A Look At the LA Angels Starting Rotation After the First Week

 Ricky Nolasco

Nolasco joined the Angels last season in the Hector Santiago trade. With the Minnesota Twins Nolasco had a rough start where he posted a 5.13 ERA over twenty one starts. With the Angels Nolasco seemed to bounce back and posted a 3.21 ERA in eleven starts. Beginning of this season everyone was hoping he could keep that momentum at the end of last season and carry it over to the 2017 season.

Ricky started the Angels first game of the season last monday at Oakland. While he did end up receiving his first loss of the season, it wasn’t the worst start either. In 5.2 innings he gave up 7 hits, 2 bases on balls, and 3 earned runs. Two of those earned runs came off of Athletic home runs.

We saw Nolasco starting again Saturday night against the Seatle Mariners. He was able to better his stats compared to his first start. He pitched 6.0 innings, giving up four hits, one bases on balls, and two earned runs.

Both of Ricky’s starts were pretty solid for what is expected of him. He is on the lower end of the rotation, so no one is expecting him to be anywhere near an ace. If he can consistently go out and throw 6 innings and only give up between two and four runs, then he could very well be an assett for the Angels going forward.