Los Angeles Angels: Looking More Like 2011 than the Much Anticipated 2012 Team

For Los Angeles Angels fans, World Series dreams of October were replaced by the reality of spring. With an opportunity to impress their fans with a quick start against a young Kansas City Royals team, the Angels looked more like last year’s anemic hitting and team than the much anticipated 2012 version.

While it is way too early to speculate whether this is an indicator of the 2012 season, it is a stark reminder of everything that went wrong last year. Poor hitting by Abreu, Wells and Mathis, especially with runners on base, leaving runners stranded in what seemed like almost every inning.

Abreu and Wells look as slow in the field, and past their primes at bat, as they did last year. All the hype about how Wells worked on his swing is just that, hype. In the case of Abreu, sometimes athletes are the last to know when their careers are finished.

Abreu is a shell of his former self, looking slow to fly balls and taking far too many pitches. Although he hit one run-scoring double, the rest of his at-bats displayed slow bat speed and a tendency to take too many pitches, which haunted him last year.

Wells, on the other hand, still swings at low outside pitches and has replaced Jeff Mathis as the poorest hitter in the lineup. Does anyone believe that Wells will hit over .250 this year? And does anyone think he is fast enough to play in the outfield? On Saturday, Scioscia played Wells in center field, where he looked slow to balls hit into deep right.

Torii Hunter, once one of the fastest outfielders in the league, is now relegated to right field because he has slowed down too much to play center. Saturday’s outfield consisting of Abreu in left, Wells in center and Hunter in right looked more like the line at social security than a major league baseball outfield. It is arguably the worst outfield combination on the team.

The only reason Peter Bourjos didn’t play on Saturday was Scioscia’s current obsession to get Abreu at-bats to either see if he can play or make him more available for trades. Neither is a good reason to play an outfielder with one of the worst spring trainings of any player on the roster in recent seasons. But for his reputation, and $8 million salary, Abreu would have either been released or sent down to the minors.

Bourjos is young and should be in the lineup every day, not only for defensive purposes, but to help him get into a better rhythm in the batter’s box. Bourjos needs to work on taking more pitches and to not be seduced by low outside curve balls. He can’t improve sitting on the bench in a day game on the first Saturday of the season.

Overall, the team has hit poorly, fielded erratically and looked bad for innings at a time. For seven innings on Friday night, Bruce Chen made them look like an AAA team. On Saturday, Luke Hochevar made them look just as inept for seven innings.

If not for an explosive inning against a Royal reliever in the eighth inning, the Angels would have been roundly criticized for a tepid Friday night in the batter’s box. On Saturday, the offense operated in fits and stops, leaving runners on base after multiple double plays and pickoffs.

Toto, it’s not spring training anymore.

On Saturday, poor hitting coupled with poor base running proved to limit offensive production again. Pujols, trying to do too much, looked as bad on the bases as he did in the batter’s box. Albert will be fine once he settles down, but it does raise the specter of stress from expectations. It remains to be seen how long it takes for Pujols to relax and adjust to the American League.

And Scioscia is in mid-season form, outsmarting himself at every turn. Trying to play everyone, especially finding minutes for Abreu, will be catastrophic for this team. Saturday’s inept lineup was proof of that.

Scioscia’s plan to move Mark Trumbo to third base will only lead to failure. Alberto Callaspo was one of the Angels' better hitters last year and an excellent defensive third baseman who had an excellent spring training and deserves to play third based upon his production.

As important as Trumbo’s bat is to the Angeles lineup, two errors in the Friday night game demonstrate how far he has to go. With no winter ball to prepare to play third base because of his foot injury, Trumbo has not spent enough time practicing at third base to be a factor defensively. It is unfair to Trumbo, Callaspo and the team.

Last year, the Royals were a door mat for every team except the Angels. It looks like form may hold true for 2012.

The Texas Rangers must be smiling right now, knowing that the Angels did not explode out the box with a dominating offense and the so-called best starters in the league dominating opposing hitters.

Fans had better tighten their seat belts. It is going to be a bumpy season. The logjam in the outfield and the tepid list of middle relievers will cause many fans heartburn before the season is over.