{"id":37256,"date":"2020-08-24T20:26:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T00:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=37256"},"modified":"2020-08-24T20:26:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T00:26:25","slug":"angels-bullpen-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/08\/24\/angels-bullpen-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Bullpen Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angels Bullpen Woes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Los Angeles Angels<\/a> sit at the bottom of the AL West with a 9-20 record. With the pre-season speculation<\/a> that the Angels could be a playoff contender, what went wrong? The batting lineup consists of big offensive names like Mike Trout<\/strong><\/a> and Anthony Rendon<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> Thus, pitching (mainly relief pitching since no one likes to lose a lead) is the first area to come under scrutiny<\/a>. Are the Angels bullpen woes to blame? This question deserves some analysis to better understand the relievers impact to overall team performance and whether the poor record is more indicative<\/span> of larger challenges.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s relief corps saw a small amount of turnover. Thus, an analysis of last year\u2019s performance can set the stage for analysis of the current season and key players. The analysis provided below was compiled from Fangraphs<\/em> and Baseball Reference.<\/em><\/p>\n

2019 Conclusions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

2019 1st<\/sup> Half<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Angels 45-46 record kept them in contention for a playoff run at the All-Star break. One of the main contributions came from the bullpen. Then Angel’s manager Brad Ausmus<\/strong><\/a> praised the relief corps as a key contributor.<\/p>\n

\n

"Our pen is a strength but we certainly can't continue to use them at this rate, otherwise we'll get into August and be exhausted." -Brad Ausmus on @Angels<\/a> bullpen pic.twitter.com\/n6EvHgdYFI<\/a><\/p>\n

— FanDuel Sports Network West (@FanDuelSN_West) April 16, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n