LA Angels: Halos’ biggest strengths and weaknesses through 16 games

While the Angels have started off at a good pace to start of the season, currently sitting in second place in the AL West, there are numerous things that have gone right and wrong for them.

The offense has been potent and kept the Halos in games, especially with some late-inning magic as this team has been known to rally late.

The jury is still out on the starting pitching, but the bullpen has been another bright spot for the team even with some bad outings from Raisel Iglesias and Wednesday’s 7-4 loss to the Rangers, but there’s time to improve.

The Angels feature one of the best offenses in Major League Baseball.

Heading into the midweek, the Halos offense ranked fourth-best in all of baseball with a .266 batting average, .329 OBP, and a .763 OPS which make up for a great team slash line. Collectively, the team has also driven in 81 runs in 137 hits and have only struck out 129 times which means that they can put the ball in play and not waste an at-bat.

This all helps when they have a stacked lineup that consists of Mike Trout, David Fletcher, Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Rendon, and Jared Walsh. That even includes one of their newest acquisitions in Jose Iglesias, who is hitting to a .259 average, .283 OBP, and .576 OPS. He’s also been flashing the leather as he’s been making some incredible defensive plays at shortstop.

One weak spot has been the Angels defense, which is something that didn’t look to be an issue when the season first started, however, they currently lead the league in errors. This needs to be to clean up. Another thing that leads to those miscues is the lack of depth the team has on the bench.

Fundamentals and depth have been lacking for the Angels thus far.

Anthony Rendon has been sidelined with a groin issue which leaves third base open for either Jose Rojas or Luis Rengifo which has been a major drop off in terms of talent when it comes to backups.

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Speaking of injuries, that is another thing the Angels need to somehow avoid if they can, they’ve already lost Dexter Fowler for the season, Juan Lagares is on the injured list, and of course the previously mentioned Rendon. For some, they are just nagging injuries that they can come back from, however, the lack of depth always makes injuries stand out even more and starts raising questions about who’s starting. They also have relief pitcher Felix Pena on the injured list who was also a key contributor to the Angels last season and could provide valuable depth in the bullpen once he comes back.

Overall, the Angels have looked good for the first 16 games of the season, of course every team has something to improve on, but the issues with the Angels stick out like a sore thumb. Health is going to be the main challenge for this team as injuries haven’t been too kind to the Angels in the past and have always slowed down their groove.

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If they can figure out the injuries and sharpen up the defense which was already highly coveted, then this Angels team could carry the same momentum the rest of the season.