Bold 2nd-Half Predictions for the Los Angeles Angels

I am going to go out on a limb and say the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will lose their general manager in an odd power struggle with the longtime manager who has the owner's ear but refuses to play baseball using even the most basic of strategies.

What's that? This has already happened?

Hmm. Well, it's hard to top what has already taken place in terms of weird and unpredictable storylines for the Angels, but I'll give it my best shot.

Newly minted All-Stars Mike Trout and Albert Pujols have been carrying the offense on their backs all season. Will that continue? Meanwhile, the pitching has been solid, if unspectacular. Will it get a boost?

Here are five bold predictions for the second half of the Angels' season.

Angels Make Trade, Not for Offense

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Los Angeles' offense has been putrid this season, especially when compared with the onslaught an eerily similar lineup delivered just a season ago. The bottom line is that the offense needs help.

While the team will make a move prior to the July 31 trade deadline, it will not be for a much-needed bat. Instead, the team will bring in another middle-of-the-road starting pitcher to add depth to the rotation.

If it happens, adding a pitcher isn't a bad move. Anaheim could use help in a number of areas. However, the offense is the dire need.

It will be too hard for interim general manager Bill Stoneman to make the proper moves with limited time before the deadline, though. I see the team making a smaller move to appease the fans somewhat, but it won't be enough.

Cron and Joyce Combine for 30

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By season's end, C.J. Cron and Matt Joyce will have combined to hit 30 home runs.

At the beginning of the year, this wouldn't have been a bold proclamation at all. In fact, it might have been a disappointing total for the two. But Cron and Joyce have just seven home runs combined at this point and will need monstrous turnarounds in the second half to reach this total.

It isn't out of the realm of possibility, though. Cron is still a young player learning his trade. He is allowed to have bad halves and even bad seasons before he becomes a finished product. A little spurt at any point during the summer could help him reach this plateau.

As for Joyce, his struggles against right-handed pitchers have been uncanny and unexplainable. When something is unexplainable in a sample size as small as 200 at-bats, that often means it is partially due to random chance. Joyce has an .800 career OPS against righties, close to 200 points above where his 2015 mark sits.

I like both of these guys' chances to get a hold of a few more homers in the second half.

No One Steals 20

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No one on the Angels will finish with 20 steals to his name this season.

Mike Trout currently leads the club with nine swipes, but his steals have been in steady decline each year he's been in the majors. Erick Aybar is usually good for close to 20, but he got off to such a horrendously slow start to the year that he has too much ground to make up.

No one else on the club has stolen five bags thus far. It's unbelievable.

For some point of comparison, the Angels have 25 steals as a team heading into the final week before the All-Star break. That is fewer steals than Billy Hamilton (41) and Dee Gordon (29) each have individually. It's also half as many as the team has allowed opponents to swipe against it (50).

Richards Leads League in Wins

Brad Loper/Associated Press

Call it a hunch, but Garrett Richards will finish the season with the most wins in the American League.

It seems bold to predict that a pitcher who's been relatively ordinary will vault himself atop the leaderboard in the second half. However, Richards isn't far off the pace, despite his late start.

With a 9-5 record, he's just one win shy of league leaders Dallas Keuchel, Felix Hernandez and Carlos Carrasco. Of course, Richards has performed worse than each of those guys to this point, but wins are wins.

The National League's Bartolo Colon has somehow also managed to grab nine victories despite having a negative WAR (minus-0.3) on the season.

Richards' strikeouts (74) were down in the first half. That is bound to change, considering how good his stuff is. He was late to the party to begin with because of the knee injury he suffered last year, but he is factoring into the decision in a vast majority of his starts (14 decisions in 15 starts). Pitching late into games, combined with an uptick in his strikeout rate, will result in more Ws.

Richards has already turned the corner. He is 5-2 since the beginning of June. He may not win 20, but Richards will come the closest out of anyone in the AL.

The Angels Miss the Playoffs

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Los Angeles went 98-64 in 2014 on its way to blowing past the rest of the AL West. Wins have been harder to come by in 2015, and the competition is fierce.

Los Angeles is 44-38—a solid record. Those 38 losses are already banked, though. The team can't get rid of them, no matter how well it plays. Even to reach 89 wins, a comfortable total for a possible wild-card berth, the Angels would have to finish the year going 45-35.

That's a .563 winning percentage. Only four teams in all of baseball played that well in the first half, and one was fellow AL West foe Houston.

The Astros aren't showing any signs of slowing down. They hold a three-game lead on the Angels and have a mammoth lead in run differential over the course of the first 80-plus games. The wild-card spots will also be highly contested.

Seemingly every team in the AL East is still in position to make the playoffs. The AL Central also features a number of tough teams, and this is assuming the Seattle Mariners don't climb out of their doldrums at some point before season's end.

With not enough in the rotation and certainly not enough in the everyday lineup, Los Angeles will fall short of the postseason—a devastating outcome after leading all of baseball in victories last year.

All stats are provided by Baseball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise and are current as of games played through July 5.