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Angels - Royals Series Preview: Don't Believe The Hype




Pitching Matchups:

Kyle Davies Joe Saunders
Bruce Chen Ervin Santana
Anthony Lerew Joel Pineiro

 

A selection of stats on the Angel Starters we'll see:

K/9 BB/9 GB% BABIP ERA FIP xFIP
Joe Saunders 4.60 3.93 42.6% .293 4.88 5.12 5.29
Ervin Santana 7.84 2.64 33.4% .322 3.92 4.26 4.23
Joel Pineiro 5.87 2.16 54.4% .302 4.23 3.95 3.88

According to the data on Stat Corner, the Royal bullpen has a tRa of 5.20, while the Angels' pen is at 4.72. That means the Angel bullpen, on the whole, has been better.

The Angels are 5th in the AL in runs per game, at 4.78. Of course, we'll hear all weekend that this is because they steal bases and hit and run and bunt and do the little things. The Angels hit more than a homer a game in June, and they're 5th in the league in that category. The Angels run a little, but their 55 team steals aren't particularly notable. They've been caught stealing 27 times, which is pretty bad. I know we're not supposed to let reality get in the way of the narrative, but when Ryan's going on and on about Angel-ball this weekend, just look at their lineup: they consistently play station to station players like Juan Rivera, Bobby Abreu, Dek Matsui, and Mike Napoli.

(These numbers are from before Friday night's game, by the way.)

wOBA Name Pos PAs Avg OBP SLG BABIP
.374 Kevin Frandsen 3B 105 .340 .390 .443 .355
.369 Torii Hunter OF 317 .290 .366 .507 .316
.359 Mike Napoli 1B/C 258 .252 .329 .496 .314
.348 Bobby Abreu OF 344 .267 .360 .419 .317
.335 Hideki Matsui DH 297 .259 .337 .422 .301
.316 Maicer Izturis 3B 118 .233 .322 .369 .247
.315 Erick Aybar SS 312 .275 .337 .361 .325
.312 Juan Rivera OF 258 .239 .302 .423 .249
Scrappy Erstadson b u n t s

 

Defensively, UZR has rated the Angels fairly harshly. Again, if you just look at the names on the roster, this wouldn't surprise you. However thanks to a Supreme Court decision in 2001, we're not allowed to talk about anything relating to the Twins or Angels objectively. So just lie back and listen to how awesome they are defensively.

Pos UZR
Wood 3B 3.4
Izturis 3B 2.0
Napoli 1B -0.3
Aybar SS -0.9
Rivera OF -1.3
Hunter OF -2.0
Frandsen 3B -4.2
Abreu OF -7.1
Kendrick 2B -2.2

 

The fat dude who got injured (not listed) celebrating a home run was apparently one of their better defenders.