The Los Angeles Angels go into the new baseball season with one of the best outfields in baseball. However, when looking at their pitching rotation, many believe they will have trouble keeping opponents off the scoreboard. They could easily become the Lakers of baseball.
When looking at the 2013 Angels, they resemble the heavy hitting star power you'd find on a Fantasy Baseball roster. The addition of Josh Hamilton will make the middle of their lineup the scariest in baseball today as Mike Trout and Albert Pujols will surely feast from the slugger's presence in the lineup.
Hamilton will ensure that Pujols sees strikes. Trout is set to have another great year and for manager Mike Scioscia, the liberty of moving these guys around the lineup will provide peace of mind.
However, Scioscia, who comes into his 14th managerial season all with the Angels organization, will have to worry about his pitching.
First of all, they reliever traded Jordan Walden for right-hander and former top Atlanta Braves' prospect, Tommy Hanson. Hanson was a coveted rookie and young starter in the majors, but there's something about his delivery that doesn't make him durable. His velocity dropped and he spent some time on the DL in 2012.
Then there's Joe Blanton. He's durable and he proved this from 2005-2009 when making at least 30 starts in each season. He bounced back from the minors and the majors 2011, but then made 30 starts in 2012. The biggest problem with Blanton is his ERA. It's only been under 4.00 once in his career and that was in 2005.
The most durable guys in the rotation are, of course, Jared Weaver, there's no need to worry about him and newly acquired Jason Vargas.
The only thing with Vargas is that, similar to Blanton, he posts high ERA's. In 31 starts in 2010, Vargas posted his lowest ERA at 3.78. In 2011, it was 4.25 and in 2012, his ERA dropped back down to 2.85. Without a doubt, he gives the Angels what they wanted and that's an inning eater having thrown 217.1 innings in 2012.
Garrett Richards will be expected to be the fifth starter. He impressed in his first starts of the season, but he the league caught up to him eventually. Fortunately for him, Weaver returned from injury and he was relegated to a bullpen role.
The Angels were average posting a collective 4.02 ERA in 2012 while holding opponents to a sixth best .246 batting average.
There will be no worries about the Angels offense if they stay healthy, but opponents should go into Angel Stadium confident they can put up runs on this pitching rotation.
