What went right for Los Angeles in 2013: Mike Trout - Another year where Trout would have won the Most Valuable Player award if his team won 95 games, but we were denied of that greatness. Once again, Trout's numbers were outrageous. He led the league in runs scoring, had 190 hits, hit .323 with 39 doubles and nine triples. He had a near OPS of damn .1000 with a .988. Trout also had a league leading WAR of 10 games meaning Los Angeles would have only won 68 games if a player not named Trout roamed center field. Think about that for a second.
What went wrong for Los Angeles in 2013: Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton - These were two expected to give Los Angeles another World Series win, but that did not happen in the slightest. A plantar fascinitis injury plagued Pujols for his entire season leading to only 99 games played with only 17 home runs. Hamilton hit only 21 homers and hit for his lowest average since coming back to baseball. Pujols also had a laughable average for his standards at .258.
Key Additions: 3B David Freese, OF Raul Ibanez, SP Hector Santiago, SP Tyler Skaggs, 1B Carlos Pena, RP Fernando Salas, RP Joe Smith - They added some little pieces including a couple big young pitchers we will touch on in a section below. Even though he ends up on Disabled List often, I liked the Freese trade. I think he could add some value for this team, and yes I am glad he will not face the Brewers this season.
Key Subtractions: 1B Mark Trumbo, OF Peter Bourjos, SP Jerome Williams, SP Tommy Hanson - They cleared out many players that were hanging on too long after they made the Pujols and Hamilton signings plus the impact of Trout made Peter Bourjos' irrelevant.
What to watch: Can Hamilton or Pujols return to form? - This is a fair question to ask about this team right now. Both are looking like the spiral is coming for them quicker than expected and if they hurt the team again with bad play, Los Angeles will finish no better than third in a tough division. The most annoying thing would be all of the stories about the 'redemption' season for both players as they are well-liked by the media. I would keep my eye on this storyline throughout the year because if they struggle again, Los Angeles needs to rethink their whole philosophy.
Population: Breakout: Young pitchers - I want to see what happens with the back end of their rotation. Santiago and Skaggs were both highly considered prospects with Chicago and Arizona respectively. It is very possible both teams gave up too early on both of them. If they both find their stride this season plus a healthy front end with Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson, does this not become of the most dangerous teams in baseball? The projections tend to believe the S.S. Los Angeles could be pretty solid with both their ERA's coming in under four.
Population: Regression: RP Ernesto Fieri - Are we sure this guy is a dominating reliever? Los Angeles traded for him from San Diego and he paid off in a major way in 2012 only to regress pretty hard in 2013 by having a 3.80 ERA. Do I think the wheels could really come off? Yes, yes I do. In my opinion, people see Fieri's 37 saves and believe he had a good season when in reality, he had 29 runs versus 14 runs in 2013, he gave up more home runs and I am not confident Fieri is a good reliever.
Prospect to Watch: 2B Taylor Lindsey - They have no prospect it seems ready for this season so we will go with Lindsey whom is expected to be ready for the early part of 2015. He will need to start taking some more walks before we can have Lindsey ready for the big leagues as he only had a .338 OBP of his .274 batting average. He does hit the ball well and has decent power. Lindsey might get a chance at some point this season.
Outlook and Prediction: This is probably me being a bad baseball fan, but I feel like the big dogs are going to eat again in the AL West. I think it will be a duel to finish between Los Angeles and Texas with maybe Oakland pushing them a bit. Angels could really have an excellent starting pitching staff, and some people are not looking at that with Los Angeles. I am predicting second in the AL West with about 90 wins and a Wild Card appearance.
Charlie.
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