LA Angels: Things without Albert Pujols

The last game Albert Pujols played for the LA Angels was on May 4th.

Albert Pujols is on a three-game hitting streak for the LA Dodgers, and our LA Angels have been struggling to win games lately. Are we losing because Pujols isn’t here? Absolutely not, but it’s true that we haven’t improved since he’s been gone.

Since May 5th, the Angels have been 6-11 (.353) entering the weekend.

Prior to May 5th, the Angels were 13-15 (.464). Again, the worse play is not a result of Pujols not being there. He played very poorly for the Angels, and I’ll add that while he is on a three-game hitting streak, he still hasn’t necessarily been killing it.

Sure, a .267 batting average, a .467 slugging percentage, and 4 RBI isn’t bad, but it’s a very small sample size.

As for the Angels, while they haven’t improved since Pujols has been out of the picture, he’s not the reason they’ve regressed in that time frame.

First, they haven’t been any good with or without him this year.

The lows of the season that the Halos have experienced just seem to be getting to the team. They noticeably lose energy during games.

It’s one thing if Justin Upton’s slumping, or if Anthony Rendon hasn’t looked good since his knee injury, or if Mike Trout is out for six to eight weeks. But it’s another when all these things are happening at the same time.

The pitching isn’t getting any better, both out of the pen and concerning the starting rotation.

While Albert has been better, he’s still not what the Angels are missing. They’re missing consistency from players they need to be able to count on (Upton, Rendon, etc), they’re missing Mike Trout, and they’re having a tough time getting guys out.

It’s not even 50 games into the year yet, but if things don’t change soon, it may be a busy deadline for the Halos.