Angels mailbag: Is this team actually overachieving?

Hello, hello, Angels fans. Your favorite team suffered another awful week, losing a bunch of games to the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians before returning home to host Seattle on Monday night. Winless in 10 straight, the Angels are 49-68, on pace to win just 68 games.

Still, there are questions. And this weekly feature is the forum to get responses to any queries regarding the Angels or anything else, submitted through my email (pedro.moura@latimes.com) and Twitter accounts (@pedromoura). Let us begin.

I did not think I’d receive a question like this. Mike Trout missing the whole year is the only circumstance I can imagine in which it would be fair to call the 2016 Angels overachievers. Yes, they have had a lot of injuries, particularly in pitching. So have other teams, including the Dodgers, who have weathered similar starting-pitching setbacks to remain in their division race.

The Angels have put 15 players on the disabled list this year, tied with four teams for the eighth-most in the majors, according to this list. The big league average is 14 disabling injuries.

Yes, you can argue the Angels’ injuries are more significant than most, and you’d be correct. They’ve lost 17 potential starts from Garrett Richards because of a torn ulnar collateral ligament, and will lose nine more. They’ve lost 22 starts from Andrew Heaney because of the same injury, and will lose nine more. They lost 18 starts from Tyler Skaggs because of complications returning from the same injury, although he wasn’t going to make a full season of starts even if healthy, because of the return. Let's call it 14 for him.

Joe Smith spent a month on the disabled list, and Huston Street has spent more, and those hurt, but they happen. C.J. Wilson never pitched. Nick Tropeano’s having Tommy John surgery after not quite a half season. But in an idyllic situation in which the aforementioned guys pitched all year, there wouldn’t have been enough starts to go around for those two in addition to Matt Shoemaker, Hector Santiago and Jered Weaver.

And so it is impossible to imagine the Angels would have won at least 15 more games in the 70 or so starts they missed from their starters. And that’s what it would have required to even be in the wild-card race.

Think about it this way: Which individual Angels have overachieved? Trout has played pretty much exactly as expected: the best baseball player alive. The only legitimate arguments are for Kole Calhoun, who has played maybe a tick above expectations; Cam Bedrosian, who has had 40 good innings; and Matt Shoemaker, who was, like, the best pitcher in baseball for a while there, but has been merely average since and above-average overall. I guess Deolis Guerra could count, too, if you want to be generous.

Point is, a team of 25 cannot overachieve with three overachievers.

There is not much of it. Manager Mike Scioscia generally refers to his players by their first name, their last name, their first and last name combined, or either of the names with a “y” tacked on to the end. Trout is “Mike” or “Trouty.” Albert Pujols is, as far as I can recall, always “Albert”. C.J. Cron is usually “Crony” — or “Cronie,” I guess. Calhoun is “Kole.” He called Jhoulys Chacin “Jhouly” once, and while that fits the pattern, I found it funny.

Why not just keep him? It costs them nothing at this point. Once he cleared waivers, they were going to have to pay him the rest of his salary, anyway. Not many players can carry more cache in the minor leagues. Those who played with him in triple-A earlier this year said he spent significant time getting to know his teammates. 

Of course that depends on how you define “ready.” Left-hander Nate Smith is generally considered ready to debut, but his ceiling is limited, and he has logged an 8.67 earned-run average over his five most recent triple-A starts. He turns 25 in two weeks and has a 4.97 overall ERA. I’m not sure there’s anyone else.

I’d like to do the best job I can, so in that sense it is frustrating. I know fans periodically want to hear what Angels owner Arte Moreno has to say about the team. But, to borrow a phrase I hear often from major leaguers, I try to focus on what I can control. I take seriously the job of trying to entertain and inform, and there are other ways to do it.

I’ve enjoyed watching Simmons play shortstop. I find Trout’s consistency and effort impressive. I like exploring major American cities and observing their differences. I find the continued positivity of the Angels’ television analyst, Mark Gubicza, infectious and inspirational.

This is my first season as a traveling beat writer with one team, so I’m not terribly qualified to answer this, but I covered most home games the Dodgers and Angels played the last three years. I think it’s easier to explore offbeat stories when the team is doing at least OK. Players don’t want to be seen or read recounting their lives or laughing about things during a lengthy stretch of losing.

Of course they realize that. They realized it last off-season. From everything I understand, the money was not available for them to sign one of the many full-time left fielders available last off-season. They pursued some of them, but were unwilling to cut the checks — dole out the dough? mark out the money? — required.

As far as whom they might target, it’s too early to say, but there will be candidates available. Yoenis Cespedes is likely going to be a free agent again. Rajai Davis and Dexter Fowler, two players who signed for relatively cheap in the winter, should be signable. Ian Desmond? Colby Rasmus? Michael Saunders?

Roberto Baldoquin is 22 now and in his second season playing for Class-A Inland Empire. Splitting time between shortstop, third and second, he is hitting .189 with a .272 on-base percentage and .216 slugging mark, so, yeah. He has one home run in 518 American professional plate appearances. The many millions the Angels invested in him, and the years they had to sit out of the international market because of that signing, look more and more like a waste.

Come out of pretty much nowhere to be the best in your field of work for a decade. Find some reporters who can interview you and speak to them meaningfully about how much you love your field, and develop a reputation as a role model. Lead your company to the biggest awards possible. Then, just as you’re starting to realize you can’t produce at the level you once did, commit a decade of your life to an employer who hasn’t realized that quite yet and is willing to pay you like you will be at your peak for a few more years.

Too literal?

Let's go with Wartortle (No. 8 here). To be honest, I sort of stole this from a meme I saw of Michael Phelps on Twitter, where that Pokemon in its various stages of evolution is compared to Phelps as he aged. It was funny. The Blastoise in particular, because of the cupping. But, anyway, I like Wartortle for Jumpin’ John, because the turtle shell is reminiscent of a muscular man. He is muscular. He strikes me as the type who would’ve dressed as a Ninja Turtle for Halloween growing up.

That’s the end of this week’s mailbag. Check back weekly to see the latest answers, and send questions in to the below addresses at any time.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura