LA Angels Series Preview: The cycle continues vs the Tigers

Ugly is as Ugly does

The starter ERAs in this series are an absolute nightmare. Given that fact this will likely be a series of pitchers duels; complete game shutouts and 2-hitters will litter the series as pitchers on both sides of the field will be throwing like aces with nothing to lose. We saw suffering Orioles pitchers twirling quality starts against the Angels and after building up all this negative momentum it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Tigers starters taking advantage of the struggling Angels. Will we see the Angels take advantage of the Tigers struggling starters or is this going to another story of “should’ve, could’ve, would’ve”

The Angels rookie starter Griffin Canning, after showing great promise in his first few starts with the squad, has been struggling through his last few starts and is looking like he still needs a tinge of development to truly belong in the MLB. His talent and competitiveness is undeniable, but the Angels at some point may need to think about sending him to Triple-A for a short while so he can rebuild his confidence and get his MLB legs in order. The only real reason Canning came up with the Angels as soon as he did was due to needs for depth; I don’t want to imply that he didn’t deserve the callup, but if this team had a healthy staff he wouldn’t be pitching any longer than a couple of starts.

Unfortunately since the Angels are starved for pitching depth they’re being forced to send out kids who aren’t 100% ready and the holes in the game of kids like Canning or Suarez have become impossible to ignore. Speaking of Suarez, he really shouldn’t be up in the Majors as it’s become clear he is not ready to pitch in the Majors. His pitch effectiveness leaves so much to be desired, his aggressiveness in attacking the zone is just not there and he is constantly putting the bullpen in awful positions by forcing them into games by the 4th or 5th innings.

As much as the Angels need the depth Jose Suarez is not helping the team in any way except for eating innings and giving up games. Suarez needs far more development time than Griffin Canning does, but at the end of the day they are both just a little bit in over their heads and the Angels have their hands tied because they can’t afford to lose depth, but they also can’t afford to tank these two prospects confidence and risk hurting the process of development.

A classic, unavoidable lose-lose scenario for the Angels.