Buy or Sell? Los Angeles Angels playoff chances in 2017

By Fansided and Joshua Lea/FanSided via Halo Hangout
Published

The Los Angeles Angels are approaching the upcoming season as a solid dark-horse to win the AL West. Should you buy or sell the Angels playoff chances?

The Los Angeles Angels have been working to improve their chances of winning games for the new season. 2017 looks promising for the Halos as they attempt to reclaim the AL West for the first time since 2014.

The Angels will always be considered a decent team because of Mike Trout. This is due to just how great of a player he is. However, you can’t buy the Angels solely on Trout. Trout must have a supporting cast similar to that of an Adam Sandler movie, in order to truly be successful. The Angels must improve their pitching staff to have a chance of making the postseason.

Part of the pitching staff’s demise was the injury bug that sidelined so many pitchers last season. This includes Angels ace right-handed pitcher Garrett Richards who hasn’t seen the mound in a major league game since May 1st.

Another question mark within the pitching staff is lefty Tyler Skaggs. While Skaggs did pitch some last season, we won’t know just how healthy he is until late-May early-June. If Skaggs and Richards are healthy it will improve the Angels chances for success this season.

The Angels also will likely have Matt Shoemaker, Ricky Nolasco, and Jesse Chavez rounding out the starting rotation. While, this is nowhere near as impressive as some of their previous rotations, this is the band that’s taking the stage.

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    Still, you can’t sell on the Angels making the playoffs just yet. The Angels acquired Cameron Maybin, Danny Espinosa, and Ben Revere to help Andrelton Simmons and C.J. Cron with the defensive woes the Angels suffered from last season.

    The Angels will once again rely heavily on Trout and Albert Pujols for offense, this season. Trout had another MVP season with a .343/.461/.633 slash line. Pujols was also extraordinary this season as he tallied a .286/.323/.457. slash line.

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    The Angels will expect for other players to provide contributions on the offensive end. Espinosa will come in handy if he can somewhat mimic his .209 batting average, 24 home runs, and 72 RBI’s from last season. This will be a huge upgrade from Johnny Giavotella and Cliff Pennington.

    The Angels will also get some decent play from Maybin and Revere in what should be another attempt at a platoon system. The only question is will the platoon system work this time or will it fail once again?

    As of now, the Angels do not have a date set for pitchers and catchers to report to Arizona. I would expect for the Angels to turn some heads in the MLB this season with some defensive highlights that will electrify the league.