Angels are rapidly approaching this trade deadline reality

As an Angels fan, it's virtually impossible to not overreact to a five-game losing streak when your favorite team has the longest postseason drought in the sport. While the Angels have shown they can catch fire offensively and are returning Mike Trout to a promising lineup, there are more than a few indicators to show that Perry Minasian will once again need to sell major leaguers at the trade deadline.

The Angel's entire run prevention unit has been practically the worst in baseball. Be it the pitching staff or the defense, the Angels are simply beating themselves over-and-over-and-over again. As Jeff Fletcher of The OC Register put it: "Their defense has been among the worst in baseball, by most metrics. By the most surface level measuring stick – errors – the Angels rank 26th. Lately, it’s been even worse. They’ve made at least one error in 13 of the past 18 games."

The most frustrating storyline of the season is the Angels' lack of planning for who they wanted to replace Trout in center coming back to bite them. Fletcher added this quote from the Angels' outfield coach Bo Porter: “At the end of the day, whether it’s Adell, whether it’s Lugo, whether it’s Paris, whoever we’ve played in center field has not given us the type of defense you need in center field at the major league level.” The Angels have subsequently moved Adell off of centerfield, and demoted Paris and Lugo to Triple-A Salt Lake. Now, they will rely on two veteran utility players in Chris Taylor and Scott Kingery to hold down the most critical outfield position...unless they decide to move Trout back into the position that helped turn him into an icon, and risk yet another injury.

Between the catchers, outfielders and corner infielders not holding it down defensively, the pitching staff has been a headache yet again. Their 4.84 ERA ranks 25th in baseball, 4.95 FIP ranks 28th, 4.65 xFIP ranks 27th, 1.51 WHIP ranks 29th, 19.1% K% ranks 29th and 10.6% BB% ranks last.

Why would fans and team evaluators expect this type of team -- one that cannot pitch or field even at a league average level -- to make a postseason run? Watching them, it feels like when the Angels finally turn in a game where they can actually prevent other teams from scoring...their offense gets blanked.

Angels are rapidly approaching this trade deadline reality

The Angels could potentially ride another winning streak soon. It's certainly possible that the Angels could pass teams like the Red Sox, Rangers, Blue Jays and Rays and put themselves in a position to buy at the trade deadline in a couple months. It's hard to envision and regain hope for that scenario, however. Even during the Angels' historic eight-game winning streak did the prospect of buying a win-now player or two at the deadline feel dubious. The bats were hitting at an unsustainable pace and there are so many question marks on this roster.

Minasian shockingly decided to hold onto Tyler Anderson, Taylor Ward and Luis Rengifo last season. It feels like he will not make that mistake twice, especially now that Anderson is on an expiring deal and Ward's value has never been higher. Dealing Ward would take an emotional toll on fans, but in theory they have Matthew Lugo and maybe even Christian Moore waiting in the wings to be the team's every-day left fielder moving forward. Minasian got a haul for both Carlos Estévez and Luis García last year, and it does not appear that the team will need Kenley Jansen's services post-July 31st unless a spectacular turn-around occurs between now and then. Yoán Moncada can be thrown into that group of players on the trade block as well.

Last season, Minasian proved to fans that he can pull off some great trades for a rebuilding team. The season prior, he proved that he cannot pull off trades for a team gearing up for a playoff push. Well, it appears that the Angels are moving towards yet another sell-off for Minasian and that's probably for the best. Hope is dwindling fast.

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