As the season turns and once again we are treated to the cracks of bats and pops of mitts, a familiar refrain returns to southern California: Angels fans looking at a top-heavy lineup featuring two of the greatest players in the sport, a stacked bullpen, some new flashy offseason signings, and wondering if this is the year that Mike Trout’s talent finally stops getting wasted.
Unfortunately for those fans, and fortunately for their Houston contemporaries, things don’t look any easier than they have been at the beginning of other recent seasons in Anaheim. Even with Trout and Shohei Ohtani featuring one of the most feared one-two punches in any lineup, there’s not a whole lot of confidence among the galaxy brains of baseball that the Angels can finally get over the hump and into October greatness.