State of the Angels Haiku:

 

“Real ugly road trip,

 

Many runs given, few runs scored,

 

Is the sky falling?”

 

It’s been a topsy-turvy start to the season for the Halos and their fans. It’s as if we’re all waiting for the Angels’ real season to start; to see the team we’ve become accustom to seeing on the field, playing Angels baseball. There have been glimpses so far, sure, but the team has failed to sustain any real momentum thus far. After 34 games last season, the Angels were 17-17 before they started to gain traction on the road to another AL West title. But last year felt a little different. Major injuries to the rotation and a young, inexperienced bullpen were much to blame for last year’s slow start. This season, fingers can’t be pointed in any one direction. At 15-19 at the 34 game-mark, fingers can be justifiably pointed in all directions.

 

Consistency and the Angel way have been the staples of the Mike Scioscia era. Fans have come to expect a sound starting rotation and a trust-worthy relief corps. We’ve come to expect timely hitting and aggressive tactics on the bases. So far, these attributes have yet to come together and complement each other. A baseball team is like an engine. You’re not going to get a desirable result unless all the pistons are firing when they’re supposed to.

 

Though the Angels snatched a much-needed win away from the Rays in the 11th inning Monday, there were plenty of signs of the Angels’ woes on display. It appeared nearly perfect at the start, then the inconsistencies reared their heads. After amassing four runs on six hits through the first 4 innings, the Angels’ bats went cold, getting just one hit until the 11th when Juan Rivera salvaged the night with a sacrifice fly. After scoring the second most runs in baseball in 2009, the Angels are in the bottom five this season, averaging just 4 runs per game.

 

After getting a brilliant 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball from Joel Pineiro, the bullpen faltered once more, with Brian Fuentes blowing his fourth save in six chances and bumping his ERA up to 7.04 (not the number you want to see from your closer). Of the Halos’ relievers, only Fernando Rodney boasts an ERA under 4.00.

 

It seems that when they pitch well, they aren’t hitting, and when they hit well, they aren’t pitching. The Angels are having more trouble putting it all together than in recent years, as evidenced by their most recent 2-8 road trip.

 

Mid-May is typically when the early-season grace period ends in baseball. You can get by with a slow start, but as Memorial Day approaches, the horses are getting further and further from the quarter-mile pole. At some point, it ceases to be early and starts to be mid-season. And you can’t get by with inconsistency in the summer. Inconsistencies get you much closer to .500 than the playoffs.

 

The remainder of this month is going to prove more critical than the Mays of seasons past. Fortunately, the rest of the West is also underperforming and staying bunched in a pack, with no one taking charge of the division thus far. But if the Angels are going to claim the division they’ve owned with consistency most of the past decade, they’re going to need to have their pistons firing on all cylinders sooner rather than later.

 

By; Blake Warren