The Los Angeles Angels Continue To Have a Disastrous Season
It is not really a secret at this point. The Angels are having a horrible season. Yes, they have Mike Trout, who is great, but he cannot save the team. It is getting painful to watch. Will the Angels be able to get on track?
Horrible Losses
The Angels have had a bad week, to say the least. On May 17, they lost 10-1 against the Dodgers. I don’t know how they’re doing mentally after that one, but I would be having some serious anger issues. However, on May 18, they did manage to beat the Athletics 2-1. But alas, their good fortune came to an end the next day.
On May 19, the Athletics made a comeback and beat the Angels, 14-6. Great news for the Athletics. Obviously, terrible news for the Angels. On May 20, LA improved a bit. They only lost 6-5 against the Athletics.
On Thursday, May 21, the fun little losing streak continued. The Angels lost 3-2 against the Athletics. I can imagine the Athletics are pretty happy right now. The Angels, however, are probably very unhappy. Losing seems to be their new hobby.
Weak Links
There are some players that the Angels really just need to stop holding out hope for. Relief Pitcher Ryan Johnson, for one. He had a really bad start to the season. He has struggled with injuries and did terribly after being taken off the injured list. He’s been optioned to Double-A to work on his command because of how badly he’s been doing, but I’m not sure how much good that will do.
There’s also Jorge Soler. He’s extremely inconsistent and suffers from long slumps, making him kind of useless to the team. He has a really bad temperament, causing incidents like the brawl with Braves Pitcher Reynaldo Lopez a while back. Yet somehow, the Angels have such high expectations for him, hoping that one of these days he’ll have a good season. In my opinion, the Angels need to stop holding their breath.
There’s also pitcher Yusei Kikuchi. Like Soler, he suffers from being inconsistent. Every once in a while, he’ll do really well, and the team will heavily rely on these rare instances. He tends to have really bad innings, which tend to ruin his outings. Yet the Angels keep their hopes way too high when it comes to Kikuchi.
Pitcher Reid Detmers used to be considered a decent player. In fact, he used to be excellent. But now, similar to his teammates, he just for some reason cannot be consistently good. He seriously struggles with confidence and his command. He still has great potential, but he is just frustrating to watch sometimes.
Kirby Yates is getting a little older, and he just has trouble playing like he used to. He’s had multiple Tommy John surgeries, which is no joke. Some fans aren’t even sure if he can make it through a whole season. Instability in an Angels player isn’t super surprising. Yates is no exception to that.
Yoan Moncada is also a disappointment. He was brought into the Angels to provide some stability. But guess what? He did not live up to anybody’s expectations. Despite predictions, he did not turn out to be the big superstar that everyone thought he was going to be.
Oswald Peraza seems to be decent at defense but horrible at offense. He has inconsistent hitting and painfully low batting averages. Every time the expectations are high for this guy, he totally blows it. Some members of his fanbase say that his issues are due to his development being mismanaged. It is also possible that he is just really bad.
A Disappointing Pattern
The Angels are having one of the worst seasons they have ever had. I don’t really have any ideas as to how they could fix these problems. Nonetheless, I will criticize them. Because why not? I’m a spectator, it’s my job.
The Angels really like to pin their hopes on guys who can’t live up to their expectations. Also, their best players struggle to be consistent. Honestly, the Angels shouldn’t be too surprised that they’re not performing well. They need players(multiple, not just Trout) who can actually be consistently good and offer real stability to the team. If not, I think they are in trouble.
