LA Angels: Lost in the Outfield

I sat down the other night to watch the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim go up against the Chicago White Sox. I had particular interest in the game as I have Jered Weaver on my fantasy team and I was going against Jake Peavy for the week.

I was all ready to watch a great pitching matchup, before Peavy went down for the count in the second inning. I clearly didn’t expect to see that.

What I also didn’t expect to see was a hideous Angels’ outfield that let Weaver down all night. The Angels really looked lost in the outfield, especially Juan Rivera.

Rivera let a high flyball hit by Juan Pierre, that seemed to be up in the air for about 20 seconds drop between him and Torii Hunter. On top of that, he couldn’t track down another flyball hit by Mark Kotsay. You could argue the Kotsay ball was a tough catch, but a good leftfielder comes up with the play.

The funny thing about the Pierre double was that he hit a similar ball in the first that dropped in between Hunter and Bobby Abreu. It was brutal.

After looking at the stats, I expected to see a dismal Angels’ outfield defense. This is one of those times where the eye test matches up with the advanced metrics.

The Angels rank 25th in baseball in OF UZR (-11.0), and as you can imagine, boost some of the worst defensive outfielders at their position in the game.

Abreu is the third worst defensive right fielder in the game with a -7.0 UZR. It’s like he is in slow motion this year both defensively and offensively.

Even Hunter, who somehow keeps winning Gold Gloves, is posting a negative UZR for the fourth year in a row. Hunter is no sure-thing to track a ball down in center anymore.

When you think of the Angels, you always think of solid defense. However when it comes to outfield defense, we should should stop thinking of the Angels.

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