LA Angels Series Preview: Bringing Tyler Skaggs back home

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The LA Angels are going to be at home for the first time since the tragic passing of 27-year old starting pitcher Tyler Skaggs. There will be a pre-game ceremony in honor of the late young star.

The LA Angels will be hosting the Mariners during the series this weekend, and while this series carries utmost importance for the Angels there is still a palpable difficulty in moving forward without Skaggs. While this is an unfortunate note to start the 2nd half of the season time will only stop for so long before it’s time to move forward. It’s time to start the second half of the Angels baseball 2019 season.

The Angels are starting the 2nd half of the 2019 season 6.5 games back from the 2nd Wild Card spot in the AL and a healthy 12 games back from 1st place in the AL West. It’s been a long season for the Angels that feels like it’s getting longer and longer as the weeks go by. After the passing of Tyler Skaggs we saw Tommy La Stella lose out on playing in his first All-Star game after a freak injury the day after Skaggs passing. To top it off the Angels had to watch catcher Jonathan Lucroy go down in an awful heat-of-the-moment play at the plate at the hands of the Astros, and for some reason the Astros fanbase have turned themselves into the victims of the whole affair.

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It’s been a frustrating, demoralizing week for the Angels. It’s been a frustrating and demoralizing season for the Angels. Despite all that, there is still the lingering glimmer of hope that this highly talented team who can’t put it all together may actually make a playoff run in the 2nd half. All of the pieces for them to compete are there waiting to be made use of.

At the same time there are plenty of pieces on this squad that’s preventing them from making a killer 2nd half run. Even better for us Angels loyal, some of those broken pieces will be featured in the upcoming series.

Here we go again.

Mariners @ Angels

(7/12) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Mike Leake (7-7, 4.32 ERA) vs Taylor Cole (0-1, 4.58 ERA)

(7/13) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: TBD vs Matt Harvey (2-4, 7.50 ERA)

(7/14) &:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Yusei Kikuchi (4-6, 4.94 ERA) vs Jose Suarez (2-1, 5.40 ERA)

Remembering Tyler Skaggs

The Angels will be opening up the first game of this three game set against the Mariners with a pre-game ceremony to honor the late Angel Tyler Skaggs. It’s sure to be a heavily emotional event for all involved; Angels fans, players, brass, and employees will be sharing in the memory of a talented young man who passed far too early. It’s been a week since his passing and while it hasn’t gotten much easier the second half of the season will be waiting for no one. After the pre-game ceremony the Angels are going to have to honor Tyler Skaggs the way he would want to be honored; with a winning second half.

It’s going to be a long road back into a competitive position for the Angels, but that all starts with one game. One win can turn into two, two wins can turn into a sweep, and a week later that sweep can build into a winning streak. A winning streak can take the Angels from 6.5 games back in the Wild Card to a more palatable number. Who knows, by the end of this month the Angels might be right back to where they were just a couple of weeks ago, or maybe even better. All wins are important, but with the memory of Tyler Skaggs hanging mightily over the team this first one at home will probably be the most difficult win to pull in out of the entire season.

The #Angels have tributes to Tyler Skaggs all around the stadium. pic.twitter.com/CZFvQmT2Eg
— Maria Torres (@maria_torres3) July 12, 2019

Be sure to tune into the game tonight early so you can join in on the memorial for the late, great Tyler Wayne Skaggs as we celebrate his memory as a family. Not just a collection of ball players, fans, and executives, but as one large family. That’s not just the way we’ll all move through the tragedy of Skaggs passing together, that’s how we’ll take this team to the Wild Card in the second half of 2019.

Put up or shut up

The Angels are going to have a tough time getting through this series with the leaky starting pitching they’re throwing out in this series. Taylor Cole will be opening the first game of the set for Felix Pena and Pena hasn’t really been all that solid as of late. His last outing saw him allow 2 runs across 4 innings against the Houston Astros in a much needed to win game that the Angels failed to win (what’s new). While that doesn’t sound like the worst appearance it still highlights the Angels biggest problem this season; starters who cannot go deep into games.

Sure Felix Pena may only be a quasi-starter with openers pitching in the majority of his starts this season, but with the state of the Angels bullpen being as fatigued as they are it’s going to take some serious gumption from our starters in the 2nd half if this team wants to play for anything of note.

Felix Pena may not have been great as of late, but he hasn’t been totally awful either. On the other hand Matt Harvey has been terribly awful in practically every start he’s thrown this season. He’s finally making his return after missing more than a month with back issues and a couple of mediocre rehabilitation starts within the Angels system.

Harvey’s last start came on May 23rd when he pitched only 2.2 innings against the Twins while allowing 7 runs in that very short time on the mound in that start. Harvey’s biggest issue before his injury was a lack of power in his pitches as his velocity dipped to unusable levels, a sentiment highlighted by the crushing ineffectiveness of his last start out May 23rd.

If Harvey can return with legitimate health and a handle on his velocity there may be some value there still to be had. I’m not counting on Harvey putting it all together, but I am expecting some sense of value to be shown in his start against the Mariners.

The last game of the set will see rookie pitcher Jose Suarez looking to get it going as he’s found struggles in his last handful of starts. Suarez was a main contributor in the Angels most recent loss to the Astros as he pitched just 3.1 innings of 2 run baseball. You never want to point fingers at a player for a loss, especially a rookie, but the fact is that Suarez’ failure to go deeper into the game forced the Angels bullpen to be stretched and over-exposed over the course of nearly 7 innings. It was a really ugly game to have to watch as Angels superstar Mike Trout carried the team on his back with late game home runs to take the lead, leads which were immediately blown by the incoming bullpen.

Jose Suarez is going to need to step his game up and start seriously contributing to this club if he wants any shot at sticking in the rotation for the remainder of the 2nd half. His performances has been as lackluster as the rest of the starting rotation sans Griffin Canning and there is no reason, aside from depth, to keep him up in the majors.

Sure, depth is a one of the greater reasons to keep someone tucked away on the roster, but at this point we can’t stomach any more starts that directly contribute to the Angels bullpen fatigue. Most of the Angels starting staff has been the sole contributors of this teams woes and that’s going to need to end somewhere. Jose Suarez no longer has the excuse of being a fresh rookie trying to figure it out, his first 3 starts were strong starts but since then he’s been overwhelmingly mediocre.

It is disappointing to see Suarez simply fall in line with the rest of the starting staff and display the same exact struggles the Angels were hoping to avoid with his youthful presence, but at the same time no one really expected him to be any better than a bottom-end starter. If he wants to shed that notion that he is simply a bottom of the rotation pitcher he’s going to have to start by bringing pitching into at least the 5th inning on a regular basis. If Suarez continues to exasperate the Angels bullpen woes then there really is no more place for him on this squad until he gets his control, composure, and pitch efficiency in order.

A Season in Review to Remember

If the Angels are able to make a massive run in the second half and claim an AL Wild Card spot this 2019 Angels season will be one for the history books. It will become a season of legend and lore. The team has battled through different degrees of tragedies all season in the way of unexpected and injury and even death. They started off the year terribly, but somehow kept themselves within striking distance of a playoff spot by improving the roster week by week with a slow infusion of fresh, young talent. On top of all that Mike Trout is having one of his best seasons yet and Shohei Ohtani is on board as a full time hitter alongside Trout. This season is a storied as they come, the only thing that could top it all off would be a spot in the playoffs. Exactly what do the Angels need to do to achieve a storybook ending to this season?

Pitch deeper. This team isn’t in need of a magical formula or some hidden trick yet to be employed, what they need is more reliability from the starting staff. Of course this has been said time and time again by fans of the team and even the team themselves, but it has to be noted that the Angels have been making small efforts to realign this ship with the call ups of Griffin Canning and Jose Suarez. Sure we haven’t seen as much potential out of Suarez as we have Canning, yet the point still stands that moves are being made to improve the ballclub in the ways that it desperately needs improvement. Even if the improvements aren’t immediately taking the team over the top the fact that the team is showing intent and willingness to make the needed moves offers a big world of confidence towards the future of the club.

The only real move the Angels can make in solidifying their ability to pitch deep into games is by swinging a trade for a reliable starter who can anchor the front-end of the Angels rotation. In that vein Madison Bumgarner seems to be the best option as he would provide the Angels with a legitimate leader as well as rotation frontman. It really depends on if the Angels are buying or selling near the trade deadline.

There are a lot of questions waiting to be answered over the course of the long second half for the Angels, but those questions aside for just one more day and really focus on what’s important on this day. It’s not about winning the game, it’s not even about just playing the game, it’s about honoring the memory of an Angel who gained their wings just a little too soon.

Next. A Key-Nan moment in the season

This one is for you Tyler Skaggs. May you Rest in Peace and Love.

RIP#45 #We’re Nasty!

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