Week 14 / Mid Season Halo Recap: The Good, the bad, the meh

As Carlos stated in his Monday Links, the Angels had their worst first half since since 1992, and head in to the All-Star break with their first losing record since 2013.  There is no other way to put it - the Angels first half this year was terrible.

Here's how the Angels placed in the American League in some key areas:

HR: 2nd from last
Runs: 8th overall (helped largely by their surge over the past few weeks)
AVG: 6th
Ks: 1st place (fewest)
GDP: 2nd
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ERA: 11th
FIP: 14th
Pitching WAR: 15th
Blown Saves: 7th
HR Allowed: 3rd
Ks: 14th
WHIP: 14th
BAA: 14th

Clearly it's pitching and GDP that has hurt the Angels most this year and if they can somehow turn around pitching in the second half and keep their offense going then we won't end up in last place.  Though anything can happen in the second half, I still think a playoff run is a long, long, long shot and mostly a dream at this point.  It sure doesn't help that hot-hitting C.J. Cron is now on the DL with a broken hand thanks to Mike Wright.

The Angels were 4-3 in their last week heading into the break, but could have been 7-0 with a lock down bullpen since the pen was pretty much responsible for all 3 losses.

THE GOOD

Andrelton Simmons made several plays last week that few shortstops in baseball would have made.  In addition, he hit .400 with 3 doubles and 5 RBIs.

Daniel Nava was pretty good though he only had 9 AB.  He went 4 for 9 with 4 RBIs and had a .571 OBP.

With the return of Geovano Soto, Jett Bandy made the cut and Carlos Perez found himself back in AAA.  Bandy hit .357 last week with a  .438 OBP.

Kole Calhoun showed a lot of discipline with a team high 6 walks and he had a .483 OBP.

Mike Trout is always doing Trouty things and though he only batted .286, he had a .407 OBP, hit a home run and stole two bases.

C.J. Cron slowed considerably in AVG, hitting only .222 but he had two more home runs and a .318 OBP.

Hector Santiago had a great outing against Tampa Bay, holding them to just 3 hits and zero runs over 7 innings.

While Cam Bedrosian did give up some hits, he pitched 4 scoreless innings with 6 Ks last week.  When did he become the best bullpen pieces we have?

Jered Weaver has the most wins and most quality starts of any Halo pitcher in 2016.  He pitched a strong 6 innings and gave up only 1 run on 4 hits.

Nick Tropeano only made it 11 innings in two starts, but he only gave up 3 runs and struck out 12.  It's good to have NiTro back!

THE BAD

Ji-Man Choi is back and he still kinda sucks.  He was responsible for Simmons missing a ball on a key play and he went only 1 for 6 in his return.

Jefry Marte was once looking pretty good, but has been on this list 3 weeks in a row now.  He only hit .154 last week, though he did manage one homerun.

Gregorio Petit, Shane Robinson, Carlos Perez, Todd Cunningham, and Geovany Soto all had less than 10 AB and none of them did much with them.  Those five players had a combined 26 AB and only 3 hits.  A good chunk of the Angel's lineup last week didn't do much at all.

Joe Smith's dropped ball against Baltimore gave up the lead, and then the next inning he gave up the game.  He also gave up the only run in Halo win over Tampa Bay after Santiago had shut them out for 7 innings.

Fernando Salas pitched okay his other 3 times on the mound, but on July 4th he was tagged with the loss when he gave up 2 runs in a game the Angels could have won (they lost by 2).  He had a .385 BAA and 2.00 WHIP lat week.

Houston Street, we have a problem. What happened to our closer?  Street couldn't even make it through his inning on Sunday and Jhoulys Chacin had to come in and save his ass, even though the Angels still lost.  Street is not missing enough bats this year and has a career high .329 BAA and 1.92 WHIP this season.

C.J. Cron has been hot and now he has a broken hand.  That sucks.

Fortunately the Angels had a big lead on Friday because Deolis Guerra finally had a rough outing and he gave up 2 runs in 2 innings of work.  Aside from Friday, he's been about the only good bullpen pieces next to Bedrosian lately.

Tim Lincecum hasn't really shown anything good in his Angels tenure so far.  He pitched 10.1 innings over 2 games and gave up 19 hits and 8 runs.  He did strike out 10, but his walks and hits have been very high.

THE MEH

Albert Pujols and his .214 AVG were the definition of meh last week.  He also had zero extra base hits.

Johnny Giavotella batted only .208 though he didn't strike out once.

J.C. Ramirez gave up 4 hits and a run in 3.2 innings of work.  Not horrible, not great.  Just meh.

Like Ramirez, Jhoulys Chacin was pretty meh last week, giving up 1 run in 2.2 innings.

Matt Shoemaker was pretty ho-hum as well last week, giving up 3 runs over only 5 innings.  However, he did manage to notch another win!