A lot of things happened this past week, and the Angels played two horrible teams back to back. At the very least - some wins were expected since we played 2 of the very few teams who are more horrible than the Angles in 2016. Of course it started with the Twins who swept us back in early April, but a dude with an 80 MPH fastball put us in the hole early in game 1. At least we came away with that series win. Then came our foes from the Bay Area who we SHOULD have swept, but Fernando "Blow the game" Salas decided to give up a walk-off in the bottom of the 9th in game one. Starting both series against two bad teams down 0 games to 1 is not the way we all wanted to see this go, but hey - we pulled off two series wins right? Not to mention, snagging that second series with in a spectacular way with that same dude throwing 80 MPH fastballs and baffling A's hitters.
David Ortiz and Salvador Perez passed up Mike Trout for most votes in American League over this past week and once again Trout finds himself victim of a horrible team. This guy should be the #1 vote getter EVERY year, and perhaps he will be in the final tally. The Angels dropped 3 spots to #24 in the power rankings last week. Those ranking are really from the week before, but I don't expect to see much climbing this week by beating two crappy teams. Best case we move up to #23. More likely, we stay put around #24. The Angels did outscore their opponents 30-19 so that is good.
The Angels had a winning record this past week, but are still on pace to lose around 90 games. Sorry to be a buzzkill. Just enjoy the wins we get them!
THE GOOD
Angels pitching was 3rd best in the league in terms of overall ERA at 3.35, and their bullpen tied the Astros for the best ERA among relievers with a 2.35.
Tim Lincecum did not disappoint in his Halo debut. He used a lot of pitches, but held the A's to only 4 hits and 1 run over 6 innings. He had some Angels and Giants fans in the crowd cheering him on, which was pretty cool to see.
Returning to the good list after a very lengthy absence, is Hector Santiago, who rebounded finally, against the Twins. He allowed only 2 hits and 1 run over 6 strong innings.
Despite another great outing, Matt Shoemaker got screwed out of a win yet again. He allowed only one earned run (a solo home run) over 6 innings, while striking out 7. This time he was the victim of a weak Angels offense who only gave him one run of support while he was in the game (thanks to a Kole Calhoun homer).
Jered Weaver was amazing on Sunday and only need 95 pitches to put down the A's with zero runs and only 3 hits allowed. That was a heck of a way to celebrate Father's day and finish off the week.
Most of the bullpen did a pretty great job last week. A.J. Achter, Jose Alvarez, Cam Bedrosian, Mike Morin, and Huston Street all combined to allow zero ERs over 9 innings of work.
Johnny Giavotella had himself one AMAZING week. He hit 3 home runs and 2 doubles while batting .440 and swiping the teams only stolen base.
C.J. Cron has been losing playing time lately and only started 3 of the 6 games last week. In two of those he crushed it, going 6 for 10 with two doubles and three RBIs.
While he didn't have any home runs this past week, Jefry Marte still had an impressive .375 OBP
Yunel Escobar continues to be one our best offensive assets and had a .400 OBP with 4 runs scored.
THE BAD
Fernando Salas blew what should have been a sweep of the A's when he gave up a walk-off in the bottom of the 9th on Friday.
Jered Weaver makes both lists over the past two series. Against the A's he was amazing, but against the Twins he gave up 6 runs over 6 innings for the loss, which is far from stellar.
Carlos Perez had a key home run on Sunday, but did little else this past week with his .133 AVG. His backup Jett Bandy didn't do much better, going 1 for 7.
I'm thinking that Shane Robinson is nowhere near the best guy we have to play left field. Last week he hit only .182 with one run scored.
THE MEH
Jhoulys Chacin allowed 4 ER over 5 innings against the Twins. Could have been worse. Could have been better. His last performance was pretty much the definition of meh. He squeaked out the win thanks to an Angels offense that just barely had enough runs to win the game.
Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout didn't do much with their bats over the past week, batting .217 and .227. They both stay out of the bad list since they also had a .308 and .320 OBP and hit 3 HRs with 6 combined RBIs.
Todd Cunningham, Daniel Nava, and Albert Pujols all combined to hit around .245 with only 1 extra base hit among them.
Andrelton Simmons is back and has hit .231 since his return. Sounds about right. Meh.