Focusing? or day dreaming?

Even the most optimistic fan is having serious doubts about this team’s season with the final stretch upon us. I challenge fans to fight the pessimistic attitude though and try to stay upbeat as our boys fight for their postseason lives. It’s perfectly acceptable to be angry with this team, I know I am. It is not acceptable to give up on them however.

Let’s move on to the hardware. (All awards will be based on Fangraphs WAR unless extenuating circumstances present themselves)

MVP: Mike Trout

High fives for the MVP.

This was closer than I thought it would be. The Angels offense during August was clicking on another level. Howie Kendrick had a 15 game hitting streak this month and a slash line of .341/.388/.505 with two home runs, 13 RBI’s and seven doubles. Erick Aybar has been hitting everything in sight going .341/.368/.538 with three home runs, five doubles, 19 runs scored and six stolen bases. Albert Pujols had an Albert Pujols type month with a .312/.350/.677 slash line. Hitting nine home runs, seven doubles and driving in 24 runs. Even Kendrys Morales is looking a lot more like Kendry Morales with a .290/.330/.570 line hitting seven home runs and driving in 17 runs.

Mike Trout however, has been all of those players combined, again. Trout paced the entire team with 1.5 fWAR, 11 stolen bases and 26 runs scored. He also hit seven home runs, two doubles and drove in 19 runs. He played fantastic defense highlighted by two home run robbing catches you can see here and here. Almost every regular deserved consideration, but when you possess all the skills of your teammates, you have a slightly unfair advantage.

Honorable Mentions: Erick Aybar, Albert Pujols, Howie Kendrick, Kendrys Morales

LVP: Mark Trumbo

No high fives for you Mark

To be Frank (I’ve always wanted to be him), It’s not even close. Mark closed the month with -0.6 fWAR. The next closest with at least 40 PA was Maicer Izturis who had 0.1 fWAR. Of course he had only 59 Plate Appearances, Mark finished the month with 118. Trumbo finished the month with a .204/.263/.287 line (That’s Mathisian), and he wasn’t unlucky as his BABIP was .302. It was the strikeouts that hurt Mark the most. 43 to be exact. Good enough to have a K% of 36.4%. The offense was great this month, but I’m greedy and a have a healthy imagination. Could you imagine what this offense would have been like this month if Mark Trumbo had even put up average production? Mark has been touted as the team MVP all season, but his last month and a half have put a black hole right in the middle of this lineup.

Dishonorable Mentions: Maicer Izturis, Vernon Wells

Cy Young: Kevin Jepsen

The only reliever I trust right now.

You would think that with a rotation this stacked it would be a lot more difficult to pick the best pitcher for this past month. Alas, not even Jered Weaver had a strong enough month to be considered. The only pitcher throughout this entire month that I trusted to have in a game was Kevin Jepsen. a 2.13 ERA and 9.24 K/9 in 12 2/3 innings pitched. Each one high leverage, and each one Jepsen rose to the challenge. He registered at least one strike out in all but three of his appearances, and suffered only one loss. He only produced 0.2 fWAR, but did you trust any other pitcher this month? I do not deny hating on Kevin Jepsen earlier this year when he could get no one out, and I am now showering him with praise for being as clutch as a relief pitcher can be. Baseball is funny like that.

Honorable Mentions: Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana

CY Yuck: Jason Isringhausen

I hereby nominate you for DFA

Really, take your pick. Is there any pitcher more deserving of this award than Isringhausen? Sure there’s C.J. Wilson with his 0.1 fWAR, 7.99 ERA and 3.86 BB/9, but his FIP is at 5.03 and his xFIP at 4.17 say that he could have been unlucky. How about Dan Haren? A 4.56 ERA and a 5.69 K/9 were also on the wrong side of the “good line,” but he did have a couple of decent outings sprinkled in there to save his neck. LaTroy Hawkins, Ernesto Frieri and Zack Greinke were also bad this month. Let’s face it, it was a terrible terrible month for Angels pitching. Even Weaver had an uncharacteristic bad start and took two losses this month which brought his season total up to three.

Not a single one of them can touch Jason Isringhausen though. You want to see his line? He produced -0.5 fWAR, A 9.39 ERA that is not helped by his 9.62 FIP, 4.70 BB/9 and a HR/9 of 4.70 which was good for a HR/FB% of 25%. Old Man River was worse than even Hisanori Takahashi this month. Yeah, that bad. In contrast to Jepsen who only allowed a run in TWO of his appearances this month, Isringhausen only had four scoreless appearances this month, including his 1/3 of an inning meltdown against Texas on August 1st. Almost every pitcher was bad this month Jason, but you were by far the worst. Get it together.

Dishonorable Mentions: C.J. Wilson, Dan Haren, Zack Greinke and the rest of the bullpen not named Kevin Jepsen

August has shown us two things about this team. First; This offense is legit. 16 times this month they scored more than five runs. Top to bottom this team is an offensive powerhouse hitting you from every angle with every weapon imaginable. They can run wild on the base paths, they can hit and they can hit for serious power. Probably better than the 2009 team that set the franchise record for runs scored in a single season. Second; Like the hole in the hull of the titanic, the pitching is sinking this $150M cruise ship, and it’s sinking fast. five of the aforementioned 16 games where the Angels scored more than five runs ended in a loss. Including games where they scored eight (twice), nine and ten runs. That simply cannot continue to happen if this club really does want to play baseball past October third.

Today starts a new month with the stretch run officially starting. The offense is ready for the push, but the pitching has to be right there beside them for this thing to work. I might be angry, but I still have faith that they can pull this thing off. Grape Kool-Aid anyone?

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

I don’t usually assign homework in post titles but here we are. Jason Isringhausen has his last “make it or break it” day on Thursday. The 39-year-old reliever says he’s down to two options, “Just pitch well or go home.”

Izzy signed a Minor League deal to join the Angels but it will cost them another $100,000 to keep the former closer on their roster after Thursday. And he doesn’t appear to have any interest in pitching in the minors…

“I’ll just go home and be with my girls,” he said.

“I just have to go out there today and pitch the way I’m capable of pitching. And if I don’t today and tomorrow, I’ll go home. I understand the concept. That’s just how it is.”

Who can blame him? After being a 44th round pick by the Mets in 1991, Isringhausen has made north of $55 million over his 15 years in the Majors. So riding around in a bus while closing in on 40-years-old probably isn’t too appealing. Triple-A clubhouses don’t even carry Ensure.

Wednesday’s outing might give Izzy a shot at sticking though. He pitched a clean 7th inning with a strikeout. It caught the manager’s attention…

Veteran reliever Jason Isringhausen, who struggled with some mechanical problems in his previous appearance, retired the side in order with a strikeout in the seventh.

“He was in his delivery better, he had better arm speed,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Isringhausen. He spun the ball well. He had good stuff.”

With Bobby Cassevah and Michael Kohn battling injuries, there are some spots in the bullpen to be won. I’m rooting for Izzy and so should you. I disregard the save statistic as much as the next nerd but Izzy has collected 300 of them over his career. He might be the mentor Jordan Walden needs to take the next step to becoming an elite reliever.

Mandatory Credit: Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Jordan Walden had a better season in 2011 than most people think. The young Angels closer led the league with 10 blown saves. Blown saves are just as ridiculous a stat as their counterpart, the save. Nonetheless, Walden was criticized for the blown saves because he was in the spotlight role of “closer.” Maybe he doesn’t have what it takes to be a closer. I don’t really put too much stock in that.

Walden averaged a 97 MPH fastball and could dial it up to 100 MPH at will. In 60.1 innings, he had a 2.98 ERA, 2.79 FIP (fielding independent pitching), 3.33 xFIP (expected fielding independent pitching) and a 9.99 K/9. I’d like to see fewer walks but I’d like to date more models too. Some things just ain’t gonna happen.

The projections for 2012 don’t love Walden. ZiPS is the kindest with a 3.54 ERA, followed by Marcel at 3.63, Bill James at 3.86 and PECOTA with a 4.28 ERA. Yikes. But Walden is putting in the work this spring by turning to veteran free agent signees LaTroy Hawkins (entering 18th season) and Jason Isringhausen (entering 16th). Walden is eager to learn from the old timers…

“There are some years right there,” Walden says, smiling. “I’m trying to learn things, all kinds of things that they’ve done that have worked for them.

“When do you come out (to the bullpen)? When do you stretch? Every one of them is different. It’s kind of cool to hear what each one of them did.

“I’m picking their brains every day.”

The closer role is clearly Walden’s after the Angels passed on Ryan Madson and Francisco Cordero and instead signed the pair of 39-year-olds. Walden, 24-years-old, was thrust into the closer role in his first full season in 2011 after Fernando Rodney ended up still being Fernando Rodney. While Walden had the veteran presence of Scott Downs in the pen with him, it can’t hurt for him to have a few more guys with success at closing around him.

From the same Ken Rosenthal article, Isrinhausen has been trying to get Walden to slow down and learn the importance of routine while Hawkins is trying to groom him into a John Axford type. I’m praying that involves a whimsical mustache.

Walden pitched an inning against the White Sox on Wednesday and it was a mixed bag. He gave up two hits including a two run homer by Adam Dunn but he also struck out the side. Spring stats are basically meaningless though. I’m a bit more optimistic than the projections are for Walden because he still has room for improvement. Maybe I’m not as much of a curmudgeon as the Internet has been saying all of these years.