LA Angels: Halos have made progress in the month of June

The LA Angels entered June with a record of 24-30.

Things were looking bad, but it was still too early to give up on the season and start planning to sell at the deadline.

We’re a third of the way into the month of June, and the Angels entered their series vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks with a 6-2 record to start the month.

The LA Angels immediately injected life into their clubhouse with their performance in early June.

Sure, the LA Angels got to play seven of their first eight games of June vs. the Seattle Mariners and Kansas City Royals, two teams who are struggling this year, but they also clobbered the San Francisco Giants on June 1st, who are in first place in perhaps the best division in the National League (all statistics and standings references are as of June 10th).

That tied their two-game series against them, and they also tied their series before that vs. a great Oakland Athletics team, and got the two game sweep just before that vs. the divisional rival Texas Rangers.

Things have absolutely been looking up for the team, who is 10-5 in their last 15 games.

The Angels went 5-2 in their series vs. the two lackluster teams they played; the Mariners and Royals. And they hung with (went .500) against the two good teams they played.

That’s where the Angels are right now and that’s where they want to be. They’re a team that can beat up teams they should beat, and be competitive with teams that are having great years.

Of course the Angels would like to win the majority of their games vs. great teams, but it’s unrealistic to do that consistently without Mike Trout.

If the Angels can continue to do this without Trout, they’ll absolutely be in position to be in the thick of playoff contention when he comes back. Trout will be back no later than the All-Star Game, and can be back as early as June 29th.

Let’s say Trout comes back on the July 16th game, the latest he can possibly be out until. If the Angels do what they have done since May 25th, won 81.8% of their games against ‘bad teams’ (teams under .500) and half their games against ‘good’ teams (teams over .500), they’ll be 48-42 by the time Trout gets back. And that’s with him coming back by the latest possible time on his timetable.

Of course, those numbers were calculated based off of what their opponents records are as of June 10th, and not what they will for sure be at the time the Angels play them, but those are the projections.

The Angels have showed improvement not only in terms of wins and losses, but also in terms of the pitching staff actually improving without Mickey Callaway, the starting pitchers making noticeable strides, and some individual players making major improvements such as Max Stassi and Justin Upton.

There’s too much talent on this team to give up on them right now. It would be unwise for the AL West to let them get hot. Problem is, they may already have.