LA Angels Series Preview: Getting Wild with the Orioles

The LA Angels are officially on a winning streak after sweeping a two game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger stadium. The Angels are sitting at four games back of the 2nd Wild Card spot with the next 7 games coming against the Orioles and the Tigers, two of the worst teams in baseball. The Angels will need to take advantage of this soft stretch as the month of August presents serious challenge with multiple series against teams like Boston, Oakland, and Houston. 

Living in the future is not the most conductive way to play baseball, especially when you have as much challenge in the wings as the LA Angels have in the next two months. This soft stretch against the Orioles and Tigers give the Angels a huge chance to make up serious wild-card ground and pad their record in preparation for the most difficult stretch of the season the Angels have waiting for them. As great as the baseball is that the Angels are playing there are still a ton of question marks regarding their ability to play the way they have down the stretch.

Can the Angels get consistent innings from their starting rotation? The Angels cannot survive August and September by forcing their bullpen to pitch anywhere from 4-6 innings a game. As talented as their bullpen is you can only manage an overworked bullpen so much before it implodes on itself. That being said, the Angels are just a starter or two away from solidifying their rotation for the big stretch that’s waiting for them. Getting one starter is doable, but two?

Where exactly will those reliable starters come from? The Angels could get lucky and see Jose Suarez start to amp up his ability or even see Patrick Sandoval make his MLB debut and show a similar level of consistency/promise that Griffin Canning has in his time with the Angels. There is still a possibility that Andrew Heaney in the mix as well and he has shown that he has the ability to put up 5 strong innings against competitive teams. All it takes is consistency and from what we’ve seen from this team in the second half, aside from a 3 game losing streak, they have the ability to remain more consistent than they’e showed in the first half of the season.

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None of that matters right now though, what matters is a successful series against the Baltimore Orioles. The Angels don’t need to sweep the Orioles to keep favorable position in the wild-card, but at the same time they kind of do have to sweep the series and take advantage of these easy games with the difficult August/September stretch waiting ahead. If the Angels can indeed take advantage of these games, you might see them be buyers in the trade deadline market. At the very least the Angels should not be sellers and just try to make a run for the wild-card.

Orioles @ Angels

(7/25) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Jose Suarez (2-1, 5.1 ERA) vs Jimmy Yacabonis (1-2, 6.95 ERA)

(7/26) 7:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Asher Wojciechowski (1-3, 3.91 ERA) vs Griffin Canning (3-1, 4.67 ERA)

(7/27) 6:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Aaron Brooks (2-1, 5.16 ERA) vs TBD 

(7/28) 1:07 PM PT @ FS-W: Dylan Bundy (5-11, 5.14 ERA) vs TBD

Getting Wild for the Wildcard

The Angels offense has been pretty on point as of late, aside from a few missed RISP opportunities across the Dodgers series it seemed as if the Angels were taking pretty good advantage of the opportunities they. That competency is going to need to continue against the Orioles, who will be fielding a handful of starting pitchers with 5+ ERAs.

There shouldn’t be too much to worry about missing these easy pitchers as the Angels offense is being led with serious fire. Mike Trout has been on the most ridiculous stretch over the last month with a 11 HRs and a 1.193 OPS over July. This season has seen the Angels field an offense that can not only function without Trout, they can succeed in big ways. David Fletcher is proving to be one of the better leadoff men in the AL with his consistent contact ability (.301/.376/.460 slash when leading off) and clutch hitting (.321/.379/.423 slash with RISP).

Shohei Ohtani will be back as a regular DH now that the Angels are out of inter-league play and will continue to provide major protection and power presence for Mike Trout and the Angels. Even Albert Pujols is showing force with his slash line of .324/.333/.588 paired with 2 HR’s and 14 RBI’s in the last two weeks. There really is no excuse for the Angels to find offensive struggles in this series given the pace they’re on mixed with the struggles of the Orioles this season.

The only real threat in this series is Wojciechowski as he is coming off a near no-hitter that saw him throw 6 hitless innings and 7.1 scoreless innings against the Red Sox. That’s quite the team to have such a feat against and if he carries that momentum into this game the Angels will find an actual challenge facing them in this series. Other than that Dylan Bundy experienced some success in his last start out as he threw six innings against the D-Backs while allowing just two runs.

There will be some modicum of competitiveness coming off the Orioles this series as it cannot be forgotten that they too are professional ballplayers, and if the Angels play down to the competition it can get ugly fast. A proper respect for the talents of the Orioles should keep the Angels mentally in check and on top of their game throughout the four game set.

Uncertainties in the starting staff

The Angels just released Matt Harvey and are missing Andrew Heaney due to shoulder inflammation, so there is some question as to who will be filling those games in these upcoming series’. The first player that comes to mind is Dillon Peters, whom the Angels received in an offseason trade for Minor League pitcher Tyler Stevens. Peters has pitched 13.2 innings for the Halos and has maintain a 2.63 ERA in that short sample size. His last outing came in the form of start and his second to last outing was a 5 IP affair. His first five inning outing of the season came against the Mariners in a game which he threw 5.2 innings of 3 run baseball with 7 hits allowed. It’s not the hottest line for sure, but what it did was hold down the fort for the Angels offense to take over the game and secure a victory.

In his only start of the season, just four days ago, Peters pitched 5 innings of 4-hit ball with no walks and 4 K’s against the Mariners. The improvements are plain as day; Peters is one of the few low-cost offseason acquisitions that seem to be taking a positive turn for the Angels. Putting Peters up against the Orioles would provide the perfect ground to see exactly what kind of value he can provide for the Angels down the stretch. Is he going to be a guy whose only role is to eat up 4 or 5 innings in his starts and hope that the bullpen can keep the game together for the Angels or is he a guy who can twirl quality outings here and there?

If he can continue improving as he has all season long there is the chance that he can hold down a spot in the Angels lineup as someone who can get them through a handful of innings to start a game. The fact is that Peters is 26 and is showing an evidenced ability to evolve, if he can continue making even the most minuscule improvements in his game there might be something very real with him down the line. For now Peters is looking to be a fill-in guy, but the opportunity and ability for growth are both very much there.

Another option would be one of the Angels top pitching prospects, LHP Patrick Sandoval. The lefty starter has had some struggles in Triple-A through 54.2 IP this season, but despite that he’s shown a distinct maturity on the mound and an impressive ability to control and maintain his rhythm throughout his starts. He is working through a few learning curves in the higher levels of the MiLB, but regardless of that he has the talents to be a middle to bottom end of the starting rotation at worst. At best Patrick Sandoval can provide punch as a #2/#3 starter with keen strikeout ability and bulldog dominance on the mound. There is still a bit of development to be had with Sandoval, but giving him a shot for live MLB action could boost his development by introducing him to the acclimation he’ll need to make to succeed in the Majors.

I don’t see Sandoval coming up and smoothing into success like Griffin Canning, but if the Angels want to test his current ability and get a stronger idea for where his development lies it would be apt to allow him a start against either the Orioles or Tigers.