Kuzul

The reappearing act is an underrated one.

That is mostly because it is shrouded in disappointment, which is a necessary prerequisite. Without a massive letdown, there is no unexpected burst back onto the scene to stun the masses.

The Los Angeles Angels have both ends covered now.

They started this season as a team coming off a 98-win campaign, the highest total in Major League Baseball in 2014. But the disappointment of being swept out of last year’s playoffs bled into this summer. And the team that seemed most likely to win the American League West severely underachieved and went into September 7.5 games out of first place and 3.5 games back in the race for the second wild-card spot with two clubs ahead of it.

Less than three weeks later, the Angels have reappeared. They swept a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins—one of the teams they were trailing in the wild-card standings—on Saturday to move a game ahead of them and 1.5 behind the Houston Astros for that second berth.

The #Angels sweep, leapfrogging past #Twins and now closing in on #Astros for 2nd wild card spot

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 20, 2015

“My group of guys, they’re not going to quit,” manager Mike Scioscia told reporters after the Angels won the first game 4-3 in 12 innings. “They’re going to keep playing hard. Everybody’s upbeat on the bench.”

There is reason to be. This latest pair of victories gives the Angels 11 in their last 17 contests, spanning this month. Before this run they had lost nine of their previous 11 and 26 of 37. They looked like a team simply trying to finish out what had, to that point, become a truly disappointing year.

The Angels had already watched a beef between Scioscia and their general manager, Jerry Dipoto, play out publicly and lead to the theoretical superior quitting on the spot. The losing ways and the fall from relevancy were just more to add to the trash heap.

“It’s one of those times in the season when things go wrong and things kind of pile up on top of each other,” left-hander Hector Santiago told reporters after the Angels lost their 19th game of August, their highest loss total in that month since 1999.

Since then, everything has gone right, and that pile of issues has started tumbling. The rotation has become quite good. Mike Trout is hitting like Trout typically hits. And the Angels are moving up the standings toward where we all figured they would be when this season started.

In the 17 games since the start of the month, when this winning run commenced, the team’s starting pitchers have a 3.62 ERA, second-lowest in the league, and lead all AL rotations with an 80.9 percent strand rate, according to FanGraphs.

Garrett Richards, the team’s ace last season who has failed to live up to the billing this year, gave them one of their best outings of the month in the second game Saturday, throwing 8.2 innings and allowing two runs.

Meanwhile, Trout went into the end of August having hit .194/.336/.290 with a .627 OPS and one home run in the first 27 games of the month. He went 4-for-4 on Aug. 30, a prelude to the damage he would do in September.

Heading into Saturday’s doubleheader, Trout was hitting .280/.422/.660 with a 1.082 OPS for the month, which was sixth-highest in the league. His 193 wRC+ was seventh. He had only one hit Saturday against the Twins, but it was a home run, his sixth of the month, which is tied for second-most in the AL in September.

While those numbers seem pedestrian for a guy like Trout, they are far better than they were in the previous month and might be another precursor of what’s to come if the Angels end up in the playoffs.

“Mike does what Mike does, but we need to be more than a one-trick pony,” Scioscia told reporters Thursday (h/t Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times). “If the only thing we have going is what Mike is going to do, it’s not going to happen for us. He’s part of the core of the lineup, but we need nine guys swinging it so we can pressure other teams.”

For too long the Angels were almost all Trout and very little else, which is a big part of the reason they currently sit outside of the playoff picture. And Scioscia is correct in the obvious assessment that if no one else helps, this season will end with the Angels missing the postseason for the fifth time in six years.

The help has come, though, and Trout is mostly back to his normal, incredible self. This team has reappeared. The trick now is keeping itself in plain view.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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On Friday, Nike unveiled Mike Trout‘s second signature cleat, the Nike Lunar Trout 2, which will also be available as a turf shoe—a first for the Los Angeles Angels center fielder.

The company tapped what it described as Trout’s “otherworldly athletic abilities” for the launch colorway, the Nike Lunar Trout 2 Blueprint, which will be available exclusively on Nike.com on October 3.

It features some of the reigning American League MVP’s most notable stats—the 20 mph speed he reaches between first and third base, the 60 inches he can jump to catch a fly ball and the 489 feet he can slug a home run.

The other colorways will be available online and at select retailers the same release day.

Trout recently spoke with Bleacher Report, naming LeBron James as the athlete he would most like to switch places with.

He also took a neutral stance on the Drake vs. Meek Mill beef, though Drake’s “6 God” has sounded through Angel Stadium of Anaheim every time Trout has stepped up to the plate this season.

[Nike]

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The Los Angeles Angels have been without an official general manager since Jerry DiPoto stepped down in July, but with the season winding down, the search to fill the position is expected to pick up. 

Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com reported the team is “hopeful” they’ll name their new GM by the end of the 2015 season. 

Continue for updates. 

Angels Reportedly Favor Yankees’ Assistant GM 

Friday, Sept. 4

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, New York Yankees assistant general manager Billy Eppler is “expected to be a strong front-runner” for the Angels’ general manager position. 

The Angels know Eppler well, dating back to 2011 when the team hired DiPoto, as noted by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal:

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported on September 1 the Angels had finished conducting interviews with internal candidates Matt Klentak and Scott Servais and were preparing to interview additional candidates from outside the organization. 

After losing out to DiPoto for the Angels’ GM job in 2011, Eppler was promoted to his current role with the Yankees by their general manager, Brian Cashman.

DiPoto resigned from the position this summer in part due to a contentious relationship with Angels manager Mike Scioscia, according to Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. Bill Stoneman, who was the team’s general manager from 1999-2007, has taken over the role on an interim basis. 

The Angels are in a unique position to attract whoever they want to hire as general manager. Ownership has spent at least $137 million on payroll in each of the previous five seasons, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, and they have the reigning American League MVP Mike Trout signed through 2020. 

Any GM candidate would love to work for an owner who isn’t afraid to spend money for a championship—not to mention having arguably the single-best player in the sport to build around.

This has been a difficult season for the Angels on and off the field, but there’s a lot to work with heading into 2016.   

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As August trails on and September approaches from afar, roster expansion is around the corner for the stretch run of the 2015 MLB season. Teams in contention for playoff spots, such as the second-place Los Angeles Angels, may need to call upon their top prospects to give the big club a jolt in the fall.

Even though Los Angeles doesn’t have a very strong farm system at the moment, there are still pieces here that make for intriguing additions and have strong promise for the future.

While a list of a team’s top overall prospects gives a snapshot of the talent in place, it also can ignore the breadth of players available. Thus, here is a list of the Angels’ best prospect at each position.

Begin Slideshow

For much of 2015, things have been a bit hellish for the Los Angeles Angels. They began the year by raising a ruckus over Josh Hamilton’s latest relapse. More recently, the running feud between Jerry Dipoto and Mike Scioscia finally boiled over, resulting in the former’s ouster. 

That only happened two weeks ago. And at the time, it was easy to see the Angels as a dead team walking. Surely, ahead of them lay only doom with a side of gloom.

Or not, as it turns out.

After going 37-37 in their first 74 games, the Angels finished the first half on an 11-3 run that catapulted them into first place in the AL West at 48-40. Rather than let an ugly situation snowball, they’ve put said ugly situation in the rearview mirror by playing their best baseball to date.

According to the man in charge, they’ve been able to do so because they haven’t let all the turmoil rob them of their focus. 

“I think the focus is good; there’s really not a lot of distractions there,” Scioscia told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com earlier this month. “We’ve had a lot happen the last couple weeks, and these guys keep playing baseball. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”

This is a good thing. Focused baseball is better than unfocused baseball. And in these recent times, what it’s meant for the Angels is a return to the form of their MLB-best 98-win season from 2014.

Above all, what stood out about the 2014 Angels was how well they could swing the bats. Led by Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, they had a deep collection of quality hitters that produced more runs than any other team.

The Angels offense has largely struggled to carry on the torch in 2015, ranking 11th in the AL in runs. The reason we can say “largely,” though, is because the Angels offense has pulled off a Ben Affleck-like turnaround in recent days.

In their first 74 games, the Angels scored only 3.9 runs per game. But in their last 14 games, a dive into the numbers at BaseballSavant.com goes to show that the offensive gears in Anaheim finally started to turn:

Now, the obvious caveat here is that the Angels offense has erupted over a very small sample size. We’re not looking at definitive proof that the Angels will score 5.6 runs per game the rest of the way.

And yet, this offensive explosion hasn’t come out of nowhere. 

Mike Trout has helped the cause by doing Mike Trout things with a .360 average, 1.292 OPS and seven dingers. Fellow Angels regulars Kole Calhoun, David Freese and Erick Aybar have also found their strides. Calhoun has an OPS of .907 in this stretch, while Freese has a .733 OPS. For his part, Aybar is hitting .455 in his last 11 games.

Regarding Aybar specifically, the Angels have had a hand in his improvement. His hot stretch has coincided with a move into the No. 5 hole, which MLB.com’s Andrew Erickson highlighted as a spot that allows Aybar to hit more like his “slasher” self than a top-of-the-order spot.

It’s not just Angels regulars who have awoken, however.

Also awakening has been slugging designated hitter C.J. Cron, who was ranked by Baseball America as the Angels’ No. 2 prospect not too long ago. Since returning from the minors in late June, he’s hit .459 with a 1.326 OPS and four homers in 10 games.

This is after Cron OPS’d just .505 in 35 games to open the season. That’s a big difference, but Scioscia says it’s reflective of a big difference in Cron‘s approach.

“There’s no doubt he’s in the batter’s box with a little more confidence. I think he feels like he’s better equipped right now. The time spent down in Triple-A was well-served,” Scioscia told Erickson. “There’s no doubt he needed to work out some things and find his timing, and he did and he’s really been attacking the ball well while he’s been up here.”

Rather than some random occurrence, the Angels’ offensive surge thus looks like the result of the best player in baseball looking the part, two established guys living up to their talent, one guy getting put in the right spot and a talented young hitter finding his happy place. That’s a mix that could have some staying power, and the Angels offense will continue to thrive if it does.

And lest we forget about him, odds are Pujols isn’t going to stay as cold as he’s been. There’s also the possibility that the Angels will acquire a hitter before the trade deadline, preferably one who swings left-handed and who can bat leadoff and play left field. Someone like, say, Ben Zobrist or Ben Revere.

Whatever the case, the Angels’ recent offensive surge should prove to be a good warm-up for the second half. If so, they won’t need much in the way of pitching.

But as it happens, they’re pretty well off in that department too.

The Angels didn’t catch fire before the break just because their offense caught fire. Their pitching also had a hand in it, as the Angels allowed only 2.8 runs per game in those last 14 games.

The difference between the Angels offense and their pitching, however, is that the latter has been kicking posteriors for a while now.

For the season, the Angels have a 3.64 ERA that ranks fifth in the American League. Angels pitchers have been even better recently, posting a 3.22 ERA over the last 30 days. 

The main explanation for that? Well, it helps when four of your five primary starters are getting results:

Of these five, only Matt Shoemaker hasn’t pitched well. And though we could dive into some really nerdy numbers and nitpick how legit the success of the other four is, the reality is that their numbers are accurate enough reflections of their talent.

C.J. Wilson, for example, is a veteran left-hander with a deep repertoire who has fixed the control problems that plagued him in 2014. Hector Santiago has also improved his control, and he’s benefited from being a fly-ball pitcher with one of the league’s elite outfield defenses behind him. Garrett Richards, meanwhile, is a guy with overwhelming stuff who posted a 2.61 ERA last year.

The one wild card in the mix is Andrew Heaney. He’s been successful in his four starts, but those are the only four starts he’s made in an Angels uniform. That, combined with the fact that he got lit up in his first taste of the majors with the Miami Marlins last year, should raise suspicions.

And yet, Heaney‘s hot start does have a tinge of believability to it.

Heaney did come into the year as a consensus top-50 prospect, after all. And though that talent didn’t translate in 2014, the Angels managed to diagnose why that was and go about making fixes.

As Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register reported, the Angels stopped Heaney from reaching across his body with every throw. The result has been better velocity and better command than he showed in his underwhelming debut in 2014. Hence, better results.

Assuming Heaney‘s breakthrough is legit, then the Angels have at least four starters to rely on. The return of Jered Weaver could make it five if his stint on the disabled list somehow leads to him recovering some lost velocity. If not, oh well. Four out of five is still pretty good.

Even better is that the Angels rotation need not do all the heavy lifting. After having one of baseball’s best bullpens in the second half of 2014, it could be the same old story down the stretch this year.

The Angels have already been operating with an excellent late-inning duo, as right-handers Huston Street and Joe Smith both own ERAs under 3.00 and the peripherals to back them up. But in the person of Trevor Gott, the Angels may now have a third shutdown reliever.

The 22-year-old right-hander has only made 13 appearances, but that’s been enough for him to make an impression. He’s allowed only 13 baserunners in racking up a 2.77 ERA. And though he’s struck out only seven, he’s shown good command of his high-90s fastball and an ability to keep the ball on the ground.

If Gott lives up to what he’s teased so far, then the Angels stand to push their way through the second half with a shutdown bullpen, a solid starting rotation and a much-improved offense. That, certainly, doesn’t sound like a team that’s likely to fade after finally showing up just before the All-Star break.

And if it helps, they’re not expected to by the computers.

Though they disagree on whether the Angels will be the AL West’s best team down the stretch, both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus project them to finish the season on top for their second straight division title.

It thus doesn’t take a pair of human eyes to see that the Angels should continue being about as good as they’ve looked recently. That’s commendable even without context, but the context in this case makes it look so much more so. 

Seemingly poised to fall apart just weeks ago, what the Angels have done instead is come together. If that does indeed lead to another AL West title, it’ll make the victory taste that much sweeter.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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The 2015 MLB All-Star Game is taking place July 14 in Cincinnati. Fan voting for the starting lineups wraps up this week. There is still some time to get votes submitted for your favorite Los Angeles Angels players. However, only a few have a real shot at playing in the game this year.

Each team is required to receive at least one participant because of an asinine rule. Outside of that, an All-Star berth comes down to popularity and production. Here are the Angels’ top candidates to be named an All-Star in order of likelihood.

1) Mike Trout

No surprise here, as Trout leads all American League players in WAR.

2) Albert Pujols

A number of weeks ago, I wrote a Bold Predictions column in which I said Pujols would make the All-Star team. While most of the other predictions from that piece seem foolish now, this one I nailed.

Pujols has been on an absolute tear since May. He’s hit 20 home runs in the last two months alone. He has a 1.142 OPS during the month of June. He is even now up to second in the AL in WAR among first basemen. After such a shaky beginning to the season, Pujols is inarguably the team’s second-best player and is deserving of that All-Star bid that seemed so bold to predict just six weeks ago.

3) Huston Street

Sadly for Los Angeles fans, after Trout and Pujols, there is a real drop before the team’s third-best candidate. Street is that guy, but his chances of making the team are no sure thing.

Street is third in the AL with 21 saves. His peripherals also stack up nicely with his positional counterparts. The problem is there are a number of non-closers who have been much better than Street this year.

Dellin Betances and Wade Davis (besides picking up saves as injury replacements) have been untouchable middle relievers. The same goes for lesser names like Evan Scribner (41-to-3 strikeout-to-walk rate) or Darren O’Day.

The saves may get Street into the game anyway. Despite the progressive nature of baseball fans, that stat still matters in many circles.

4) Hector Santiago

The last player in Anaheim with any chance of making the All-Star game is Hector Santiago, and he likely doesn’t have much of a chance.

Santiago has been the team’s best starting pitcher this season and has solid figures across the board. Little else makes him a realistic All-Star, however. His record is just 4-4 in 15 starts and he’s given up 13 home runs this season.

Most pressing is the fact that there are simply too many elite arms in baseball right now.

His 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings mark is very good for a starting pitcher, but it puts him 13th in the AL this season among qualified pitchers. His 1.13 walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) is also superb, but it doesn’t even put him in the top half-dozen among AL starters.

Santiago has had a good year, but it won’t likely be good enough to make the team. The mediocre play of the Angels will hurt him, as will his manager’s propensity to rejigger the rotation to save arms. It may be the smart play, but it doesn’t come off positively when your manager skips your turn in the rotation.

At 39-37 this season, Los Angeles has had a sloppy year. Getting four players into the All-Star Game is a little too much to ask. The Angels are guaranteed one All-Star and could potentially have more. That’s not too bad.

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The Seattle Mariners began the season with lofty expectations, but they’ve failed to meet them as we approach the midway point of the season.

Seattle took a step in the right direction in the first game of a three-game series in Anaheim, beating the Los Angeles Angels 3-1.

Robinson Cano hit a solo home run, and Taijuan Walker pitched seven innings of one-run ball to get the win.

Aside from the Houston Astros, the rest of the division has been mediocre so far in 2015, with the Angels and Texas Rangers tied for second place, trailing Houston by five games.

Mike Trout hit a solo home run in the first inning for the only run of the game for the Angels.

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Seventy games into the 2015 MLB season, the Los Angeles Angels are owners of a 35-35 record. At exactly .500 is not where Los Angeles wanted to be nearing the halfway point of the baseball season, but these 70 games are already banked. The wins and losses aren’t going anywhere.

With a plus-three run differential, the results are right in line with the production thus far. If not for the very surprising seasons put together by the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles may even have been closer to first place despite the mediocre record.

At 35-35, the Angels have shown some drastic strengths and weaknesses throughout the roster. Here are a few of the most influential things we’ve learned about the team up to this point.

The offense is much worse than it was last year

It wasn’t hard for the team’s offense to fall short of where it was a season ago. Last year’s Angels were great at the plate. They led all of baseball in runs (773) by a healthy margin. They finished in the top five in total bases (2,295) and seventh in OPS (.728).

This year’s squad is worse, and unfortunately, it has been considerably worse.

Through 70 games, rather than being a top-flight offense, it is a bottom-third unit. Los Angeles ranks 23rd in total bases (888), 24th in batting average (.242), 23rd in on-base percentage (.303) and 20th in slugging percentage (.384). Even though the lineup contains many of the same bats as last year, the production has not been at the same level. However…

The offense can be better in the second half

Because we have past examples of success from many of these hitters, it isn’t hard to predict, or expect, an offensive turnaround in the second half of the season.

Erick Aybar, for example, has never had a season with an on-base percentage under .300 when he’s gotten at least 300 at-bats. He also hasn’t stolen fewer than 12 bases in a season since seven years ago. Expect him to get to first base more often in the summer months and, as a result, steal a few more bases than he has thus far.

Similar arguments can be made to varying degrees about Chris Iannetta, C.J. Cron and Matt Joyce.

Joyce’s season is especially confounding. He has never been a good hitter against lefties but has always produced against right-handers. In 2015, though, even that platoon matchup has failed him. His .614 OPS against righties this year is nearly 200 points below his career split!

Huston Street is underrated yet again

Every season, Huston Street falls under the radar when the discussion of elite closers comes up. Every year, a bunch of closers with the job supposedly locked down get demoted to positions of lesser prominence. Every year, Street seems to avoid both the talk of the best guys as well as the slew of those relegated to lesser roles.

This year has been another example of both.

In 27.0 innings, Street is 20-of-22 in save chances, with a 2.33 ERA, a 0.93 WHIP and 28 strikeouts.

Starting pitching will be an issue all season

Although Street has anchored a strong bullpen, the starting pitching for Los Angeles has been a different story.

Hector Santiago has been good, but he has also seen the team skip his turn in the rotation and drop him to relief roles on occasion.

Garrett Richards has been OK, but he got a late start to the season and has not lived up to his sky-high talent.

Both Matt Shoemaker and Jered Weaver have been bad, and they have also battled through injuries. Shoemaker lost some turns in the rotation, and Weaver is currently on the disabled list with hip inflammation.

These four guys, along with C.J. Wilson, have combined to start 68 of the team’s 70 games. If Los Angeles doesn’t discover reliable sixth and seventh options, the injuries and below-average output will do great harm to the Angels’ record.

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Earlier in June, Albert Pujols insisted that the Los Angeles Angels were not “the Mike Trout show.” This was despite all evidence to the contrary, as the Angels had been on Trout’s back all season.

But here we are a couple of weeks later, and time has proven Pujols wise. The Angels are no longer The Mike Trout Show. Now they’re what they were supposed to be: The Mike Trout and Albert Pujols Show.

After getting off to a painfully slow start with a .235 average and .702 OPS through May 27, Pujols has made it impossible to ignore what he’s has been doing since then. ESPN’s Baseball Tonight sent out this tweet Friday morning that highlighted Pujols as arguably the game’s hottest hitter:

He has refused to cool down over the weekend. The 35-year-old first baseman went 5-for-11 with a double and a home run—the 538th of his career, putting him 10 shy of Mike Schmidt for 15th all time—in a three-game series against the Oakland A’s. Even after taking an 0-fer Monday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he’s still hitting .369 with a 1.284 OPS and 10 homers since May 28.

In the meantime, Trout has also stayed hot. Though he hasn’t quite kept up with his slugging partner in crime, he’s hitting a rock-solid .297 with a 1.038 OPS and seven home runs since May 28. 

Thus have Trout and Pujols re-emerged as one of the American League‘s top offensive duos. Trout is having the better season with a .958 OPS, 18 home runs and eight stolen bases, but Pujols’ .863 OPS and 18 dingers hardly make him look like a slouch.

And now that it’s sipping on Mike and Albert’s Secret Stuff—like Michael’s Secret Stuff, except more potent—the Angels offense is looking more like what it was supposed to be. 

Per Baseball Savant, here are the splits:

When it was Trout doing all the heavy lifting earlier in the season, the Angels offense was one of the most punchless units in MLB. Since Pujols came alive, it’s looked a lot more like the league-best offense that led the Angels to a league-best 98 wins in 2014.

It makes you wonder: How, exactly, has Pujols’ bat caught fire in such a hurry?

According to the man himself, it’s a case of talent finally combining with luck.

As Pujols told Michael Kolligian of MLB.com: “I’ve been swinging the bat well all year long and, if you stay with that approach, sooner or later they’re going to fall.”

And as he told David Adler and Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com: “It’s the same thing I’ve been doing since Day 1, since Opening Day. I told you guys that. Just better luck, I guess. Instead of hitting balls right at people, I’m finding some holes. It’s a good feeling.”

It’s a reasonable explanation. Pujols is one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game, after all. And though his best days are undeniably behind him, the guy did just OPS .790 with 28 home runs in 2014, for cryin’ out loud!

But while Pujols’ current mega-hot stretch could indeed be a case of his collecting on overdue good luck, I’d like to propose an alternate theory: This is what Pujols looks like when he’s angry.

Let’s hop in the TARDIS and go back in time to May 25. 

On that day, the Angels found themselves locked in a 3-3 tie with the San Diego Padres heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. In the blink of an eye, there were runners on first and third, and Trout was striding to the plate.

With a base open, the Padres could either pitch to Trout or give him four wide ones and take their chances with Pujols. Trout entered the game with a .944 OPS, whereas Pujols had a .709 OPS. So, now-former Padres skipper Bud Black played the numbers and passed on Trout to bring up Pujols.

Here’s what happened:

That there’s a walk-off single. And if you watch to the end of the highlight, you’ll see Pujols glaring at the Padres dugout immediately after the ball left his bat and all the way down the first base line. He was effectively saying, “Take that!” And not at all in a jokey, light-hearted manner.

That wasn’t the first time an opponent intentionally walked Trout to bring Pujols to the plate. After it happened again in a couple of subsequent games, Jill Painter Lopez of Fox Sports West caught up with Pujols to get his thoughts.

His response: “I don’t think about that, dude. It’s part of the game. They can do that 100 more times. That doesn’t bother me. I’ve been on the other side, too.”

A diplomatic response, to be sure. In fact, Pujols made it sound like he checked his annoyance with the first intentional walk at the door as soon as the situation was over.

Looked at from another perspective, however? Maybe not. Since the Padres challenged him to live up to his career track record back on May 25, Pujols has been a different hitter.

One way we can tell is by looking at his approach in the batter’s box. According to Baseball Savant, Pujols was swinging at 46.1 percent of the pitches he saw through May 25, which FanGraphs tells us was in line with his career norms. Since May 26, however, he’s swinging 51.3 percent of the time. 

Thus, he’s gotten more aggressive. We’re witnessing Pujols in attack mode.

Normally, what you worry about when you see a hitter swinging more aggressively is more wild swings that result in too many easy outs for the pitcher. Or, as they’re colloquially known, “strikeouts.”

But those haven’t been a problem. Pujols was only striking out 12.5 percent of the time to begin with through May 25. Since then, he’s struck out in only 5.1 percent of his plate appearances. The exact numbers: four (four!) strikeouts in 79 plate appearances. 

So, Pujols hasn’t just been a more aggressive hitter since that fateful IBB. He’s been a more aggressive hitter who’s making lots of contact. 

And this extra contact has been of the loud variety. Here’s how Pujols’ average exit velocities split up:

• Through May 25: 90.9 mph
• Since May 26: 94.3 mph

Because we now know that batted balls really become dangerous once they get into the mid-90s and beyond in velocity, the leap Pujols has made is a significant one.

And if you go looking for hitters who have been crushing the ball like he has since May 26, you get a list that includes the likes of Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton and, naturally, Trout.

So, Pujols hasn’t just turned into a more aggressive hitter who’s making more contact. He’s turned into a more aggressive hitter who’s making contact and punishing the ball when he does.

If it wasn’t already taken, The Force Awakens would be a darn good title for a movie about the transformation that Pujols has undergone since the Padres dared to test him. And for the Angels, the result has been the rejuvenation of the Trout/Pujols duo and, with it, their offense as a whole.

Now, it should go without saying that Pujols can’t possibly keep this up for the rest of the season. What he’s doing right now would result in a 90-homer campaign over a 162-game sample, which says enough about the sustainability of his performance. And as Rob Neyer of Fox Sports noted, Pujols isn’t drawing walks or using the opposite field like he usually does.

However, the hitter Pujols is right now is more reflective of the hitter he’s supposed to be than the hitter he was before. The big projection systems see him managing an .800-ish OPS with around 17 homers the rest of the way. That’s probably asking a bit much. But he should be able to come reasonably close to being that good as long as his anger mode is kept on “BERSERK.”

And if that’s the case, the Angels lineup will continue to be a challenge. It could be beaten when it was all about Trout. It’s a lot harder to top now that it’s all about Trout and Pujols.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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Obviously, you’re not surprised to see “Mike Trout” and “most valuable” in the same sentence. Trout was the runner-up in the American League MVP voting in 2012 and 2013 before winning the award in 2014. His name and “most valuable” have appeared together a lot over the last three years.

And yet all that now looks like little more than a prolonged warm-up for what Trout is doing in 2015.

Part of the equation is that the Los Angeles Angels‘ 23-year-old superstar is having yet another stupendous season. Maybe not his best season, mind you, but it’s at least his most balanced season since back in 2012. Like he was then, he’s truly doing it all.

For starters, Trout has been an on-base machine. He’s hitting .294 with a .381 on-base percentage. Neither is his best mark, but both are improvements over last year’s .287 average and .377 OBP. For this, he can thank his newly crafted aggressive approach and, as ESPN Stats & Info highlighted, turning his weakness against high pitches into a strength:

Trout is also hitting for power. His raw power production has taken only a slight downturn from where it was in 2014, and his 13 dingers put him on pace for a career-high 41. Considering that he entered the week making hard contact a career-best 41.5 percent of the time, he might actually get there.

But it’s not all about Trout’s bat. He’s also using his legs, as his eight stolen bases put him on a pace for 25. If he gets there, he’ll have reversed a trend that saw his steals fall from 49 in 2012 to 33 in 2013 to just 16 in 2014. 

Lastly, the advanced metrics have Trout back to playing quality defense in center field after down years in 2013 and 2014. Entering Monday, ultimate zone rating said Trout’s defense has saved three runs above average. Defensive runs saved disagreed, saying his defense had actually saved twice as many runs.

In so many words: After flirting with becoming a bat-only player in 2013 and 2014, Trout is actually living up to his reputation as the game’s best all-around player in 2015. Cue Bryce Harper to sum it up.

“Baseball is always, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ That’s just how the game works. I still believe Trout is the best player in the game, hands down,” the Washington Nationals superstar told ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick a week ago. 

It’s indeed hard to argue the point. And even if it doesn’t back it completely, wins above replacement once again strongly agrees with it.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Trout began the week tied for third in the AL in WAR at 3.2. FanGraphs put him at only 2.9 WAR, but that was good enough for sole possession of third on its AL leaderboard.

All this is the long way around the barn of stating the obvious: Based on his play alone, yes, Trout is once again a leading candidate for the AL MVP award. 

However, remember that this is only part of the equation. The other part is more beneath the surface, and it’s where Trout is really demonstrating the whole “most valuable” thing like never before.

In the background of Trout’s latest awesome season is an Angels team that’s, well, not awesome. Before sweeping a four-game series against the Detroit Tigers over the weekend, they were just 23-24.

Of course, Trout’s awesomeness being wasted on not-so-awesome teams is nothing new. Before he took part in a 98-win season in 2014, his efforts were wasted on an 89-win team in 2012 and on a 78-win team in 2013. Like Ewan McGregor in the Star Wars prequels, he was a bright spot in a sea of “meh.”

But even on those teams, Trout had at least some help. It’s hard to say as much about his current situation, especially in his primary neck of the woods: on offense.

Because the Angels entered the week ranked 14th in the AL in OPS and runs scored, it’s not a secret that their offense has issues. But it’s still shocking, as what’s going on this year represents a huge drop-off from the prior three seasons:

The reasons for this are plentiful. Albert Pujols is back to looking old and over the hill. Howie Kendrick’s dependable bat is in Los Angeles proper. Matt Joyce has failed miserably at being a Plan B for Josh Hamilton. And speaking of Hamilton, the Angels’ pettiness put him back in Texas.

At any rate, all it takes is one glance at what Trout has done offensively and one glance at what the Angels as a whole have done offensively, and you can come to a conclusion that Trout has truly taken over the Atlas role for the Angels offense. That is, it all rests squarely on his shoulders.

But we can put some more numbers to the idea too, and what they say is straightforward: yup.

For this, we’ll turn to two useful but obscure stats: Bill James’ runs created (RC) formula and Tom Tango’s weighted runs created (wRC) formula. The two stats have different calculations, but they both measure a player’s offensive value in terms of how many of his teams runs he’s created.

Entering play Monday, Trout’s RC stood at 40. That’s out of the 192 runs the Angels have created—not the same as scored—so Trout is responsible for 20.8 percent of the team’s offense.

As for Trout’s wRC, that stands at 38 out of the Angels’ total of 180. That’s 21.1 percent.

Given how awesome Trout has been in an otherwise terrible lineup, his accounting for a fifth of the Angels’ offense sounds about right. It’s also, as these figures show, the biggest weight he’s ever carried:

In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Trout was most certainly a valuable member of the Angels offense. But in 2015, he’s become downright indispensable. Without him, the Angels offense might be the worst in baseball.

But of course, hitting isn’t what Trout is all about. He’s the complete package, and that’s where WAR can provide an additional perspective on what he’s meant to the Angels.

Ask FanGraphs, and it’ll tell you that Trout’s 2.9 WAR is out of the Angels’ total WAR of 10.7. That’s 27.1 percent. And while that doesn’t match the 28.0 percent of the Angels’ WAR he accounted for in 2013, it still borders on ridiculous to see a single player accounting for more than a quarter of his team’s value.

Baseball-Reference.com, meanwhile, has a slightly different opinion. It has Trout accounting for 3.2 of 9.1 total WAR, or 35.2 percent. That’s not just an even more ridiculous chunk of the team’s overall value but also a mark that blows his previous career best of 26.8 percent (also in 2013) out of the water.

So when Pujols said Monday night, via Pedro Moura of the Orange Country Register, that the Angels aren’t “the Mike Trout show,” he wasn’t entirely right. Because the thing is, they kinda are.

Bottom line: Just when you thought Trout couldn’t possibly be more worth raving about, he goes and does something like this. Albeit with a bit of help from the Angels, he’s found a way to go from being “most valuable” to “even more valuable.”

Of course, there’s no guarantee things are going to stay this way. Maybe Trout can keep up his end of the bargain, but his production won’t loom quite as large if some of the quality hitters in the Angels lineup wake up. 

Also, none of this is to say that we should go ahead and give Trout his second straight AL MVP and be done with it. It’s a wee bit soon for that, and Nelson Cruz and (naturally) Miguel Cabrera are just two of several worthy competitors. 

But if it so happens that the final two-thirds of the Angels’ season continues to resemble the first third of their season, by the end, they’ll be a team fighting hard for a wild-card spot thanks overwhelmingly to one guy. He’ll have his strongest case yet for an MVP award, which is saying something in his case.

Regardless of how things pan out, you can at least consider all this as the latest in a long line of reasons not to take Trout for granted. His excellence really should be ho-hum by now, but evidently, he’s just as good at self-one-upmanship as he is at baseball.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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