs who are in need of outfield depth for prospect outfielder Brett Jackson and starting pitcher Matt Garza. If Chicago doesn't accept the trade, the Angels could throw in starter/reliever Jerome Williams. Here are my individual stats for the Angels, prediction for their record, and the playoff prediction if I even pick them to make it. Also, I made a stats answer key for those who may not understand the abbreviation of the stat. BA=Batting average, HR=Home Runs, RBI=Runs Batted in, OBP=On Base Percentage, SLG=Slugging Percentage, SB=Stolen Bases, W=Wins, L=Losses, ERA=Earned Run Average, WHIP=Walks+Hits per Innings Pitched, SO=Strikeouts, IP=Innings pitched, SV=Saves, HLD=Holds, *=New Acquisition, and last but not least AS=All Star Individual offensively (includes batting order and positions) 1.Mike Trout CF BA .348, HR 33, RBI 91, SB 52, OBP .401, SLG .594 AS 2.Howie Kendrick 2B BA .289 HR 16, RBI 74, SB 21, OBP .341, SLG .437 3.Albert Pujols 1B BA .312, HR 40, RBI 116, SB 6, OBP .387, SLG .612 AS 4.Josh Hamilton LF BA .294, HR 47, RBI 102, SB 17, OBP .376, SLG .578 * AS 5.Mark Trumbo RF BA .267, HR 34, RBI 93, SB 8, OBP .321, SLG .516 6.Kendrys Morales DH BA .283, HR 24, RBI 81, SB 3 OBP .332, SLG .465 7.Erick Aybar SS BA .291 HR 11, RBI 60, SB 38, OBP .329, SLG .431 8.Alberto Callaspo 3B BA .271, HR 9, RBI 41, SB 17, OBP .316, SLG .392 9.Chris Ianetta C BA .238, HR 16, RBI 53, SB 5, OBP .301, SLG .418 Bench Brett Jackson CF BA .261, HR 9, RBI 42, SB 13, OBP .315, SLG .388* Starting Rotation 1.Jered Weaver W 21, L 6, ERA 2.52, WHIP 0.94, SO 207, IP 221 AS 2.C.J. Wilson W 17, L 9, ERA 3.36, WHIP 1.18, SO 213, IP 205.1 AS 3.Matt Garza W 15, L 12, ERA 3.61, WHIP 1.26, SO 178, IP 183* 4.Tommy Hanson W 14, L 9, ERA 3.92, WHIP 1.34, SO 151, IP 176* 5.Joe Blanton W 11, L 13, ERA 4.12, WHIP 1.39, SO 134, IP 164* Bullpen Closer Ernesto Frieri W 5, L 1, ERA 2.23, WHIP 1.27, SO 102, IP 84, SV 41 AS Setup Ryan Madson W 4, L 2, ERA 2.51, WHIP 1.18, SO 74, IP 78, HLD 27* Long Reliever Sean Burnett W 3, L 1, ERA 2.93, WHIP 1.12, SO 51, IP 63* Long Reliever Scott Downs W 4, L 0, ERA 2.15, WHIP 1.09, SO 53, IP 59 Projected Record: 96-76 (AL West Division
Title) Projected Playoff Result: World Series Championship!!! Bottom Line: With the addition of Josh Hamilton, the Angels will be hitting the ball out of the park with ease, and with my prediction of them trading for Matt Garza to go with ace Jered Weaver and co-ace C.J. Wilson in the rotation, the Angels will have very little intangibles and should have a successful season in 2013.