L.A. Angels Hitting Their Stride, Tie 75-Year-Old Record With Nine .300 Batters

This was the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's lineup on Aug. 18 against the Cleveland Indians.

1. Chone Figgins, 3B .308

2. Bobby Abreu, RF .310

3. Juan Rivera, LF .310

4. Vladimir Guerrero, DH .313

5. Kendry Morales, 1B .303

6. Torii Hunter, CF .307

7. Maicer Izturis, 2B .300

8. Mike Napoli, C .300

9. Erick Aybar, SS .313

Why is this lineup so significant?

Our friends at the Elias Sports Bureau tell us it's the first time since 1934 that any major league team has finished a game—at least 100 games into a season—with each player in its starting batting order hitting .300 or better.

The last team to accomplish this feat was the 1934 Detroit Tigers on Sept. 9 against the Boston Red Sox. That Tigers team was led by some guys named Mickey Cochrane, Hank Greenberg, Goose Goslin, and Charlie Gehringer.

What a bunch of scrubs on that team, huh?

I am not going to compare the two teams and tell you who is better because I don't think it is fair for me to compare someone to somebody I have never seen play. But what I will tell you is that this Angels offense is on one serious roll right now.

Usually it's the offense that is the weak link for the Angels. It seems like the Angels have been searching for offense for the past six years—not this year. This year, the Angels' offense is the strength of the team.

If Mike Scioscia's man-crush, Erick Aybar, is hitting .300, and so is Maicer Izturis, you know things are going well. To have all nine guys in your lineup finish the game hitting .300 or better is almost video-game good.

The Angels' offense right now is like when you powered up your team in Baseball Stars for Nintendo back in the day. It got to the point where everyone on your team was batting .375 and you were just crushing the Lovely Ladies 20-0 in the second inning.

Man, I loved that game.

The Angels have the second best record in the American League at 73-45. If they don't win the World Series this year, for the first time in a long time it shouldn't be the offense's fault.