Anaheim AngelsBaseball is not football. That bears repeating, especially for guys like former Angel's manager Terry Collins. In football, the coach does everything imaginable to win every game, because losing more than a couple of games could mean sitting home for the playoffs. Baseball is a marathon season of 162 games. Losing games is inevitable. If a manager tries use all of his resources to try to win every game, he's gonna burn his team out before he gets to the All Star break. Collins managed the Angels like they were a football team, and because of that, their record reflected a much worse team than their talent level should allow.
The offense is headed up by two fiery players: Darin Erstad and Mo Vaughn. Erstad has been an outspoken leader of this club since his rookie year. Although he was viewed as acting above his station as a first year player, he earned the respect of his teammates with the all-out way he played the game. Erstad played baseball like he did football: all out. But that style of play takes a toll over the long season and Erstad has been plagued by nagging injuries for the better part of his 3 1/2 years in the bigs. Still, he's managed to be a fairly productive player. If he learns that 160 games of him playing at 90% is more productive than 80 games of him playing at 110% and 80 games of him playing at 60%, then he could become a perennial All Star. Mo Vaughn is also an emotional player and last year he learned the same lesson Erstad should be learning. In one of the first games of the season, he twisted his ankle badly pursuing a foul ball in the opposition's dugout. He missed a good portion of the early season and really wasn't productive until the second half. The Angels can surely use a healthy Vaughn and Erstad. Tim Salmon has been plagued by foot injuries ad his playing time has diminished over the past two years. When healthy, he's a .900 OPS hitter and a valuable team leader. Garrett Anderson gains more playing time with the trade of Jim Edmonds but has been pretty average as a run producer. Troy Glaus is coming into his own as a slugger and at age 23, is already one of the premier 3rd basemen in the AL. Gary DiSarcina at shortstop is only the line-up for his defense. Ben Molina is the present and future catcher, with Matt Walbeck backing him up. Neither is a very exciting offensive player. Scott Spiezio at second falls in that category as well, but Adam Kennedy, who came over in the Edmonds deal might have some offensive upside. He has decent pop for a middle fielder, good speed and a pretty good eye at the plate. GRADE: 50
Anaheim's defense has no glaring weaknesses. All of the players are at least average and several, like DiSarcina and Glaus are very good defenders. Kennedy is not as accomplished defensively as Spiezio and might be platooned because of it. Erstad has outstanding range in the outfield but his arm is a bit sub par. Salmon and Anderson are both about average, with Salmon having an above average arm in right field. Both Walbeck and Molina are good at suppressing the opposition running game. GRADE: 55
Simply put, the Angels don't have a lot of starting pitching. There was a time when Ken Hill was a premier hurler, but it's been 4 years since he's been even remotely above average. More amazingly, he's only 34. The same can almost be said of Tim Belcher, however he has a more legitimate excuse: he's 38. Kent Bottenfield came over from St. Louis in the Edmonds deal after winning 18 games last season. Before last season, he had won 18 games total in his entire career. All three of these guys can probably pitch 175 innings, maybe 200 with some good run support, but beyond that is probably expecting a bit much. The Angels do have some good arms on the way, led by acclaimed Pedro Martinez clone Ramon Ortiz. Ortiz hikes his fastball up to the mid-90's fastball as Pedro does, and even has a good change and a great curve. Obviously, he's not as polished as Pedro at this point, but there is potential if he's not rushed or overused. Jason Dickson and Scott Schoeneweis also show some promise. Schoeneweis doesn't have great stuff, and gets hit a little than most, but has a good feel for pitching and is very stingy about giving up walks. With a solid defensive team behind him, that's about as smart as a pitcher can be. Of course, that might not be enough to make him a star, which is what the Angels need in order to contend. Kent Mercker, who was once slated to become a star of the Braves rotation, will fill out the rotation and try to regain the magic he had back in 1994. GRADE: 45
The bullpen is headed up by Troy Percival. Percival blew away the AL in his first two years, but arm troubles have tempered his success since. If he can stay away from the shoulder woes that plagued him last year, he's still one of the more intimidating relievers around. The other relievers in the Halos pen aren't nearly as intimidating. Journeyman Mark Petkovsek and Shigetoshi Hasegawa are workmanlike, throwing strikes with an assortment of pitches but never dazzling with anything special. Al Levine and Mark Holtz are middle aged. GRADE: 45
The Angels cleaned house this winter in the front office, naming a new general manager, Bill Stoneman, and a new manager, Mike Scioscia. Stoneman is a product of the Expos organization and if he can replicate the minor league success of Montreal, the Angels will have a good chance to move up. His spring trade of Edmonds for Bottenfield and Kennedy is somewhat questionable in that he gave up a star player for a possible one-year wonder and a decent prospect. However, if Kennedy turns into a productive regular, then the deal is break even. There's still not a lot to go on to rate him as a GM. Scioscia will be a huge boost as the manager, if only because he's not Terry Collins. Scioscia was also a smart major league player, so in all likelyhood, he'll be a pretty smart manager. He certainly seems to have the right temperament. Another thing going in his favor is that he was a catcher. No other position has to deal with as much emotion as catcher and Scioscia was actually pretty good at that part of the game. He also understands the value of walks and will probably be a positive influence on the offense. How much he knows about pitch counts, young arms and some of the newer revelations in baseball research remains to be seen. But all in all, Scioscia was a very good choice. GRADE: 55