2012 Major League Baseball regular season review: Los Angeles Angels – MLB Feature
As the dust settles on another exciting Major League Baseball regular season and the playoffs start, one team that did not make it to the postseason is the Los Angeles Angels.
Having made news early as they signed a mega-deal with hitting maestro Albert Pujols for a whopping $254-million, most fans were already celebrating the Angels’ return to greatness. The Angels also went one step further and acquired C. J. Wilson for $77.5-million
to strengthen their pitching rotation.
Stacked to the hilt with massive talent, the Angels looked all set to dominate the American League and cruise in to the playoffs. Unfortunately, that was not the case. To the surprise of many, the Angels were very slow going in the beginning of the season
with a questionable 6-14 record.
Having spent so much money, the team seemed out of sync and struggled. The Angels ended the season sitting at the third spot in the American League West Division with an 89-73 win-loss record. Los Angeles just missed out making it in to the Wild Card. What
was supposed to be a walk in the park turned out to be a drag.
Both Pujols and Lewis did not have the sort of season that they hoped for as their numbers were okay but not extraordinary. Fortunately for the Angels, other players like rookie Mike Trout, Torii Hunter and Jered Weaver raised their game. However, it was
not enough to carry the Angels to the post season. In all fairness, the Angels did lose some games that were very close and could have gone each way.
Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia must have realised in the middle of the season that the team was just not coming together and winning. The fans were left scratching their heads as the Angels would dominate one day and come out looking flat on other occasions.
"We set ourselves back early in the year and never quite got to a position we wanted to be, and we paid a price for it," Mike Scioscia said. "But these guys, they respected the game. They played hard all year. It was a great bunch of guys in there, and we
feel for them, too, because they left everything out on the field and we just couldn't get there."
It seems that it will probably take some more time until the team settles and players like Pujols starts to put in some extraordinary numbers. During the offseason it will be interesting to see what type of changes the Angels might do to improve the depth
of the team in both batting and pitching.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that bad a year for the Angels. Their rookie Mike Trout led the Angels with a .326 average and an amazing 129 runs. He had 30 home-runs, which is tied with Pujols. On the pitching front, Weaver led the Angels with a 2.81 ERA
and 20 wins.
The offseason will give the Angels some time to identify and work out their flaws as the team is filled with some amazing players that are all very talented. The key will be to get them all on the same page so that the Angels start playing like a team.
The fans will be hoping the Angels can work on fixing their weaknesses and come out strong in 2013.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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