Just How Bad Has the Angels Pitching Been?

Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

It’s bad enough that this season is being called the season of doom. What’s that you say? No one is calling it that? Well, they should be. I’m not a child of the 70’s, so I missed out on the Arson Squad. But this season’s impersonation incarnation of the Angels pitching staff has to at least be in the conversation. It could even be worse. At least in the 70’s, other teams were saying the: “Tananna and Ryan and two days of cryin'” line. Whereas now, the line is: “We’re playing the Angels? GREAT! I’ve been needing to break out of this slump.”

But just how bad has the pitching been? The eye test says that it’s been bad. Really bad. Like, hide-the-women-and-children, bad. Like “Hey, is that a black hole opening up in the middle of that fie….” *Gets swallowed by a black hole opening up in the middle of a field*, bad. Like….well,you get the point. But sometimes, numbers can give us hope. They make us feel better when we’re feeling blue. But in this case, well, lets just say that the preseason numbers that gave us hope, have Buttercup’d us.

Team Pitching Stats With MLB Ranking

Wins – 15 (27th)

K/9 – 7.19 (20th)

BB/9 – 3.68 (26th)

HR/9 – 1.07 (18th)

HR/FB – 11.1% (15th)

ERA – 4.77 (29th)

FIP – 4.28 (25th)

xFIP – 4.29 (25th)

So, the only two categories where the Angels rank in the middle of the pack, would be the two categories that are directly affected by the stadium they play in. Thank you marine layer. Other than that, this pitching staff is, at best, just inside the bottom third. On average, they are in the 80th percentile of suck. An area on the leaderboards that is reserved teams like the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins. That’s the pack of teams that the Angels are currently running with. Kind of makes you want to down a bottle of Everclear, doesn’t it?

A lot of this attributed to marching pitchers AAA-AAAA pitchers like Barry Enright, and beer league softball pitchers like Joe Blanton. Of course, having Sean Burnett, Kevin Jepsen and Jered Weaver out also hurts. And we still don’t know how this bullpen will line up once the unicorn Ryan Madson is able to suit up. But even then, he is not going to be who he once was right away, and it’s possible that he could spend more than a few weeks on rehab assignment. So don’t put all of your hopes about this season into that basket.

Now, I’m not saying that this team’s pitching staff is going to sink this team, but……OK, that’s exactly what I’m saying. The pitching is sinking this ship fast, and White Star Lines didn’t put enough life boats on the deck. Grab your life preservers while you can, it’s your only hope of not drowning with them.