Andrew Heaney gets good news Alex Meyer does not. Another LA Angels pitcher lost for 2018.

The LA Angels have been hanging in the AL Wildcard despite numerous injuries especially within their starting rotation. The Angels are again only one game out of the second AL Wildcard spot with 19 games to play.

On Monday afternoon the LA Angels got the news that another young pitcher, Alex Meyer, would be lost for all of the 2018 season due to a torn labrum which will sideline him for close to a year. Meyer has been on the disabled list since late August and now the Angels know he will be out for all the 2018 season.

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Alex Meyer joins Matt Shoemaker, and until recently Andrew Heaney and Tyler Skaggs were on the DL. Coupled that with the Garrett Richards situation and the Angels starting rotation was in shambles. Thank goodness for guys like Parker Bridwell, Alex Meyer, and J.C. Ramirez who helped keep the Angels afloat until Skaggs, Heaney, and now Richards could come to “rescue” them.

Unfortunately Skaggs and Heaney have not looked like themselves thus far and Heaney will most likely miss his next start due to internal impingement in his arm. Hopefully Heaney will come back stronger after getting some rest as so far he has been awful 1-2 record with a 7.06 ERA. Skaggs is still healthy, but has not fared much better going 0-5 with a 5.61 ERA since returning from the DL in early August.

Richards has been the lone bright spot although his sample size is small (3.1 innings with only one run given up.). Richards will face Houston tomorrow as he tries to string together good back-to-back outings as he tries to get stretched out over the next few weeks.

However, the bad news is that another one of the Angels promising young starters will be lost for all the 2018 season. Meyer started to show signs this season of the ace potential pitcher the Angels were hoping for when they traded for him last July. Meyer went 4-5 with a 3.74 ERA in 67.1 innings striking out 75 batters and looking like he was getting stronger with each start.

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Meyer had six quality starts in 13 starts where he allowed 0 or 1 run going six innings or more. His last start before landing on the year may have been the best of his career as Meyer held the vaunted Washington Nationals offense to one hit in seven innings while striking out seven to get his fourth victory of the season.

So now we will have to wait until 2019 to see if Meyer can pick up where he left off.

This brings me to my final point which I know has been mentioned before: What the hell is the Angels training staff and strength and conditioning coaches doing to our pitchers that they can’t stay healthy. This is beyond ridiculous. Two or three pitchers go down and you can say it’s just an anomaly. However, when you have seven starters go down for the season over the past two seasons that is too much to be a coincidence or anomaly.

I think after the 2017 season some heads need to role or training methods need to be seriously altered because this is beyond absurd. Whatever training regiment our pitchers have been going through is not working at all. I know Billy Eppler is a smart man as is Mike Scioscia and both deserve a ton of credit in maneuvering the roster to allow the Angels to stay in the playoff chase.

Let’s see if this patchwork pitching staff can hold up long enough for the Angels to make a playoff run.

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