Fun Fact: Only one team wins the World Series every year. Which means 29 teams don’t win the final game of the year which according to Moneyball means their season didn’t fucking matter. When a team gets eliminated from winning the World Series I’ll do a profile of their season.  

Today’s Team….Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the larger Southern California Region. 

How Did They Get Eliminated

The Angels ran into the buzzsaw that is the Seattle Mariners getting swept in a 4-game series. The final game of that series was the a schlacking losing 11-2. They were off on September 15th, but the Astros weren’t. That meant with the Astros winning against the Rangers the Angels were officially eliminated.

What Do I Know About This Team Because I Only Follow the Brewers

I’m starting to write this post on September 14th and the Angels are about to play the Brewers starting on the 16th. There is a potential they will be eliminated on their off day. So not seeing this team actually play my knowledge of this team starts and ends with one player: Mike Trout. 

If you did a trivia contest where you had to name someone on the Angels other than Mike Trout you probably would get this question wrong. I know I did. 

Mike Trout was supposed to be the generational talent that would propel Major League Baseball into the 21st century. Unfortunately, he plays for the Los Angeles team that no one cares about. He was a perennial MVP candidate, he popularized the WAR statistic. 

But in the last few years the shine of Mike Trout has faded away. Aaron Judge is now taking on that mantle. Aaron Judge has played in 500 less games that Mike Trout and is already statistically superior to Trout. Judge gets to play in New York where he gets promoted constantly and gets to play in all the primetime games that ESPN has to offer. 

Mike Trout would have been the greatest player of all time if the Angels were a competent franchise. They had Ohtani for 6 years and never made the playoffs in that time. 

Trout is now relegated to being a DH which is a shame because he was the greatest Centerfielder of the 2010s. 

The Brewers need to sweep the Angels so they can potentially clinch a division championship in St. Louis. But knowing how baseball works the Angels will find a way to make all of these games way more competitive than they should be and steal a win. 

So Now That I’ve Actually Done Some Research What Happened to this Team

The Angels have the 11th highest payroll in major league baseball and most of that money is going towards aging players.

$36 million for 3 pitchers in their mid-30s. 

$10 Million for Kenley Jensen. 

$38 million for an injured 35 year old Anthony Rendon who didn’t even play this year because he had hip surgery at the beginning of the season. 

$37 million for Mike Trout. 

$13 million for Jorge Soler. 

This is what your team looks like when you have a front office that puts guys on their team based on name recognition. Quick sidebar: when the WWE went to Saudi Arabia for the first time Saudi Arabia officials wanted wrestlers who were popular in the 1990s. Unfortunately most of those wrestlers were either way retired or dead. When seeing this roster it made me think of this WWE story. 

This team has been plagued with injuries, d’Arnund has played less than 100 games, Soler is under a 100 games. Trout has played 118 games but leading up to being eliminated he had been in a major slump which saw him struggle to get his 400 HR. 

They don’t have a starting pitcher with an ERA below 4.00 and have a team ERA of 4.83 which is the 3rd worst in the Majors. They have also given up the 3rd most Home Runs. Teams are hitting .260 against them which is the 4th worst in the majors. 

They have struck out the most and have the 2nd worst team batting average. They have the 3rd worst On-Base Percentage just barely over .300. 

They’ve also committed the 5th most errors.

Did Anything Go Right For This Team

All of those batting statistics above make sense when you see that they have the 5th most home runs hit in the majors. Jo Adell and Taylor Ward each have over 30 Home Runs and will both finish the season with over 100 RBI, which bodes well for their future. Both of them are corner outfielders and if Mike Trout can start patrolling the outfield again they could have the most powerful outfield in baseball. 

They basically played .500 ball from May to July which meant at the trade deadline they were only 3 games under .500 and only 5.5 games back for the last Wild Card spot. But after the trade deadline they have the 2nd worst record in the AL behind the Twins. 

Are They Going to Get Good Anytime Soon? 

Well they have the 27th ranked farm system and the 2 prospects they have in the top 100 are ranked in the 90s. One of those prospects Ryan Johnson got a taste of The Show but has a 7.00+ ERA in 14 appearances. 

They have a lot of heavy contracts on the books and who knows what condition Anthony Rendon will be in when he returns next season. Mike Trout will be another year older and isn’t the power he used to be. Luckily like I mentioned above they have a lot of young players under team control who are raking right now and can be the future of the organization. 

The Angels have shown they are willing to spend the money to compete, but the money isn’t competing. Don’t be surprised if the payroll is cut dramatically and the Angles take the route of the Brewers and build around a core of young, promising players. 

Just one postseason award. 

Taylor Ward not only is having a great offensive year but he is playing a really good left field as well leading all left fielders in fielding percentage. Even though the Gold Glove is supposed to be a defensive award Ward has the offensive stats that can help him get across the finish line for the Gold Glove. 

Hey Grok, in 100 words summarize the 2025 Please don't be racist. 

The Los Angeles Angels' 2025 season has been a challenging one, as they have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. With a current record of 69-81 as of September 14, they are in last place in the AL West, 13 games behind the division leaders. Despite some individual player achievements, the team's overall performance has been inconsistent, marked by slumps and a lack of sustained winning streaks. Their struggles are particularly evident in their pitching, where they rank among the worst in the league in several key categories.

There is a lot to be said about sustained winning streaks. The Angels had an 8 game winning streak which included a sweep of the Dodgers. But outside of that 8 game winning streak they haven’t been able to get a win streak over 3. Successful teams not only go on 5 or 6 game winning streaks they go on multiple 5 or 6 game winning streaks. Sure you can get away with a ton of 3 game winning streaks but when you have a lot of larger losing streaks mixed in there, you will be spinning your wheels for a while. 

Did the Savannah Bananas Play at their Field? 

They did! Troy Glaus had a pinch hit and they sold out each of the two games they played. 

Now that Banana Ball is making its way to MLB stadiums it has been interesting to see the local news cover these games. They are amazed by people having fun at a baseball game. They are amazed they can catch a foul ball in the crowd for an out. All of these stories are great for the growth of the Bananas. 

When I started seeing the viral videos the Bananas did when they played regular baseball I was hooked. But now that they are getting into the main-stream my interest in the Bananas has waned. I think mostly because any time I see something get into the mainstream I'm not as excited for it. As I do more of these Banana Ball excerpts I’ll get into what I find a bit annoying. But for now just remember all of these teams that have been eliminated so far have had the Bananas at their stadium.

Is there a baseball movie featuring this team that has dumb baseball logic I need to vent about? 

YES! Angels In the Outfield (THE REMAKE!) 

Allright, first things first towards the end of this movie all they talk about is how the Angels need to beat the White Sox so they can win the division. But when we get to the final game of the season against the said White Sox and the Angels win, all anyone says is “THE ANGELS HAVE WON THE PENNANT!” They didn’t. They won the division and they need to play the AL East Division Champion now. 

Early in the movie they talk about being on a 15 game losing streak, which I don’t know how many teams have a 15 game losing streak and then come back to be in contention without angels. When this happens its halfway through the season. Knowing that this team is terrible we have to assume this is a Rockies-esq season unfolding here. 

But during a montage we see how the Angels improve with the help of Angels. They improve to 47-55 which is crazy, considering if they did have a 15 game losing streak right before the angels showed up that would put them at 47-40 which isn’t as bad as the movie would have us believe. 

In the next frame they go to 58-62. Which in reality is only going 11-7 which for this club seems pretty okay. 

A newspaper circles in and they have won 8 straight games. That should put them over .500! The next graphic of the standings has them at 80-65 a 12-5 stretch where that 8 game streak must happen. 

Then a big jump in the standings where they are now 91-64. I guess one of those loses was overturned? 

Anyway, the record for the Angels to end the season is probably 97-65. Afterall they lost the penultimate game of the season. So they go at best 50-10 in their final 60 games of the season. Probably not the craziest way to end the season. Last year the Padres went 40-20 to finish the season. As we saw this team was actually above .500 at one point so they weren’t bad and a run like this could have happened. 

Also, there’s a weird off day between game 161 and game 162 where they get time to figure out the whole angel situation and hold a press conference. Another weird baseball logic thing. 

In the final game of the season Tony Danza struggles through the later innings and Danny Glover decides to not replace him. In the 9th he is at 156 pitches!!!! Tony Danza also throws out of the wind up way too much with runners on base which you would never see at the professional level.

This is to get you into the playoffs and you have relief pitchers make the call to the pen. But Danny Glover says he needs to get him out of there on a 3-2 count, which is crazy in general to do that in the middle of an at-bat. But then to keep him in there to throw his 160th pitch?! This isn’t the 1890s. This is the dawn of the analytics era. No way Tony Danza should have gone through the order a third time. 

This movie has Matthew McConaughey and Adrien Brody, which is crazy. 

Oh, I also watched an Air Bud movie where he plays baseball and does so good in a Junior High baseball league that he gets signed by the Angels. He catches the final out at first and the Angels win the World Series. 

How Will Your Team Do Next Year? 

They have some big contracts on the books, but they have some young guys that can power their line up. They might not have a strong farm system right now but there’s room to grow that. They are still in a tough division which means a lot of loses to the Astros and the Mariners and potentially the Rangers. They might be able to squeak to a .500 record, but more than likely this is a 70-92 team next year. 

Next on the Chopping Block

The A’s have the same record as the Angels and could easily be done as well by the time this gets published.