Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Why We Hate Them
By Jason Burke
The lightwave, thundersticks, Trout hats, and a monkey. How can one team be comprised of so much awful in so little time? I’m sure CEO Mickey Mouse had something to do with the implementation of at least a couple of those ideas.
Tony started us off on our month-long series of hate, with “Why We Hate the Texas Rangers.” Today, we stay within the division, but turn our attention to the South, where there are farms, fish and letters (Trout Farm and the Big A). Great, now I’m explaining things.
The LA Angels have done one good thing for A’s fans–ever–and that was beating the San Francisco Giants in the 2002 World Series. Thank you. Aside from that one series, the Angels have long been the main competition of our boys in the white cleats. Even when the A’s were winning 20 games in a row in 2002, the Angels hung right there with them.
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That was then. Nowadays, the Angels are players on key free agents, and will spend, spend, spend. All of that money has landed the Angels an aging Albert Pujols, an all or nothing C.J. Wilson, and Josh Hamilton. You can pick your own Josh Hamilton joke.
After running away with the division in 2014, the Angels are poised to make another run at the AL West in 2015. Good for them. October treated the Angels very well this past year.
The main point of discontent these days is Mike Trout, who is arguably the best player in baseball. Sure, he sends tweets with emojis of airplanes when he’s flying to a new city during the season, but he has made so many highlight reel catches that ESPN is going to start another channel devoted to just showing Trout clips.
Manager Mike Scioscia is the happiest man on Earth, having enjoyed 15 seasons with the Angels, with just four of them being losing campaigns.
In 2015, the trio of Trout, Pujols and Hamilton will look to carry the bulk of the offensive duties, while Garrett Richards will be placed atop the rotation once more. They will be a formidable foe with former Athletic, Huston Street closing out games. Street will save every game against his former team, if for no other reason than he is a former A, which 2014 proved was all you needed to be to have a career game against Oakland.
Just ask Donnie Murphy about the former A mojo. He hit .286 against the A’s as a member of the Rangers in 2014 with 3 homers and 6 rbi. In 45 games last season, Murphy hit .196 with 4 homers and 14 rbi in total. There is something about being near the A’s that inspires greatness, whether or not it’s with the team.
The Angels are expected to be in contention for another AL West crown in 2015, and their games with the green and gold promise to be as entertaining as ever. The A’s have pitching, and the Angels are stacked offensively up and down their lineup, which just adds to the drama that fuels the fire of these two divisional rivals. I’d say good luck, but we hate you.