The stats behind the Angels' offensive dry spell are even worse than you think

As the season began and the Angels were ripping off series win after series win, it was easy to become hopeful that this would be a sign that maybe, just maybe, the team was ahead of schedule. The home runs were flying out of the ballpark, and the pitching staff was doing just enough to hold their opponents in check. The power production was impressive, especially for a team that ranked 28th in slugging a season ago, and didn't make wholesale changes during the offseason. Jo Adell hit two homers in the same inning, breakthrough performers like Kyren Paris and Logan O'Hoppe were amongst the best hitters in the league, veterans began to click...making the Angels look like offensive juggernauts.

However, in typical Angels' fashion, they went on a long roadtrip and laid an egg. The Halos were dealt their first series loss of the season against the hated Houston Astros, and followed that up with a terrible sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers. They have only been able to muster up four runs in their two games against the San Francisco Giants so far.

The Angels' bats have two main issues right now

Up until the April 11th series opener against Houston, the Angels were one of the top power producing teams in the majors, with the rest of their metrics like batting average, walk rate, and strikeout rate sitting around league-average. The total package added up to an above average offense.

However, that was driven largely by the home run ball, and as that has fallen by the wayside over the past week, the underlying issues with the team's offense have risen to the surface and become more pronounced.

From April 11th through April 19th, the Angels ranked 29th in baseball in strikeout rate at 32.8%. Only the lowly Colorado Rockies rank worse. Compounding the issue, over the same time span, the Halos' atrocious walk rate of 3.0% is last in the league by a substantial margin. The rival Texas Rangers are ranked 29th with a 4.8% mark, which, while still bad, is significantly better than what the Angels have generated.

Much of this has been driven by passivity at the plate. During this skid, the Angels have the fourth-highest called strike rate at 17.9%, despite seeing more pitches in the zone (47.9%) than any other team in baseball.

Finally, the team has posted the second-worst swinging strike rate, 13.4%, over that same time frame. Simply put, the team has let hittable pitches go by in the zone, fallen behind in counts, and then, in an attempt to fight back, fallen victim far too often to quality pitches to record the punch out.

It would appear as if the team's approach at the plate is to be patient and work a walk, and that approach is precisely why they've put up a league-worst walk rate during their scuffles. Letting hittable pitches go by isn't a strategy for success, and the quicker the Angels adjust, the better off they'll be.

The season is full of ebbs and flows in performance, however, this has been an underlying problem all season that is just now coming to the forefront. Perhaps Zach Neto's return provides the team with a shot in the arm, but Johnny Washington and the lineup need to be putting in overtime to turn this concerning trend around before the season spirals out of control.

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