Angels' hot streak exposes a truth about the roster nobody expected

After what was a painfully slow start, the Los Angeles Angels' offense has come alive over the last couple of weeks. Since May 19, Angels hitters have posted a 115 wRC+, the sixth-highest mark in MLB over that time period, and their 88 runs rank second in all of baseball. That isn't "good for an Angels team", it's objectively good. However, the team's explanation for why the offense has come to life raises some questions.

A big "symptom" of the Angels' turnaround has been a decrease in strikeouts, which makes sense. If you put the ball in play, there are more chances for good things to happen, especially if you're hitting the ball hard. If you're striking out, then your team's scoring chances go down dramatically, and you become much more reliant on the long ball.

The Angels have explained that the offense has been better because they're having "good at-bats" and "battling with two-strikes", among other baseball cliches. However, one would hope that the Angels were trying to do that previously and that their explanations are overlooking some key details.

The Angels success came from changes in personnel, not approach

Again, so much of this discussion comes from the scripted answers that every sports figure has learned by heart. Wade Meckler has talked about "moving the line", Vaughn Grissom mentioned "making guys make plays", and manager Kurt Suzuki recently mentioned that "the hitting was contagious." Sure, those statements do convey something resembling an explanation, but it's little more than lip service to the actual changes.

The Angels have been hoping for too much (from too few players) for too long. Mike Trout has been great, but he isn't what he once was, and opposing pitchers have known for a while that it's probably easier to just let the other Angels hitters try to beat them.

Zach Neto is supremely talented, but has had some injury issues, and he's inconsistent — especially when being relied on as a key cog in the offense. Nolan Schanuel keeps finding placement in LA's lineup that definitely hasn't matched what he's actually done from the moment he made his debut.

With Neto and Schanuel out, the Angels have been forced to adapt, and that has shown the roster's shortcomings. That doesn't mean that LA should get rid of Neto and Schanuel. Far from it. They just need a better understanding of what they are as players and how to set them up for success.

Banking on Meckler and others to continue their hot hitting may not be wise. But the Angels can at least surmise that maybe they need to reconfigure how they go about building their roster and their lineups, because what they were doing before definitely wasn't working.

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