Breaking down the LA Angels line-up for 2018

2018 LA Angels potential starting line-up: What will manager Mike Scioscia send out when the Angels first game starts.

The LA Angels made a lot of moves this off-season to help bolster their starting line-up for 2018.  The addition of Zack Cozart, Ian Kinsler, Justin Upton, and Shohei Ohtani have give manager Mike Scioscia so many more options when he makes out the line-up card. Maybe too many options, but it is a nice problem to have for Scioscia.

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The Angels should be much more balanced offensively and not have to rely so heavily on only one or two players like in the past.  The line-up has eight of nine players who can hit at least 15 to 20 home runs and drive in at least 70 runs so it should be much more potent.

So without any further adieu here is what I believe the potential starting line-up should be when the Angels take the field on March 29th in Oakland for the first game of the season.

Lead-off hitter = Ian Kinsler – second baseman 

Ian Kinsler is a veteran and a four-time all-star who has shown a pension to get on base as well as hit for power and a good batting average.  Kinsler is a career .273 hitter with a .342 on-base-percentage so he knows how to get on base and is good at making contact.

In addition Kinsler has 234 career homers with 839 RBIs and 225 stolen bases.  Despite having a down season in 2017 where he only hit .236 average, Kinsler is the right man for the job.

There are other options the Angels could potentially choose such as Kole Calhoun or maybe even Andrelton Simmons both of which could be used occasionally in this spot or if Kinsler doesn’t pan out.

Setting the table – Mr. MVP 

Mike Trout has batted in a few different spots over the years he has been with the Angels, but the 2nd spot has not been a place Trout has seen much action.  However, it could be a perfect fit for Kidfish in the 2018 season so he and Ian Kinsler in the lead-off spot can set the table for guys like Upton, Ohtani, Pujols, and Cozart.

Trout has a great on-base-percentage in his career is .406 and he has scored 692 runs as well.  Unlike the lead-off spot where Trout first started his career he will also still have a good chance to drive in runs as well.  Trout’s speed will also be more utilized here and it will also help Upton and Ohtani to get more fastball to hit as pitchers will have to worry about Trout stealing.

With addition of Zack Cozart and Shohei Ohtani, the Angels have a much deeper line-up and will not be so top-heavy.  I think it’s worth a shot to see how it goes and I really think it will make the line-up that much better.

Other options could be Kole Calhoun since he is the only regular every day lefty could be utilized here, but I think Trout is still the better fit. The Angels could also bump up Andrelton Simmons to the second spot as he has shown he can handle the bat the past few seasons. We will see what Mike Scioscia decides to do.

Another Big Bat – 3rd Spot

When the Angels made the move at the end of August they not only had the present in mind, but the future.  Justin Upton was not acquired to be a late-season rental, and after the Angels negotiated a contract extension for him that will keep him in Angel red for the next five seasons, this became a reality.

Upton was a fringe MVP candidate in 2017 who won the Silver Slugger Award as well as being up for a Gold Glove as well in left field.  Upton hit .273 with 35 homers and drove in 109 runs while stealing 14 bases and scoring 100 runs.  Upton also had a .361 OBP as well.  Not a bad year for a guy who played most of the season on a last place team.

For his career Upton has a .269 average with a .348 OBP.  He has hit 256 homers and drove in 812 runs with 138 stolen bases.  Add that to the Angels line-up which is suddenly very potent and you have a recipe for success.

Changing of the Guard at the Clean-Up Spot?

Albert Pujols has been a fixture in the 4th spot for the Angels over most of the past three seasons, but times may be changing in 2018.  Pujols is coming off one of his worst seasons as a professional where he only hit 23 homers (2nd lowest in his career other than injury-plagued 2013 when he hit 17 and he played only 99 games).  Pujols did drive in 101 runs, his OBP of .286 and 93 strikeouts were both the career-worst.

So what are the other options for the clean-up spot?  The most obvious one is newly-signed Shohei Ohtani from the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japanese Baseball League. Ohtani will most likely replace Pujols at DH around 100 games this season, although Pujols is slated to play first base around 50-60 games this season. So both him and Ohtani could be in the line-up at the same time.

Ohtani has a career average of .286 and a .358 OBP however his RBI totals are low for a clean-up hitter with 67 being the most Ohtani has driven in during a season.  However, he also has never had more than 382 at-bats in a season either so those numbers would surely go up with more at-bats, but that will depend on how much the Angels use him due to his other major talent of being a front-line starting pitcher.

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Another possible option could be either Justin Upton if the Angels decide to put Trout in the third spot and put someone else in the number two hole.  Upton would most likely do very well in either the third or fourth spot in the line-up, but we will have to see how manager Mike Scioscia wants to play things.

A long shot for the clean-up spot could be newcomer Zack Cozart who had a career year in 2017 where he hit .297 with 24 homers and drove in 63 runs. However, that is not a very likely scenario.

Could Pujols slip to the 5th spot in the line-up?

As I mentioned in the previous line-up spot, Albert Pujols did not have a very good 2017 season.  It is a distinct possibility that he could be dropped to the fifth spot in the batting order.  Not sure if Iron Mike will have the cojones to do so, but it may be the best move for the Angels as a team.

The move could be on a part-time basis at first, maybe only when Pujols and Ohtani play on the same day, or it could be a complete demotion for Pujols. We will have to see how Mike Scioscia wants to play things.

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If the Angels do not decide to go the route of demoting Pujols from his customary clean-up role, then the most likely candidate to fill the fifth spot would be right fielder Kole Calhoun.  Calhoun would be good in this spot for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost he is a left-handed bat with some pop, although he too had a abysmal 2017 season which saw Calhoun hit a career-low .244.  However Calhoun still hit 19 homers and drove in 71 runs and in the fifth spot he could be the beneficiary of a much-improved Angel line-up.

Shohei Ohtani could find himself in this spot some of the time as well especially if Pujols is in the line-up and does not move out of the clean-up spot.  The point being, the Angels have some options here as well.

7th Spot will be perfect for Zack Cozart

When the Angels acquired Zack Cozart via-free agency three weeks ago the team finally had a bonafide hitter and fielder at third base.  Cozart had an outstanding 2017 season where he batted .297 with 24 homers and drove in 63 runs with an OBP of .385 all of which were career-highs for Cozart.

Can Cozart repeat these type of numbers in Anaheim is anyone’s guess.  The Angels are banking of this being the case which is why they gave Cozart a three-year deal worth close to 13 million per year. If he is not in the seventh spot, Calhoun or Simmons could fill in this spot as well, but my money would be on Cozart.  This will lessen the pressure on Cozart to produce. Luis Valbuena or C.J. Cron could be an option at the 7th spot as well when they are in the line-up.

The 8th spot could have multiple players filling it.

The Angels have a much stronger line-up in 2018.  With that being said the 8th spot may be a mixed bag of players depending on the day.  Luis Valbuena could find himself in this role a lot of the time when he is in the line-up.  Valbuena hit for power from the left-side  as he hit 22 last season and drove in 65 runs, the bad side of Valbuena is that he hit a platry .199 for the season and had a .294 OBP.

Valbuena will have a lot less pressure put on him this season as the Angels have a lot more offensive weapons which hopefully will allow Valbuena and possibly C.J. Cron to relax more at the plate when they are in the line-up.  Cron or Valbuena could also both be traded before the season starts, so who knows what will happen with the eighth spot of the line-up.

Martin Maldonado rounds out a much more potent line-up

When the Angels acquired Martin Maldonado it was for defensive purposes as he was not considered to be an offensive threat, but Maldonado did not do bad at the plate.  Defensively Maldonado won a Gold Glove in his first season so you could not ask for more.  He hit .221 with 14 homers with 38 RBIs.  Not too bad for guy who never had been a full-time player before.

Maldonado did not have a very good OBP at .276 and struck out 119 times so he definitely does not belong higher in the batting order.  Back-up catcher Juan Graterol will also be in the ninth spot when gives Maldonado a day off.  However,  at least this is not an automatic out in the nine-hole and Maldonado’s power was a welcome surprise.

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So all in all the Angels 2018 line-up should be much improved.  It may be also the most variable line-up in years as multiple players could be switching spots from time to time.  We will just have to wait and see how things play out.  One thing is for sure, it will be fun to watch.