The Angels 2022 Season Explained in One Chart
Trout and Ohtani are better than the rest of their teammates...combined.
N.B. Today’s post is short and sweet. I decided it’s too long for a tweet thread, though barely. But I kept the gifs and pictures from Twitter to add visual appeal (and length).
Our boys start a series with the Angels tonight in Anaheim, and that give us a chance to check in on how things are going for our neighbors in Orange County.
On May 15th the Angels were 24-13, 11 games over. In just 2 short months, they've gone 15-32 and are now 11 games under .500.
Despite all the blood going on in Anaheim, the team still has two maginificent stars, among the most valuable players in baseball. Last week, Jason Foster of The Sporting News wrote an column arguing the Ohtani is the AL MVP this season. It’s smart and well- reasoned; you should click the link.
Trout has slipped in MVP odds in recent days, but the numbers show he should be a candidate. He's 4th in the AL in bWAR, 3rd in OPS, SLG, and OPS+. Mike Trout is, as always, Mike Trout.
So how are the Angels able to have 2 MVP candidates and yet be 11 games under .500 and have a 5.0% chance of making the expanded playoffs this season? The answer is simple--the rest of the Angels are terrible.
The chart below groups the Angels into 4 parts--Trout, Ohtani, Other Angel Hitters and Other Angel Pitchers by Wins Above Replacement. The rest of the Angels combined have contributed fewer wins this season than Trout and Ohtani.
Trout and Ohtani combined have 8.1 bWAR.
Every other Angel combined has 7.0 bWAR.
The Angels have been felled this season by the same thing that has felled this franchise since they made the playoffs in 2014--they are spectacularly unable to find average players to support their superstars.
No piece of fiction has ever been truer than the Tungsten Arm O'Doyle tweet.
