CALIFORNIA ANGELS
June 6, 1977
I've come to the conclusion that this team is broken. Perhaps not badly, but broken. The past three weeks have killed us, and as I've mentioned below it's only because the Royals are also fumbling that we aren't further behind.
I think our first big clue comes from the AL Pitching Leader boards. Most of that, except where needed at the end to include stat leaders, comes from WAR. When one of the highest ranked pitchers by WAR has a losing record, that points at the offense being the problem.
Team Rankings:
| Total | Category | AL Rank |
| 249 | Runs Scored | 6 |
| 0.250 | Batting Avg. | 12 |
| 0.331 | On Base Pct. | 5 |
| 52 | Home Runs | 7 |
| 34 | Stolen Bases | 6 |
| 197 | Runs Against | 1 |
| 3.48 | Starter ERA | 4 |
| 3.22 | Bullpen ERA | 3 |
| 0.731 | Defensive Eff. | 1 |
| 98.4 | Power Rank | 6 |
And this seems to bear me out. Batting Average is very low, and while that by itself means little, none of our offensive categories are particularly good. Our best is OBP (we must walk a fair bit) at 5th in a 14 team league. Pitching is a solid 1st-4th.
Therefore, let's do the easy analysis first:
Team Pitching Stats:
| Starters | W | L | SV | ERA | WHIP | K | IP | VORP | Notes |
| Frank Tanana | 4 | 6 | 0 | 3.43 | 1.06 | 84 | 97.0 | 15.7 | |
| Paul Hartzell | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2.43 | 1.09 | 26 | 77.2 | 21.6 | |
| Nolan Ryan | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3.69 | 1.37 | 78 | 75.2 | 10.0 | |
| Jesse Jefferson | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4.38 | 1.43 | 11 | 37.0 | 1.9 | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| Relievers | W | L | SV | ERA | WHIP | K | IP | | Notes |
| Wayne Simpson | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3.20 | 1.24 | 25 | 59.0 | 11.1 | |
| Mickey Scott | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1.88 | 1.08 | 10 | 24.0 | 8.2 | |
| Don Kirkwood | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3.27 | 1.09 | 18 | 22.0 | 4.0 | |
| Dick Drago | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5.91 | 1.31 | 5 | 21.1 | -3.1 | Trade to TOR |
| John Verhoeven | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.45 | 0.73 | 6 | 11.0 | 3.0 | |
| Mike Barlow | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.53 | 0.94 | 4 | 10.2 | 2.8 | |
| John Caneira | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.31 | 1.97 | 2 | 9.2 | -5.0 | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| Closer | W | L | SV | ERA | WHIP | K | IP | | Notes |
| Gary Ross | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2.40 | 1.13 | 11 | 15.0 | 4.2 | |
Though perhaps taking a step back from April, if you don't look at win/loss records we have a fairly solid rotation. Even Jefferson, who's turning out not to be the answer I hoped, isn't bad. I'm rather hoping Manager Sherry realizes Simpson is a better starter than #5 and moves him up the rotation. Ryan continues to frustrate me because along with that incredible strikeout total he's walking far too many batters. Notice his WHIP.
Of my other relievers, the only one I cringe upon seeing is Caneira, and he only worked 2 innings last month. That tempts me to just leave it alone, but if we do actually pull this off and take the division, can we really say Caneira did his part? If I do switch him out, it's mostly cosmetic: No one in reserve is an obvious improvement.
As far as I'm concerned, Gary Ross is a great closer. He's only had one truly bad outing so far which explains his loss and much of his ERA.
Team Batting Stats:
| Catchers | AVG | OBP | HR | RBI | SB | AB | VORP | Notes |
| Andy Etchebarren | 0.255 | 0.345 | 1 | 28 | 0 | 149 | 3.7 | |
| Ike Hampton | 0.083 | 0.214 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | -1.7 | |
| | | | | | | | |
| Corner IF | AVG | OBP | HR | RBI | SB | AB | VORP | Notes |
| Rance Mulliniks | 0.221 | 0.289 | 3 | 14 | 1 | 181 | -0.6 | |
| Tony Solaita | 0.210 | 0.339 | 5 | 19 | 0 | 143 | 3.3 | |
| Bruce Bochte | 0.338 | 0.404 | 2 | 19 | 0 | 139 | 10.6 | |
| Ron Jackson | 0.239 | 0.300 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 46 | 1.1 | |
| Dan Briggs | 0.500 | 0.667 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1.0 | Minors |
| | | | | | | | |
| Middle IF | AVG | OBP | HR | RBI | SB | AB | VORP | Notes |
| Jerry Remy | 0.239 | 0.320 | 1 | 15 | 12 | 184 | 6.7 | |
| Dave Chalk | 0.239 | 0.331 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 134 | 1.9 | |
| Bobby Grich | 0.213 | 0.337 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 75 | 4.1 | DL 2 days |
| Mario Guerrero | 0.200 | 0.200 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | -0.3 | |
| | | | | | | | |
| Outfielders | AVG | OBP | HR | RBI | SB | AB | VORP | Notes |
| Don Baylor | 0.247 | 0.329 | 12 | 34 | 2 | 186 | 7.9 | |
| Joe Rudi | 0.278 | 0.324 | 10 | 32 | 1 | 169 | 12.0 | |
| Gil Flores | 0.306 | 0.337 | 1 | 15 | 7 | 98 | 6.4 | DL 3 months |
| Bobby Bonds | 0.219 | 0.306 | 7 | 18 | 7 | 96 | 2.2 | |
| Ken Landreaux | 0.302 | 0.362 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 63 | 5.3 | |
| Rusty Torres | 0.194 | 0.390 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 31 | 2.5 | |
| Thad Bosley | 0.222 | 0.222 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | -0.7 | DL Season |
| Bob Jones | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -0.7 | Minors |
Let's break this down a bit:
CATCHER: Etchebarren steadily improved through most of May. He's our #9 hitter and has set up for Remy (#1) a fair bit of the time. I'm no longer too worried about him. Hampton vexes me, but since I traded away my third string catcher in the Jefferson deal, I don't think I have much choice unless a cheap catcher winds up on the trading block.
FIRST: When Bonds came back, Baylor took first. Not a bad choice, but it did shut out Bruce Bochte, who as you can see was having a pretty good offensive year. The answer may actually be to demote Solaita - Solaita is our DH. With him gone, perhaps Sherry would use both players.
SECOND: Grich and Remy had been more or less platooning. Remy's held his own, so I really haven't felt Grich's loss. When he returns I will probably demote Guerrero.
SHORTSTOP: Shortstop is an upgrade possibility (as is second), but I have more pressing concerns than Dave Chalk. Guerrero has been his backup since Grich was hurt. With Guerrero gone that will probably fall on Remy.
THIRD: Here I think is one of my big issues (getting Bochte back in the lineup is the other
Mulliniks isn't cutting it. To be fair, this is his rookie season and perhaps he simply wasn't ready. Unfortunately I don't have any appealing alternatives. The Dodgers do have Ron Cey on the trading block, but they haven't yet realized this isn't going to be their year and want too much. Perhaps closer to the deadline. Mulliniks' backup is Jackson. Enough said.
LEFT FIELD: Perhaps to give Bochte playing time, Sherry has begun excluding Rudi from the lineup. This is a huge mistake, as during April the 3-4 combo of Rudi/Baylor was great. Again, Solaita may be the key as when Baylor isn't on 1st, he's here.
CENTER FIELD: Center's been volatile with Flores and Landreaux both suffering injuries. Currently this is Landreaux's territory. I don't give much for the man, but at least his OBP is friendly.
RIGHT FIELD: When Bonds returned he took over the position. As you may have read, he started 1 for 24 or so before beginning to turn it around, so clawing his way up to .219/.306 is actually pretty good. Because of this I think I need to give him more time to straighten out.
If I do nothing, the lineups for June will be:
Code:
RHP LHP
2B Remy
1B Bochte
RF Bonds
LF Baylor DH Baylor
3B Mulliniks LF Rudi
DH Solaita 3B Mulliniks
SS Chalk
CF Landreaux
C Etchebarren
S1 Tanana CL Ross
S2 Hartzell SU Scott
S3 Ryan SU Kirkwood
S4 Jefferson MR Verhoeven
S5 Simpson MR Barlow
MR Caneira
Any thoughts?