Watch out Angels fans, but the Angels are finally starting to play like most of us thought they would about 20 months ago. Alas, a winning streak is just the start to turning a horrendous start to the season into a playoff opportunity and more. If there is one knock I continue to have with the Angels it is that their relief pitching still has trouble. At the very least they are still taking care of business, but they are making things way too interesting for opposing teams. I have yet to see a ninth inning during this streak that was 1-2-3. I feel like every time a reliever comes in they give up a hit or a walk and then another and soon we are all hear biting our finger nails trying to make sure that we close out a win.
Wednesday is going to be a great day as the man above in the picture (Jered Weaver) is expected to come off the disabled list and start. I don't know how everybody else is feeling about this, but I am super excited about this. Plus, how does a pitcher ever not get injured with an arm angle like the one in the picture? That doesn't seem like an average arm motion. Anyways, Weavers return should be another spark to a surging team and help make another step towards righting the ship.
Has anybody else noticed how spectacular Mike Trout has been in the past 2 weeks or so? If you haven't, you should. He is playing better than anyone not named Miguel Cabrera right now. The strikeout numbers are still a little high, but I think he can fix that as well. I think he is taking too much advice from Pujols and Hamilton. Hamilton wants to swing at everything and Pujols wants to wait for his pitch. Two opposing styles and Trout is trying to decide which to choose and he is stuck in a middle ground between the two. As soon as he figures that out he should be just fine.
Josh Hamilton has finally pulled his head out of his... Well you know. He is finally looking like that player that the Angels paid ungodly amounts of money to hit a ball. I knew that he wouldn't be as bad as he was in the first month of the season for the whole year and I am happy that I didn't have to change my stance on that. Hamilton is the key to turning this around. We seem to know what we are going to get from the other stars in the lineup. Hamilton was the x-factor and as he goes, so goes the Angels. Now there is that the one other crazy wealthy player who needs to turn things around.
Albert Pujols must be really hurting from that plantar fasciitis. He doesn't look like the same hitter from last year let alone the rest of his career. I don't know what he needs to change to bring back the MVP form he had during his St. Louis career, but he needs to pull it together. We can't have our 200 million dollar man hitting .244 and slugging .415. Those are numbers put up by a journeyman outfielder at the bottom of a lineup. I know that he still has the chance to turn things around much like last year and yet he shouldn't have to be turning things around ever. He is too good a hitter to be slumping like this 2 seasons in a row.
At the very least I am glad for the optimism that I have seen and heard from Angel fans in the last week. I haven't seen Angels fans so sad and angry in quite a long time. Even last season we knew that things we're going to get better. This year we all weren't so sure. And while this winning streak is just that a winning streak it has the team moving in the right direction. The Angels are finally playing up to the massive potential they have. Sustaining this success won't be easy and it is likely to get bad again before getting better. Angel fans just need to remain optimistic and continue to cheer our baseball boys out there. Go Halos!
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