What do you get for $240 million?

To fire your hitting coach!

OK, I'm sure someone else has made that joke.  Lets look at the Angels' offense briefly while Foment continues his tour of each team's rotation.  Aside: I plan on doing similar things to team's lineups during the summer when we have more data and I have more time available.

The Angels, as I've talked about before, have an abysmal offense.  As of today, May 16, they are 12th out of 14 teams in the AL in OBP (301!!!), and 11th in slugging (379!!).  These are hilariously horrible offensive numbers, especially for a team that has a DH.  It's not all Pujols' fault, almost everyone seems to be pretty bad right now.  So, this firing isn't all that surprising.  However, before people blame AP for getting him fired, let's take a quick look back at the Angels' offense since their World Series win in 2002 (2003-2011).

2011- 313 OBP (11th)/ 402 SLG (8th), 86-76 (Pyth'd* 85-75)
2010- 311 (11th)/ 390 (10th), 80-82 (79-83)
2009- 350 (3rd)/ 441 (4th), 97-65 (92-70)
2008- 330 (11th)/ 413 (9th), 100-62 (88-74)
2007- 345 (3rd)/ 417 (9th), 94-68 (90-72)
2006- 334 (10th) / 425 (8th), 89-73 (84-78)
2005- 325 (9th) / (409) (9th), 95-67 (93-69)
2004- 341 (6th) / 429 (10th), 92-70 (91-71)
2003- 330 (8th) / 413 (9th), 77-85 (80-82)

*"Pyth" is short for "Pythagorean W-L", which is calculated based off of the number of runs you score against the number of runs you allow based on the Pythagorean theorem.  Used to tell if a team is overachieving or not.  Like that 08 Angels team that lost in 4 games to the Bosox in the ALDS, was really really lucky.

So, in those 9 seasons, the Angels have had an offense with an OBP above the median of 7th twice.  TWICE.  Slugging, they have been no higher than 4th, but usually around 8th or 9th.  They are worse than usual this season, pretty close to those 2010 numbers, but maybe they should have done this shakeup after last year when they OBP'd less than notables such as Juan Pierre and Darin Erstad.

I don't know how much effect firing the hitting coach is going to have on them, but rest assured if Pujols turns it around it's because of his new hitting coach (which he had at least 3 in St Louis and never really had much of an issue) and NOT because he is one of the best hitters of all time.  The same goes for all those other slumping below career level hitters.  Most of them will probably progress to the norm.  If they do, it will because they are major league hitters, not because of the hitting coach.  Bank on it.

Dan Plesac joins the fold...

Watching MLB Tonight (again with these people being dumb!) and Greg Amsinger and Dan Plesac are talking about how the Angels have been shut out a lot this year.  Amsinger asks Plesac how that could be.  The correct answer?  The team has a .299 OBP (12/14) and a SLG of .379 (11/14) entering play today.  So they aren't getting guys on base and when they hit, they don't do so for much power.  I mean, even David Eckstein could cobble together a 701 OPS in his career, they aren't even doing that well.

What does Plesac say is the reason?  Because Albert Pujols is struggling!  I mean, that's close, right?

As a Cardinals fan, I can understand why that would seem so.  For 11 years, it seemed that as Pujols went, so did the Cardinals.  But, really, that isn't true.  If no one were getting on base besides Pujols, and no one were hitting for power besides Pujols, the Cards would have had poor offensive teams in the 2000s.  Think of Adrian Gonzalez on the Padres all those years, big bat with no one around him.  In the glory years of the Cardinals, they had guys like Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen, Matt Holliday, Ryan Ludwick, Troy Glaus (for a year), and a bunch of other guys hitting well around Pujols.  Not, as Danny P claims because of Pujols, but because they were good hitters in any situation.  Having that dominant bat helps, but if the rest of the Angels lineup continues to OBP under 300, Albert could put up Bonds-like numbers and they still wouldn't score many runs.  Because, and I will type this in big letters so Plesac can understand it:

A BASEBALL TEAM IS MORE THAN ONE PLAYER!

I'm sleepy.

Pujols Gets a Slow Start in the AL

To start, I’m well aware that only 5% of the season has passed, I’m also well aware of what that means in terms of sample size, however 40 plate appearances for Albert Pujols and his stats tell a tale of a man who’s not yet comfortable at the plate. Pujols hasn’t exactly faced the cream of the crop yet in AL pitching facing the likes of Phil Hughes, Jonathan Sanchez, and Luke Hochevar  he hasn’t quite gotten things going. He’s gotten 3 walks, 3 doubles, and has reached base 12 times overall, but he has yet to hit a homerun in what is now the longest streak of his career to open a season without going yard. There’s no reason to believe that he won’t be able to get his bat up to snuff, but for a man who usually puts about 42 balls out of the park, this is not the start that LA was hoping for with their new slugger.

It should be noted that while Pujols’ last season in St. Louis was not his best, to the contrary, it may well have been his worst. His stat line across the board is still quite impressive, it just wasn’t Pujols impressive. Having put together his worst batting average (.299), on base percentage (.366), slugging percentage (.541),  and grounding into more double plays (29) than ever before, he still hit 37 home runs, stole 9 bases on 10 attempts, and had 29 doubles. His RBI total was the lowest in his career (99) and his run total wasn’t up to what we’d expect either, but those are pretty heavily influenced by the people around him, so those can be taken with a grain of salt.

It bears noting that Pujols played through the majority of what should have been 6 weeks on the DL with a broken forearm last season, and has been dealing with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament for several years now. In case you’re scratching your head about that one, that’s the ligament replaced during Tommy John Surgery. That’s right, If Pujols was a pitcher, he’d have had to bite the bullet and ride the pine for a year, but instead he has had 2 off season surgeries to keep the elbow manageable, and while he would likely not tell anyone if it was bothering him, this should certainly be looked at as a long term risk factor for the Angels, if not a cause for some for some of these early season woes if they are to continue.

Overall, I can’t say I expect this slow start to carry on much longer, but given his previous injuries, if they do carry through the next 5 - 10 games, it might be a cause for his new team to sit him down and see what his health status really is.