Angels have made valuable stat completely meaningless until they can regain footing

In a one month stretch from April 11th to May 11th, the Angels went 8-19 and fans were ready to throw in the towel. However, the Angels currently stand at 21-25 and are doing their best to tread water in both the division and league, despite some ugly metrics related to their lineup and bullpen. What has mostly kept the 2025 Angels afloat has been their hitters showing up in clutch situations. Fans are aware that the lineup has risen to the occasion more than a few times this year, but maybe are not conscious to the full extent of the team's clutch gene within the context of MLB.

Per Grant Bisbee of The Athletic: "Do you realize that the Angels are the...most clutch... team in baseball, according to FanGraphs’ Clutch metric? That’s a stat that compares a team’s offensive statistics in low-leverage situations to how they perform in high-leverage situations, and the Angels aren’t just at the top: They’re lapping the rest of the league." The numerical figure FanGraphs attached to the Angels' Clutch metric is 3.37, and the Cubs are ranked second in MLB with a 1.96 ranking.

Angels have made valuable stat completely meaningless until they can regain footing

Let's try to put some of these numbers into plain baseball talk: The Angels have a ton of game-tying and go-ahead hits this season, more than any other team. From the 7th inning on this season, the Angels have 14 game-tying or go-ahead hits -- the next most are the Mariners and Blue Jays' 11. Of those 14 hits, seven have been home runs...which also leads all teams in those situations. So do their 29 RBIs and runs scored, 39 total bases, and 10 extra base hits.

Logan O'Hoppe has three of those 14 clutch hits, which lead the Angels' hitters, including two home runs (one against the Cardinals' Sonny Gray on April 2nd, and the other off Dodgers' Kirby Yates on Saturday). The other five clutch home runs this season have come from Taylor Ward against the Padres in grand fashion, Matthew Lugo's against the very same Padres, Zach Neto's vs. the Pirates, Kyren Paris' from March 30th and Travis d'Arnaud's from Sunday against LAD.

Do the Angels' clutch moments really mean anything worthwhile if they are close to the bottom of the American League, and FanGraphs' least clutch team is the 27-19 New York Yankees? Are they just fun moments from a middle-of-the-road team at best? Hopefully this team's fight and resolve continues, but ultimately it would be nice if they stop falling behind so often and have to scrap and claw their way to victories.

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