Kuzul

As Kenny Rogers once sang, “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em/Know when to walk away, know when to run.” Good luck getting that out of your head for the rest of the day.

Oddly enough, Rogers’ lyrics in the chorus of “The Gambler” are the exact words that the Los Angeles Angels need to abide by when it comes to the pursuit of their prized trade-deadline rental, Zack Greinke.

After throwing their second-, fourth- and ninth-best prospects at the Milwaukee Brewers on July 27th, the Los Angeles Angels were all-in on Greinke for the remainder of the 2012 season, with the goal of signing him long-term after season’s end.

The Angels held baseball’s third-highest Opening Day payroll in 2012, topping out at almost $155 million in player salaries. But after making a big splash at the trade deadline for Greinke, the Angels seemingly knew they’d have to trim a substantial amount of payroll in the offseason if they wanted to keep him long-term.

Then came the deals.

On Halloween, the Angels made their first big-time move by shipping off Ervin Santana to the pitching-deprived Kansas City Royals. He was due $13 million for the 2013 season, the final year of what ended up being a five-year, $42 million deal. Santana’s season-to-season Jekyll/Hyde ways were too much for the Angels to stomach, so off he went.

Despite the bloated amounts of long balls he’d give up, the Angels will certainly miss his “F*** it, let’s pitch” attitude (that interview moment was absolutely priceless).

This was step one in freeing up Greinke money.

Just a few days later, the Angels would trade Dan Haren to the Chicago Cubs for Carlos Marmol, have the deal fall through and then buy out his option for 2013 (a $15.5 million option bought out for $3.5 million). Yeah, that was a real mess.

After finishing seventh in AL Cy Young voting in 2011, Haren was clearly not himself in 2012. He posted his first losing record (12-13) and his highest ERA (4.33) since he became a full-time starter following a trade from St. Louis to Oakland back in 2005.

Believe it or not, 2012 also marked the first time in his career that he headed to the disabled list (with lower back soreness). Maybe this played a factor in his below-average play in 2012.

This was the second step in freeing up Greinke money.

Then, on Thursday, after the Angels made a, as Torii Hunter put it, “very disrespectful” offer (one year, $5 million according to CBS Sports), Hunter went and signed with the American League champion Detroit Tigers on a two-year, $26 million deal.

The Tigers needed an outfielder, and the Angels apparently didn’t, opting to go younger and cheaper with Mike Trout, Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos in 2013. Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto told the Los Angeles Times that, “It wasn’t that we couldn’t fit Torii’s salary in…we made the decision to allow Trout, Trumbo and Bourjos to play on an every-day basis.”

Fair enough. They wanted an inexpensive youth movement in the outfield. That’s the choice they made.

This was step three in freeing up Greinke money.

By not opting to pay Santana, Haren and Hunter ($13 million, $15.5 million and $13.3 million, respectively) next year, the Angels suddenly freed up $41.8 million out of nowhere.

Boom. It’s go time.

Go offer big money to your golden goose. Blow everyone else’s offer away. Make sure that trading Jean Segura, Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena will be worth it in the long term, despite it not being worth it in the short-term by missing out on the playoffs.

All signs pointed, and continue to point, to the Angels making a major push to sign Zack Greinke to a lucrative deal.

But if they are smart, they won’t.

Despite cutting ties with 40 percent of their starting rotation in a matter of less than 72 hours, the Angels should let another team throw the kitchen sink at Greinke.

Time to bring Kenny Rogers back in here.

I know, I know. It sounds completely counterintuitive, because those prospects will effectively have been given to the Brewers for free. But the Angels need to realize that now is the time to fold ’em.

Just because you’re pot committed doesn’t always mean you have to go all-in. Don’t just walk away from Greinke…run.

The Angels have already paid good money to Jered Weaver (who may end up being a bargain in hindsight), who inked a five-year, $85 million deal on August 21, 2011. Coming off his first career 20-win season—good enough for third in AL Cy Young voting—Weaver is set to make $16 million next year as the Angels’ ace.

Last offseason, the team signed C.J. Wilson to a five-year, $77.5 million contract. Wilson will earn $11 million in 2013, but his contract is back-loaded big time, as he’s set to make $16, $18 and $20 million in each of his contract’s final three years, respectively.

So, what does that mean for Greinke?

According to MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez, “Six years, $125 million is the price tag many have associated with him.”

Uh, wow.

That equates to just shy of $21 million per year. Would the Angels really be paying Zack Greinke that kind of money to be a No. 2 or even No. 3 starter? Yikes.

Let’s take a look at recent big contracts given to starting pitchers.

We’ll start a few years back with C.C. Sabathia. He signed his big eight-year, $182 million deal with the New York Yankees in 2009, averaging out to $22.75 million per year. It’s a lot of money, but he’s been a top-four Cy Young finisher three out of his four years in pinstripes. Not too terrible of an early return halfway through the deal.

Meanwhile, Matt Cain’s contract extension will earn him $20 million in each of the next five seasons. Don’t let the two Cy Young Awards in Tim Lincecum’s cabinet fool you, Cain has truly been the model of consistency for the San Francisco Giants over the past four seasons. He’s posted sub-3.00 ERAs in three of those four years, with his highest ERA being just 3.14 back in 2010. Not bad.

Finally, Cole Hamels signed a nice seven-year, $153 million deal. He will earn $22 million per year on average from 2013 through 2018. But much like the aforementioned Sabathia and Cain, Hamels also had excellent year-to-year consistency leading up to his contract. In the last five seasons, Hamels has kept his ERA under 3.10 four times, with two of those seasons coincidentally resulting in top-10 Cy Young finishes.

Now to Zack Greinke. There’s no doubt that he was electric in his 2009 Cy Young Award-winning campaign. His 2.16 ERA was the best mark in all of Major League Baseball and was a full 1.31 runs lower than his previous career best. But since then, his ERA has been average-to-good, but not exactly worthy of over $20 million per year.

Since 2009, Greinke hasn’t factored into a top 25 on any Cy Young Award ballot. He has posted ERAs of 4.17, 3.83 and 3.48 in those years. Although his ERA has trended downward (in a good way), his recent performance still does not warrant the hefty check that one team will ultimately pay him.

Know when to fold ’em, Angels.

Instead of forking over boatloads of cash for Greinke, the Angels would be much wiser to reallocate the money freed up by Haren, Hunter and Santana’s departures to other less expensive pitching options.

Hiroki Kuroda, for one, would be an excellent fit with the Angels. A guy who has posted ERAs below 3.40 in each of the previous three seasons would be perfect to bring in on a short-term contract (which he is not opposed to).

Kuroda has shown the ability to keep his clubs in ballgames, and on a one- or two-year deal worth somewhere between $10-$13 million per season, he would be a fantastic deal for the Angels as a No. 3 starter.

There will almost assuredly be no long-term commitment with any Kuroda deal (he turns 38 in February), so why hesitate in bringing him in? He sure seems like a low-risk, high-reward move for any team that brings him in.

Another good fit for the Halos could be former Opening Day starter Joe Saunders. Saunders pitched in some big games for the Baltimore Orioles after being acquired by them late in the season—which should certainly help his stock in the free-agent market.

If he wound up being their top pitching acquisition, the Angels would not have done their job this offseason. But as a potential No. 4 starter, Saunders could more than do the trick in his second stint in Anaheim.

The Angels could also look into an upgrade at third base, but that’s another long story for another time.

For now, the Angels must be wise with their offseason moves. Throwing over $20 million at a pitcher on a long-term contract is a bold strategy (Pepper Brooks agrees), but I’m not sold that it would pay off.

A big contract to tie up Zack Greinke long-term and solidify their front three in the rotation most likely has the Angels front office salivating, but it is one of those ever-so-enticing gambles that the Angels would be prudent to step away from.

Despite your investment, now is the time to fold ’em, Angels. You’ll thank yourselves later.

Where do you think Zack Greinke will end up? Comment below and let’s get our Nostradamus on.

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Dan Haren was on the verge of being traded to the Chicago Cubs on Friday night for a package that would have sent at least Carlos Marmol to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, according to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

However, since that transaction fell through, Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com is reporting that the Angels declined their team option on Haren, and he will indeed become a free agent this winter.

According to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto has not ruled out talking to Haren on a new contract.

With all this in mind, is it possible that Haren will return to the Angels next season?

On one hand, last season was definitely below average for the now 32-year-old right-hander. He went 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA. He posted his highest WHIP, lowest win total, tied for the highest loss total and lowest strikeout total since he was 23 years old and pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Obviously, with that season in their recent memory, the Angels did not want to exercise his option and pay him $15.5 million this year.

However, one bad season does not necessarily mean that the Angels should avoid him at all costs. Sure, he is not worth $15.5 million based on last season alone, but if they are able to bring him back at a lower price, they should definitely be open to that possibility.

Until this season, he had seven strong campaigns to his credit. During that time, his highest ERA was 4.12, but he was typically posting numbers below 3.50. In 2009, he led the National League in WHIP, but he was in the top 10 in four other seasons (three of which were in the American League).

For all of you sabermetricians out there, we all know that wins above replacement is a cumulative statistic, and he is currently ranked 23rd among all active pitchers in Major League Baseball according to Baseball Reference.

His track record seems to indicate that he is a much better pitcher than he was in 2012.

That is why the Angels—or any team for that matter—should not be totally opposed to bringing Haren into their rotation. Yes, he had one bad season, and it is somewhat risky to bet on a comeback.

However, perhaps the Angels need to view it in this way: Because of that bad season, his contract demands will surely be lower. There is a very good chance that he will return to his pre-2012 form though. Therefore, for a lower risk, they have a chance to get a pitcher that they should be paying a lot more money for.

Whether you think I know everything or nothing about Major League Baseball, you should follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook and keep in touch. I love hearing what you all have to say!

 
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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim must have been frustrated with the way that this season turned out. However, it is shaping up to be another busy winter in the City of Angels.

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting that the Angels are looking at potential trades for both Dan Haren and Ervin Santana.

On one hand, it definitely makes sense to try to trade these two athletes. In 2012, Haren only managed to go 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA while Santana was a touch below that at 9-13 with a 5.16 ERA. If the Angels want to try to climb back on top of the division next season, they will obviously need more production out of their starting rotation than these two men demonstrated last year.

However, could that production come out of Haren and Santana themselves? Haren has been a reliable starting pitcher throughout his entire career and has won at least 10 games the past nine seasons. Last season was arguably the worst of his career, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is automatically done.

Similarly, Santana is still in his prime and he is only two years removed from a 17 win season. In fact, even though he finished 11-12 in 2011, he posted a career-best 3.38 ERA during that campaign. Yes, 2012 was definitely a bump in the road, but I don’t think that he has totally gone off that path yet.

As you can probably tell, I am not entirely sold on trading either of these athletes simply because of their history of success. Many players have suffered from bad seasons, and many players have also rebounded from bad seasons. Obviously, the Angels need to decide if they are willing to take the risk associated with keeping a player who might not bounce back, but given such long track records of success, these two men do not necessarily seem like unreasonable risks.

Nevertheless, since it appears that the Angels are willing to trade either of these two men at the right price, they need to make sure that they at least get a fair return. These two men have a lot to offer any team in baseball if they are able to return to form, so they should command at least a decent return.

Whether you think I know everything or nothing about Major League Baseball, you should follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook and keep in touch. I love hearing what you all have to say!

 
Follow @spinkickers

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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are hanging around the playoff picture. They do not have a spot in the dance yet with 15 games to go. But ask current Angels’ first baseman Albert Pujols about how a team can make a late run.

With 15 games left last year, Pujols’ Cardinals were 4 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the wild card. The 2012 Angels are only three back right now.

Those Cardinals went 11-4 the rest of the way and would eventually be crowned World Series Champions.

Can a similar fate happen to the Angels?

The final 15 games begin tonight in Anaheim against the Texas Rangers.

The Angels will start their Cy Young contender, Jered Weaver tonight against the Rangers’ Ryan Dempster. Both solid pitchers, but the advantage tonight should go to the Angels at home.

Former Ranger C.J. Wilson matches up against his former teammate Derek Holland in game two. The finale on Thursday has the Angels’ Zack Greinke against Rangers’ starter Yu Darvish.

Each game is a good matchup, but the Angels could certainly win two of three. And a series victory for the Halos could have repercussions throughout the American League.

First of all, a series win would keep the Angels in the wild card hunt as they chase Oakland and currently Baltimore for one of the two spots.

Secondly it would put additional pressure on the Rangers. Their division lead, which was 6 1/2 games on August 12, is down to three. With a hot Oakland team breathing down their neck and seven games head to head against the A’s, the division title is by no means locked up.

The Rangers would certainly rather win the division than play a one game Wild Card playoff.

And finally, the Angels creeping back into the American League Wild Card hunt would put added pressure on the American League East race.

Tampa Bay is fading out of the picture, but the Orioles and Yankees are currently separated by half a game. If the Angels could pass the runner up of the Eastern Division, it would make the Baltimore and New York struggle more intense without a safety net for second place.

So for fans who are not from Texas or Orange County, the Angels and Rangers series might seem irrelevant to you.

But pay attention. The effects of the results will be felt clear across the country. And for anyone rooting for a wild finish in the American League, root for the Angels tonight.

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Let’s start with the obvious:

Whether or not the Angels end up making the playoffs—and chances are likely they won’t—Mike Scioscia does not deserve to be fired.  He built this franchise into the perennial contender it is today and is the only thing standing between keeping them that way and them possibly turning into the Yankees of the 1980s.  (For those of you too young to remember, that is not a compliment.)

But as Snoop Pearson from the HBO series The Wire once famously said, “Deserve got nuthin’ to do with it!”

The 2012 Angels were expected to contend for a world championship, and they are going to fall well short of that goal, not even making the postseason in a year in which the league added an extra wild card. 

Their high-priced roster is going to end up finishing behind the likes of Oakland and Baltimore.  That’s right, Oakland, whose entire 2012 team payroll is less than what the Angels are paying two players, one of whom doesn’t even start every day.  Baltimore, a city that hasn’t even had a winning season in 15 years.

The result of that underachievement is that heads are going to roll, and if they do, they’ll belong to Scioscia and his coaches.  I don’t agree with it.  In fact, I think it’s an incredibly foolish, short-sighted and counterproductive “panic move” but that hasn’t stopped this team before from making this kind of move, particularly under owner Arte Moreno’s direction.

So as the saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.”  If the Angels do indeed fire Scioscia at the end of the season, here is my list of the top five candidates to replace him:

5.  Harold Baines

Consummate professional as a player, he has the near Hall-of-Fame resume that current players respect, and he would bring a quiet strength to the job that just might be what this team needs to perform better.

4.  Terry Francona

Knows how to manage in a big market, has shown he can handle the high expectations that would come with this job and was generally well-liked by his players.  He’s a good in-game strategist who knows how to handle a pitching staff. 

3.  Tony La Russa

C’mon, do you really think he’s going to stay retired?  The man lives and breathes baseball. 

And he loves Albert Pujols.  He commands the utmost respect in the clubhouse and Moreno will gladly open up the checkbook to bring him to Orange County.  He’s definitely worth a conversation. 

2.  Sandy Alomar Jr.

Hey, former catchers make good managers and it’s not like we haven’t had success before going this route so why not try it again? 

Alomar is a baseball lifer from a family of baseball lifers and has been preparing for a job as a manager ever since he retired as a player in 2007.  He’s more than ready and the team that hires him is going to get a good 10-year run out of him so it might as well be the Angels. 

1. Darin Erstad

Hands down the no-brainer choice here for best candidate to replace Mike Scioscia, should the Angels let Scioscia go.

He was the heart and soul of the team as a player and the unquestioned leader in the clubhouse.  He set the right example for how the game was to be played and never let his teammates believe, even for a minute, that they were out of any ballgame, even if they were down 5-0 in the seventh  inning of a World Series elimination game. 

Even if he wasn’t coaching baseball presently (he’s the head coach at his alma mater, University of Nebraska), I’d still pluck him out of whatever cornfield he was tending to and hand him the keys to the franchise.  

Like I said, I don’t want it to happen, I don’t think it should happen, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen.  And if it does, I want the Angels to be in the best position to succeed afterwards.  They would be fortunate to land any of these five men, with Erstad being the best of the bunch.

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The Los Angeles Angels are in the midst of fighting for a playoff spot in the American League, but it’s not too early to start looking at the team’s prospects for next season. With some obvious needs, the Halos need to get better immediately.

The team is built to win now, and in order to do so, they’ll need to bolster the roster with some key free agents. Team owner Arte Moreno has set a precedent that money is no object, so we’ll assume that in this piece. Still, these are all realistic signings based on team needs and whether or not each player would fit well with the current group.  

Let the speculation begin.

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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were reeling. A 7-15 stretch in late July and early August put the ambitious Halos from being a pennant contender to a mere two games over .500.

The Angels were in danger of becoming the American League answer to the Marlins. They made big attention grabbing moves in the offseason, none bigger than signing Albert Pujols from the Cardinals, but now were crashing and burning towards a losing season.

At 62-60, it would take only a modest losing streak to have them sink below .500.

And then came the baseball equivalent of a trip to the spa: The Angels played the Red Sox. And thus their season was saved.

The Angels won the August 21 game at Fenway, 5-3. They then beat the Red Sox 7-3 in game two and won the wild, bizarre “Does anyone want to win this?” 10-inning game-three finale, 14-13.

While the Angels lost two of three in Detroit afterwards, they arrived in Anaheim where the Red Sox were waiting for them.

Three days later, the Red Sox left town without a win. The Angels had swept the Red Sox twice in nine days.

Essentially, they needed to find a team more dysfunctional than they were to kick start their winning ways.

Since arriving in Boston on August 21, the Angels are 10-3. They remembered how to win again, ending the Athletics‘ nine-game winning streak yesterday.

As of this writing, they are a mere 3.5 games out of a wild-card spot with 27 games to play. It may be quite a hole dug by their 7-15 July and August stretch (as well as their other 7-15 run at the start of the season.) But the team is super talented with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Jered Weaver highlighting the team.

Plus, they play the Athletics six more times. The best way the well-paid, talented Angels could overtake the scrappy upstart A’s is head to head.

Count out the Angels at your own peril. For them it is a shame, though, that they aren’t going to play Boston again. They got their groove back against the Red Sox.

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By all accounts, Mike Trout is having one heck of a season. His wins-above-replacement stat—9.2 games—is more than one-and-a-half times that of the next-highest ranked player in the bigs. His .335 batting average and 42 steals lead the AL, and his OPS of .979 is second only to Miguel Cabrera. Though Cabrera and Josh Hamilton may give him a run for his money, Mike Trout is very likely to win the AL MVP award this year.

And to top it all off, he’s just a rookie.

If Trout wins both the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards, he’ll be joining a very select group of athletes in any sport who’ve managed the feat. Who are the others, and what did they do?

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After watching him help the Angels sweep the Red Sox earlier this week, and based on his entire body of work this season, it’s clear that Mike Trout is one of the most exciting young players in the majors. He may even be the American League MVP when all is said and done, but there is one thing I don’t think the 21-year-old phenom should be:

Rookie of the Year.

Technically, Trout is a rookie. As the MLB rules state, “A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on the disabled list).

Trout makes the cut…barely. He played in 40 games (32 starts) during 2011, in which he had 123 at-bats. This may qualify someone for rookie status the next year, but it seems like an awful big sample set for me.

Forty games is nearly a quarter of the MLB schedule, and in Trout’s case, these were not just meaningless down-the-stretch contests. His first appearance came on July 8 against Seattle, and he wound up playing 14 games in July, eight in August, and 19 in September as the Angels battled for both an AL West title and a Wild Card spot. They got neither, but Trout (who hit .220 with five home runs and 16 RBI) got plenty of experience.

This year, of course, has been a different story. Trout has been with the Angels since late April and has torn up the league with an AL-best .336 average, 41 stolen bases, and 103 runs scored (along with 25 home runs) entering last night. Much hoopla was made when he became the first rookie to have both 25 homers and 40 steals during the Red Sox series, but he just doesn’t feel like a first-year guy to me.

He was an everyday player for Los Angeles during a good stretch of LAST season, and while he may seem like an entirely different performer this year, Trout is in fact the same guy who had already seen plenty of big-league pitching entering 2012.

To me, a true Rookie of the Year (ROY) winner is a guy who debuts the year he captures the award, or at most plays in 10 or 15 September games the previous season.

Baseball is the only one of the four major professional sports that has this type of shady rookie status. Football players, of course, go straight from college onto NFL rosters and have zero pro experience entering their first year. Ditto for hockey players, who enter the NHL from college or the minor league ranks. And while basketball players may have overseas professional experience, the first NBA games for every Rookie of the Year are played during his initial season in the league.

My 11-year-old son Jason had a very perceptive comment when I mentioned this discrepancy to him. “If Mike Trout is able to do this, what will keep managers from making sure young players don’t break the 130 at-bat limit so they can get better and older?”

I found no proof of this with Trout, who Angels manager Mike Scioscia played all game, every game down the stretch of 2011. It would have been interesting to see what might have happened had Trout gotten six more at-bats, of course.

Jason also had another funny premise: if a guy came up from the minors for 10 games a year for three years, would he still be considered a rookie going into his fourth season? According to the MLB rules above, he would. This seemed too funny to be plausible, but it happened…the 2008 NL ROY, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, had played with Chicago for one game in 2005, 11 games in 2006, and 18 games in 2007. A fourth-year rookie!

I first started thinking about Trout’s freshman/sophomore status when Will Middlebrooks was shining for the Red Sox earlier this summer. A broken wrist derailed Middlebrooks in mid-August, and even if he had played out the string the chances are slim he would have put together stats like Trout.

But since Middlebrooks was a TRUE rookie whose 75 major games, 15 homers, and 54 RBI all came this season, one could argue (outside Los Angeles) that he is a more worthy Rookie of the Year winner than the guy who will get the award.

For some additional perspective, I looked back at AL and NL ROY winners from the past 10 seasons to see how they compare with Trout in pre-ROY experience. Soto was the only one I found with three MLB seasons under his belt, but one other player (Angel Berroa in 2003) had played shortstop for the Royals for a combined 35 games and 128 at-bats in 2001-2002. Talk about cutting it close to the 130 at-bat limit!

Most of the others fell into the more reasonable range of 15-20 pre-ROY games and 50-75 at-bats for position players and 5-15 games for pitchers. Six of the 20 awardees were “true” Rookies of the Year who saw their first MLB experience in their winning year: Chris Coughlin, Andrew Bailey, Evan Longoria, Ryan Braun, Dontrelle Willis and Eric Hinske. Honorable mentions go to 2006 winners Hanley Ramirez and Justin Verlander, who both played in just two MLB contests the previous season.

I think the system needs some revamping. Lower the pre-ROY maximum numbers to 20 games and/or 50 at-bats for position players, and 10 games and/or 30 innings for pitchers. This will ensure that September call-ups can still be considered rookies, but guys who played three months like Trout last year will be out of luck.

And what if Trout pulls off the double-win and captures both the Rookie of the Year and the MVP awards? He would be just the third man to achieve this feat, after Fred Lynn (in 1975) and Ichiro Suzuki (2001): two men who offer another contrast in rookies.

Lynn played in a reasonable 15 games in September of ’74, and while Suzuki was a “true” rookie in ’01 with regards to his MLB status, he did have nine seasons and more than 1,000 games in the Japanese professional leagues under his belt.

Now that’s another discussion altogether.  

Saul Wisnia lives less than seven miles from Fenway Park and works 300 yards from Yawkey Way. His latest book, Fenway Park: The Centennial, is available at http://amzn.to/qWjQRS, and his Fenway Reflections can be found athttp://saulwisnia.blogspot.com. He can be reached at saulwizz@gmail.com and @saulwizz. 

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One can not help but feel badly for Los Angeles Angels general manager Jerry DiPoto. He assembled a team that by all appearances looked like the squad that would win owner Arte Moreno’s first-ever pennant and bring the World Series back to Orange County.

Jered Weaver, locked up to a long-term deal, was having a Cy Young-caliber season. He brought in Albert Pujols who is heating up. C.J. Wilson made the All-Star team. Mike Trout has already sewn up the Rookie of the Year and has his sights set on the MVP. Torii Hunter’s bat was heating up.

He brought in Zack Greinke to slide into the rotation with Weaver, Wilson and Dan Haren. Reliever Ernesto Frieri was a steal from San Diego.

After the Greinke deal, the Angels looked poised and ready to run off with, at the very least, a wild-card spot and possibly zoom past the Rangers and claim the division.

That was 20 games ago. They’ve won only seven games since.

They are losing in every way possible. The bullpen has blown games and have an ERA over eight since the beginning of August. According to The Los Angeles Times, Scott Downs and Jordan Walden will be back soon. But will they be enough?

The starters have not helped matters. Greinke has been a bust in his first four starts, posting a staggering 5.54 ERA over 26 innings in Southern California. Dan Haren hasn’t been much better with a 5.04 ERA in the second half capped off by his miserable five runs in 3.2 innings drubbing by the Rays on Thursday night.

The Angels hit what they hope is rock bottom Friday night in Angel Stadium. Jered Weaver needed to give the team a quality outing especially on the heels of Haren’s poor start.

Instead, he suffered the worst loss of his career. Lasting only three innings, worse than Haren, he let up an eye-popping nine runs and saw his ERA jump 0.52 points in one night.

From the moment DiPoto looked like he put together the team of everyone’s dreams, they have become a prolonged nightmare. The third-best team in the American League the day Zack Greinke arrived is now fifth in the wild-card race.

If they make the playoffs, they would have to be considered a formidable foe. Weaver twice in a short series? Wilson going in Game 2? Trout and Pujols hitting in the big series? This team looks designed to win a short series.

Perhaps they are. But first they need to get into the postseason. Without the Angels in the playoffs, the Rangers would be the team to beat depending on the health of CC Sabathia for the Yankees.

The entire complexion of October could be different if the Angels make it. But if they keep pitching like this, they will be spending the fall on the golf course and leaving DiPoto scratching his head, wondering what else he could have done.

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