Have LA Angels done enough this off-season to make playoffs?

In case you haven’t heard  the LA Angels have made a lot of big moves this Winter in hopes of contending for a playoff spot and maybe even a World Series berth.  However, some of the best teams in AL have done the same.

So the question is where does that leave the LA Angels come playoff time?  If I knew the answer to that question i would be going to Las Vegas right now and trying to make some money.  The Angels and general manager Billy Eppler have done a great job this off-season building the Angels into a playoff-caliber team.  The moves that have been made have addressed most of the areas of weakness from the past couple of seasons.

However, most of the teams that made the 2017 AL Playoffs have gotten better as well and they were good to begin with.  Let’s look at the AL teams that the Angels will be fighting with for an AL Pennant.

Houston Astros 

The Houston Astros are in unfamiliar place as they are the defending World Champions for 2018.  With a talented core of young players you would think the Astros would be satisfied to stand pat, but they didn’t.  First of all they signed reliever Joe Smith to bolster their bullpen which needed a little tweaking.  However, the big deal was made last week when they acquired Gerrit Cole who is an Cy Young caliber pitcher from the Pittsburgh Pirates for a flurry of prospects.

The Astros already have Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel who have both won Cy Young Awards.  They also have young pitchers Lance McCullers and Brad Peacock as well as Charlie Morton.  That trio proved invaluable in the Astros World Series run.  On the offensive side the Astros are stacked as well with AL MVP Jose Altuve, potential AL MVP Carlos Correa, and George Springer anchor a line-up that was one of the AL’s best.

It will be tough to see the Angels leapfrogging the Astros and winning the AL West, which means the Angels will have to look at the Wild-Card race.

New York Yankees

If you think about it the New York Yankees were potentially one win away from winning the World Series in theory.  The Yankees lost an epic seven game series with the Astros who eventually were crowned World Series Champions.  Just like the Astros the Yankees did not need to do too much as they are already pretty strong. However, just like the Astros they did get stronger.

The Yankees first decided to re-sign lefty C.C. Sabathia to anchor a young staff that has plenty of talent.  Yankees have Sonny Gray, Luis Severino, and Masahiro Tanaka all of whom pitched very well last season and in the playoffs.  The Yankees bullpen might be one of the best in baseball with Tommy Kahnle, Chasen Shreve, Adam Warren, David Robertson, and Chad Green bridging the gap to the back end of the bullpen where Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman live to put on fires.

If that’s not enough you have AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge, catcher Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius at shortstop and then you had the baseball 2018 home run king in Giancarlo Stanton to the mix and you have a modern day Murderer’s Row.

The Yankees and Astros are the odds on favorites to make it back to ALCS and again, it will be tough for the Angels to compete with this type of firepower.

Boston Red Sox 

Thus far the Boston Red Sox have not done much to improve upon their AL East winning team, but they are still rumored to be the front-runner for outfielder J.D. Martinez and if they land him the Red Sox are legitimate pennan contenders.

The Red Sox have a strong nucleus returning both pitching and on offense.  However, this team had a major flame out in the playoffs being eliminated in four games by the Astros.  However, there is still a lot of talent for another deep run in 2018.

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Pitching wise Chris Sale may arguably be the best pitcher in the AL.  After Sale, David Price is still a formidable force when healthy and Rick Porcello is a solid third starter.and Drew Pomeranz has ace potential after going 17-6.  In short the Red Sox pitching when healthy matches up with any team in baseball.  The bullpen after closer Craig Kimberly is a little shaky, but they still were one of the tops in the AL in ERA.

On the offensive side you have Xander Bogaerts one of the best shortstops in baseball and yearly MVP candidate Mookie Betts in center anchor a line-up that also has first baseman Mitch Moreland, second baseman Dustin Pedroia and up and coming young players such as Jackie Bradley Jr., Rafael Devers, and Christian Vazquez.  If you add J.D. Martinez to this mix look out AL.

With the Yankees and Red Sox in the same division you can almost be assured that one of the AL Wild-Card teams will be the loser of this potentially epic battle.  So again I say the Angels may have a tough time cracking the playoffs.

Minnesota Twins 

So finally we have the last of the 2017 playoff teams the Minnesota Twins.  The Twins were a surprise team for sure and were quickly dispatched in the AL Wild-Card Playoffs by the Yankees.  Don’t get it twisted the Twins were a talented team in 2017 and still are in 2018, but they may not be quite as difficult for the Angels to leapfrog and make the playoffs.

The Twins have some good young arms and some good veterans as well. The staff is anchored by Jose Berrios and former Angel Ervin Santana who both had great seasons as the two won 30 games combined.  The Twins also added former Yankees top prospect Michael Pineda which if he is healthy makes the rotation even stronger. Kyle Gibson and Aldeberto Mejia both are solid in the 4th and 5th spots and help the Twins staff be a strength in 2018.

The Twins bolstered their bullpen adding closers Fernando Rodney and Addison Reed to shore up the back end of the bullpen and young arms like Trevor Hildenberger and Tyler Duffey will try to get the ball to Rodney and Reed in the late innings.

As for the offensive side Brian Dozier, Byron Buxton, and Miguel Sauno anchor a very strong young line-up.  Max Kepler and Robbie Grossman also are primed to step up in 2018.  Add veterans Joe Mauer and Jason Castro in and you have a very good line-up as well.

The Angels in this case I believe are better than the Twins from top to bottom offensively and pitching wise I think the Angels have the potential to be better as well than the Twins, so the second wildcard spot is a very realistic goal for the boys in red.

Los Angeles Angels

Like I said before the Angels have done a lot in this off-season to close the gap with the AL’s elite teams.  Acquiring Justin Upton and subsequently resigning him was huge for the team.  Signing Shohei Ohtani who will both pitch and hit was another big move moving the Angels ever closer in the playoff race.  Then adding Zack Cozart to fill the third base hole (hopefully if he can make the transition from shortstop) and trading for veteran second baseman Ian Kinsler to fill both the lead-off spot and second base was also huge.

The only thing you have to watch out for is the next surprise team which will most likely come from the Angels own division in Texas or Seattle, possibly even the Oakland A’s as all of them have made moves to improve on their final standings in 2017.  But like the Angels these three teams had a considerable gap to overcome and I don’t think any of them did as much as the Angels did this off-season.  Couple this with the fact the Angels already have some key pieces in two-time MVP Mike Trout, veteran designated hitter Albert Pujols and Gold Glove winning shortstop Andrelton Simmons who also had a great year at the plate.

If Kole Calhoun can bounce back offensively in right field and Luis Valbuena and C.J. Cron can provide some power at first base along with Pujols you also have a very strong line-up from top to bottom like all the other AL Pennant Contenders.

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The key will bee the health and effectiveness of the Angels pitching staff.  Shohei Ohtani and his high 90’s fastball should go a long way in doing so as well as having a healthy Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs, and Andrew Heaney, not to mention Matt Shoemaker and Parker Bridwell.  These will most likely be the six starters the Angels will break camp with to employ the experimental six-man rotation.  This is an above average group of young pitchers other than the veteran Shoemaker.  Nick Tropeano or J.C. Ramirez could also pitch their way into the mix if anyone falters or is injured.

The bullpen is still a question mark as to who will fill what role in 2018.  There are a lot of good arms who have shown tremendous potential at times and been terrible at other times. Blake Parker, Kenyan Middleton, and Cam Bedrosian all possess high 90’s fastballs and have closer experience as well as newly acquired veteran Jim Johnson.  Between these four arms you will probably see the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning pitchers for 2018.  Other key arms for the Angels in the pen could be Jose Alvarez (lefty specialist), Eduardo Paredes, Noe Ramirez, and possibly Troy Scribner as well as any starters who do not make the rotation such as J.C. Ramirez, Tropeano, or even Shoemaker.

The Angels pitching depth is their biggest strength in 2018 and if it holds up this team will be even stronger. This staff could surprise many and become one of the top young staffs in baseball, or they could fail miserably and be injury-proved like they have been the last three seasons.  If this group comes together like the Angels hope it could vault the Angels up and maybe give them an outside chance of taking down Houston for the division or maybe upsetting some teams in the playoffs and getting to the ALCS.  It is a long shot, but stranger things have happened.

Next: Are there any other moves on the horizon for Angels?

So in closing Angel fans don’t count your pennants before they hatch or plan on buying your World Series tickets just yet.  But know this the 2018 Los Angeles Angels are for real and with a little luck it could be a Red October in Anaheim.