Where would the LA Angels stack up in other divisions?

Nobody’s happy with the LA Angels being six games out of the playoffs coming into the Oakland series.

The LA Angels are both six games out of the AL West division race, and six games out of the AL Wild Card race coming into the Oakland series.

They head into the series at 22-27, which is good for fourth place in the division.

It couldn’t be going much worse for the LA Angels when considering they have two AL MVP candidates on their team, and had higher expectations for themselves coming into this first full season with three-time Manager of the Year Joe Maddon.

It could be worse, however, if the Halos were in the National League. Then, they’d be eight games behind for the Wild Card race. Their current record would place last in the NL East, which is the worst division in baseball. (All records recorded in this story are as of the MLB’s standings heading into the Angels’ series vs. the A’s on May 27th.)

Sometimes, a team is better than their record may indicate based on the division that the team is in.

That’s not the case with the Angels, as their record would not only fare worse in the National League standings. They’d still sport the fourth-best record in the division if they were in the AL Central, and would own the fifth-best if they were an AL East team.

The Angels are in a division with just one playoff team as of right now. Being in a tough division is no excuse, because they aren’t in one. Things could be worse as far as the teams they are competing against the most, and they need to take advantage of being in a league that hasn’t been as tough, and a division that could be much tougher.

It all starts with this Oakland series. The Angels need to find a way to win this four-game road series if they want to enter June inside the playoff picture.