LA Angels: Which players will excel in a shortened season?

A shortened MLB season could greatly benefit these five Los Angeles Angels.

Baseball could be coming back soon, for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the rest of Major League Baseball. However, it will be drastically different from anything we’ve seen in nearly forty years.

As the representatives from the owners and the MLBPA continue to discuss the groundwork for a potential 2020 season, there is at least one thing that is evident. The format for the season will be severely shortened, with the latest proposal coming in with an estimated 82 game regular season. That would be a 24 game reduction from the shortest season in MLB history when the neighboring Dodgers took home the World Series after a 106 game regular season in 1981.

The length of such a season will undoubtedly put a ton of pressure on teams to not only be deep but be ready to go when the starting gun is sounded. There will be no room for error, no time to overcome a slow start, no late-season runs to a pennant. Teams will either get out of the gates fast and ride that momentum into a postseason berth or they will quickly fall out of contention.

Make no mistake about it, the typical marathon of an MLB season will be a sprint. Those teams that can realize their potential early stand to benefit the most.

For the Los Angeles Angels, they have a unique opportunity to get out of the gate and take advantage of the shortened season. To do so, they’ll need to rely on these players with a history of hot starts.