Kuzul

Few things excite Mike Trout like the weather. Give him a good storm, and you can see lightning bolts in his eyes.

During a blizzard last winter, he phoned in a report to the Weather Channel. In appreciation—or, perhaps, out of sheer amusement—the network promised to send him a weather balloon.

“I heard it’s pretty big. I haven’t seen it yet,” he said this spring. “You send it up in the air, fill it with helium, and it sends you some weather reports, like the wind speed.”

His father piqued his interest in the weather when he was young.

“Storms, I’m always on the computer,” Trout said. “It’s cool. It gets my mind off baseball, for sure. I get real excited. Every city we go to, if [my teammates] know it’s going to rain that night, they ask me what’s going to happen.”

These days, clouds surround his Los Angeles Angels much of the time, and few can predict with certainty what’s about to happen. True, they’ve turned around a 1-4 start to enter Friday on a modest four-game winning streak. But by most other barometers, things appear ominous.

Owner Arte Moreno’s latest attempt at stacking sandbags to stem the flooding sat in his spring training office one day late in camp and pondered a question: Are the consistently underachieving Angels blowing it by failing to take advantage of the prime of Trout?

“I don’t think our urgency is heightened, because we’re always at a high expectation level,” new general manager Billy Eppler said. “We clearly want to build a nucleus around our young, controllable talent.”

Eppler is in this chair because the last GM, Jerry Dipoto, could not work with manager Mike Scioscia under the conditions set by Moreno. Dipoto fled last July, smack in the middle of the season, after losing another head-butting contest with Scioscia, another brush fire set roaring through the smog choking this Angels organization.

The team’s marquee free agent of a few seasons ago, Albert Pujols, is 36 now and has battled leg injuries as he’s aged. Two other key free-agent signings, outfielder Josh Hamilton and starter C.J. Wilson, did not pay off as hoped.

At 33, ace Jered Weaver’s fastball has been muted. He had difficulty reaching 80 mph on the radar gun this spring. The Angels hope he can get by this summer with a chip on his shoulder and smoke with his mirrors.

Moreover, there is not much help on the farm right now to aid either the everyday lineup or to use as trade chips to import new talent. Baseball America this year ranked the Angels as having the worst farm system in the majors. Keith Law, ESPN.com’s expert on prospects, wrote that the Angels have the worst farm system that he’s “ever seen.”

It is not like this just happened overnight. Baseball America last year ranked the Angels system 27th among the 30 big league organizations. In 2014, just like this year, the publication ranked the Angels 30th.

Yes, welcome to Rally Monkey Nation, Mr. Eppler.

Though the Angels produced the best record in the majors just two years ago, they presently appear more in need of extra sandbags than extra October press-box seating.

“This is a team of young, controllable talent,” said Eppler, a top assistant to New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman before taking on the Angels’ challenge. “I look at this club and I see Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun, Andrelton Simmons, C.J. Cron, Garrett Richards, Andrew Heaney, Tyler Skaggs, Carlos Perez. And some [others] are going to emerge.

“But I’m counting those eight guys as young and controllable guys who can be part of a championship core for years to come.”

As each day passes during the prime of Trout’s career, that championship core, if there is to be one, had better come together soon.

“It’s easy to lose focus of the rest of the guys on the ballclub because of who he is,” Eppler said of Trout. “But other names in those eight are very good players, too.”

The Angels hear this talk about winning with Trout before it’s too late. Predictably, it is not on their list of favorite topics.

“We can’t control that,” Pujols said. “All we can do is control getting ready for this season.”

Said Richards: “We’re not worried about it. We’re going to be fine.”

But time is slipping away.

Through his first six seasons, covering 661 games and 2,915 plate appearances, Trout has played exactly three postseason games. That was two years ago, when the Kansas City Royals skunked the Angels in a three-game romp.

During that span, though the Washington Nationals haven’t won a playoff series either, at least Bryce Harper has been there twice in four years, playing in three times Trout’s total of postseason games. Houston’s Carlos Correa splashed down in October as a rookie last fall.

Though Trout already has won one American League Most Valuable Player award (2014) and finished second three times (2012, 2013, 2015), the Angels have consistently failed to put the kind of team around him that can put a franchise player on the game’s biggest stage.

In Trout’s first full season, 2013, the Angels went 78-84.

Then came ’14, the best record in the majors (98-64) and the postseason splat against Kansas City.

Last year, the Angels dug themselves an enormous hole with inconsistent play early and then came charging back and just missed a playoff spot on the last day of the season with an 85-77 finish.

“It was exciting,” Trout said. “Looking back, it was a positive. We fought until the last day. Every out was huge.

“You look back now, one game maybe in April or May, or June, we let slip by or we weren’t focused the whole game, that one game could have helped us. It comes down to the wire every year for some teams. It’s just getting off to a good start this year. That’s the most important thing.”

The Chicago Cubs buried the Angels in the season’s first two games. Two scouts who watched the Angels this spring said they aren’t bad, maybe a .500 team as constructed, but each noted a potentially lethal lack of depth. A key injury could wreck things quickly because of the paucity of the farm system, putting Trout even further from the postseason stage.

“He’s still only 25 years old,” Calhoun said of Trout [who actually turns 25 in August]. “From a baseball standpoint, he’s got a long baseball life in front of him.”

Before the 2014 season, Trout signed a six-year, $144.5 million deal with the Angels that runs through 2020. It is heavily back-loaded: He will earn $33.25 million in each of the last three years of the deal.

One of these years, he figures the club will get over the October hump.

“You know, we can’t look ahead,” he said. “We’ve got to just make the playoffs. Start from there. That’s the big thing.

“Then, if you get hot during the playoffs, anything can happen. You’ve seen it the past couple of years with the Royals. They have a great team and got hot. We played them…they got hot.

“I think playing meaningful games in September helps you out. It was an exciting finish last year. Obviously, we fell short. But there were definitely some positives.”

As is the case in nearly every other clubhouse at this time of year, the Angels feel good about the spring they just completed and are filled with hope that this year will be filled with sunshine and balloons.

And if it’s not, they think, then who’s to say Trout still won’t lead them to the promised land one day soon?

“I think everybody thinks he’s at his peak,” said closer Huston Street, an 11-year veteran. “Everybody wants to say, ‘How can you get any better than what he is?’

“The kid’s 24 years old. Of course, he has time to get better. That’s what’s exciting for me. Why limit him? He’s one of the most focused, talented players I’ve ever been around. He has humility. He loves the game.

“There’s always a sense of urgency with us, and it has nothing to do with Mike. But when you have a Mike Trout on your team, there’s always a possibility. He’s that dynamic. He changes the game that much.”

Street, 32, a two-time All-Star, can’t imagine thinking he had peaked at 24.

“If someone told me at 24 that I’d peaked, I’d have looked them straight in the eyes and told them they’re an idiot,” Street says.

Trout is too polite and friendly to do that.

But this chatter about the Angels consistently failing to take advantage of his prime? You bet it reaches him.

“Obviously, you hear everything when you’re playing,” he said. “We have a great group of guys together. Billy Eppler is a great guy; he interacts well with us. He gets our opinion. He comes down here and sees how we’re feeling.

“That’s the biggest thing that’s going to help us this year. We’re all together. It starts from the top.”

But while he says they’re all in this together, Trout’s singular greatness naturally places him apart from his teammates. His blinders to that probably are beneficial. At least, they reduce the awkwardness.

“It’s a team game. We’ve got new faces in here, new pieces to the puzzle,” he said. “We’ve got one more year of guys who were a little inexperienced last year. [They] know what to expect this year. They’re more confident, and I think that helps us.

“I just keep playing my game hard. I can’t control what people say. We try to set goals, and our goal is the playoffs.”

And if not, well, maybe by October he’ll have that weather balloon to keep him occupied.

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout stated Wednesday he’s not interested in showing up an opposing pitcher despite comments from fellow sensation Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals about baseball being a “tired” game.

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times passed along comments from Trout, who explained he would be upset if he was a pitcher and a hitter showboated against him. It isn’t a stance meant to stir up controversy with Harper or anybody else; it’s just the way he sees the situation:

We mess around in the cage and stuff. During the game, I just hit the ball and go. I go out there and try to respect the game. I go out there and play. My parents always taught me to be humble.

Baseball’s so-called unwritten rules have been the source of a polarizing debate since Harper made comments about the lack of emotion allowed in the sport.

The 23-year-old reigning National League MVP told Tim Keown of ESPN The Magazine earlier in March that players should have more freedom to express themselves in order to energize the game:

Baseball’s tired. It’s a tired sport, because you can’t express yourself. You can’t do what people in other sports do. I’m not saying baseball is, you know, boring or anything like that, but it’s the excitement of the young guys who are coming into the game now who have flair. If that’s Matt Harvey or Jacob deGrom or Manny Machado or Joc Pederson or Andrew McCutchen or Yasiel Puig—there’s so many guys in the game now who are so much fun.

Harper used Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez as an example. He loves how the starting pitcher, who’s a division rival, isn’t afraid to stare down a hitter after a big strikeout.

New York Yankees legend Goose Gossage doesn’t see it the same way. The 64-year-old former pitcher doesn’t think Harper shows enough respect for the game, per ESPN 1000 (via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post):

What does this kid know? This kid doesn’t know squat about the game and [has] no respect for it. Here he is making millions of frickin’ dollars; that’s great. I’m happy for all the players and all the money that they’re making, because it’s hard-earned by all the players that came before these guys. Ninety percent of these guys never went through a strike, a work stoppage. They don’t know the blood sweat and tears that has been spent on what these guys are making. All we wanted was a piece of the pie. Marvin Miller did that, Curt Flood, from on up. My career started out on the first strike in 1972, and it ended in the last one in 1994, when we lost a World Series, which should have never happened, but it did. … We fought for everything these players are getting. So let me tell [Harper] something: Go look at the history, figure it out, and quit acting like a fool.

While it’s been viewed mostly as a generational gap, Trout’s comments show it doesn’t break directly down those lines.

Trout and Harper are two of the players leading baseball into the next generation. Finding a way to reinvigorate the game is a legitimate source of debate because of fading television ratings, but the Angels outfielder clearly doesn’t think more showmanship is the way to go.

That said, it’s hard to argue Harper’s main point of baseball needing more energy. The entertainment value increases when a player like Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, who’s also been verbally attacked by Gossage, flips his bat or Hernandez barks at a hitter after getting an important out.

The main question is whether that’s a sign of disrespect or merely competitive fire showing through. Trout and Harper are likely going to play each other in a lot of key games over the next 15 years, especially if they eventually land in the same league, and those contrasting styles will be on full display.

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The Los Angeles Angels probably don’t need to be told this, but they should feel blessed to have Mike Trout. He’s been a regular since 2012—a historically awesome regular since 2012.

But now for something that maybe the Angels do need to be told: They should be mindful of Trout’s historical awesomeness possibly going to waste.

Though the Angels didn’t watch Trout win his second straight American League MVP in 2015, they did see him enjoy his fourth straight MVP-caliber season. The 24-year-old center fielder led the AL in OPS at .991 and in WAR at 9.4, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

While we’re on the topic, WAR is still the No. 1 fan of Trout’s career to date. He rates as the best player in baseball history through the age of 23. Further, August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs dug deeper and found that only nine players have ever had better four-year runs than Trout at any age.

Consider this your midwinter reminder that Trout is really something else. Feel free to take a moment to pay homage to your personal Mike Trout shrine. We all have one, folks.

But now we must move on to where the Angels stand in all this.

The Angels aren’t about to lament what Trout has done for them, but they can’t be happy about how they’ve failed to capitalize on his greatness. They won 98 games and made the playoffs in 2014, but their drop to 85 wins in 2015 made it three of four seasons they’ve fallen short of October. On the results spectrum, that’s toward the “suboptimal” end.

And right now it’s looking like the Angels haven’t done enough to avoid a similar fate in 2016.

Granted, they haven’t been laying low this winter. Their trade for Yunel Escobar should upgrade their offense, and adding Andrelton Simmons and Geovany Soto will definitely improve their defense.

But is that sufficient?

According to FanGraphs‘ WAR projections, the Angels aren’t likely to be the best team in the AL West in 2016. In fact, they project to be worse than the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners and only as good as the Texas Rangers. This is also suboptimal.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: WAR projections aren’t gospel. But it’s sometimes hard to argue with them, and this is one of those times.

Trout has been awesome, but the problem the Angels have had is giving him enough support. That’s a lingering concern that hasn’t necessarily been eased by their activity this winter. Escobar‘s probable offensive upgrade may be mitigated by Simmons and Soto likely being offensive downgrades.

There are outstanding issues elsewhere too. Trout is flanked by holes in left field and second base as well as a veteran in Albert Pujols who’s only getting older and more banged up. The Angels do have solid depth in their starting rotation, but it could be better in terms of talent.

This sounds like a job for the free-agent market, a place where the Angels have made noise in the past. And if they really wanted to, they could do it again this winter. Still out there is a selection of left fielders and starting pitchers and at least one good second baseman.

The trouble, of course, is the Angels seem wary of sticking to their old habits on the open market. And in fairness, one can see why.

Over the last five seasons, the Angels’ Opening Day payroll has tended to hover around $150 million. With $142.3 million in salary commitments and $17.7 million in projected arbitration payouts, per MLB Trade Rumors, the Angels are already slated for a franchise-high $160 million payroll in 2016.

What’s more, figures compiled by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register show the Angels’ adjusted payroll is pretty close to the $189 million luxury-tax threshold for 2016. As a result, any free-agent signing will push them over that and force them to pay a penalty.

At the outset of the offseason, that’s something Angels owner Arte Moreno seemed willing to live with under the right circumstances. As he told Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com, “If it’s the right player in the right situation, we’ll do whatever is needed.”

Evidently, neither the right player nor the right situation has emerged. The way things stand now, the Angels are sending the message that they believe they’re better off not spending big money this winter.

From the outside looking in, however, it’s too easy to question their logic.

It’s arguably enough that the Angels don’t look like the clear favorites in the AL West heading into 2016—or even a clear wild-card contender, for that matter. There’s a real possibility of them making it four out of five prime-Trout seasons wasted.

Again, suboptimal.

If there’s something that could justify another postseason-less year for the Angels in 2016, it’s the notion that their best days will be in 2017 and beyond. This seems to be the angle the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are taking this winter—and for good reason. Both clubs are in a position to integrate young talent in the coming seasons, perhaps laying the groundwork for dynasties.

The Angels, though, aren’t even in the same ocean as the Yankees and Dodgers, much less the same boat.

The Angels’ farm system doesn’t feature a single prospect in MLB.com’s top 100, and even that may understate the problem. As Christopher Crawford and the Baseball Prospectus crew put it, “There are good systems. There are poor systems. Then there’s 50 pounds of effluence, and then there’s the Marlins. Add another 50 pounds, and you’ve finally reached the Angels.”

This puts the Angels at quite a disadvantage, not just when it comes to building from within, but in building through trades. Take away those two avenues, and spending is the only team-building strategy at their disposal.

To this end, maybe the Angels’ goal is to spend next winter when C.J. Wilson, Jered Weaver and others will go off the books. But the big problem there is that next winter’s free-agent market isn’t going to be anywhere close to as loaded as this year’s. After Stephen Strasburg and Carlos Gomez, there aren’t going to be many in-their-prime talents.

A better idea would be for the Angels to wait until after 2018 when an absurdly deep class of free agents will be available. But “better” in this case doesn’t mean “perfect.” Among that winter’s valuable free agents will be Garrett Richards, a key piece of the Angels’ current core. Also, the rising costs of Trout’s and Pujols’ contracts will render the Angels without a ton of spending power.

But that’s three whole years from now. If those three seasons go poorly, the Angels would be spending to force their window back open rather than spending to open their window even wider.

The latter is what they could be doing right now and, indeed, something they at least seem tempted to do.

Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times has reported the Angels aren’t in serious talks with players such as Justin Upton, Alex Gordon and Yoenis Cespedes. But reports from DiGiovanna, Jon Morosi of Fox Sports and Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News indicate those three are at least on the Angels’ radar.

And though a deal isn’t likely, Fletcher has reported they’ve also been in touch with former Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick. The Angels seem less hung up on starting pitching, but among the options still out there are Scott Kazmir, Wei-Yin Chen and Yovani Gallardo.

Because the Angels need to restock their farm system, it’s understandable if they’re wary of players with ties to draft-pick compensation. But that list doesn’t include Cespedes or Kazmir, and one can argue the Angels shouldn’t be too fixated on the draft anyway. They hold the No. 20 pick, and the reality is they’re not going to rebuild their system in one draft, no matter what.

In all, the Angels don’t have many excuses not to spend. Their window to contend is open now, and money is all the Angels have to open it as wide as it needs to be.

It’s either that or hope Trout can somehow become even larger than life and single-handedly make the Angels a superpower. But that’s asking a bit much, even of him.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked. Contract and payroll data courtesy of Cot’s Baseball Contracts.

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The MLB MVP races don’t have the luster of recent memory, given only a handful of candidates were a part of a pennant race despite their teams being rich with high expectations fueled by remarkable talent.

It’s far less enticing than the Cy Young Award conversation where in the National League, there are three worthy winners and in the American League, there is a pair of southpaws that led their teams to snap lengthy playoff droughts. 

Perhaps a slight stride in the 2015 MVP hunt is that there appears to be more variety among vying candidates. Last year, Mike Trout ran away as the unanimous AL winner and Clayton Kershaw got the NL nod with a dominating 21-3 record while claiming his fourth-straight ERA title.

The MVP awards—along with the Cy Young, Rookie and Manager of the Year honors—are administered by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. 

The BBWAA selects two members recommended by the local chapter chairman from each MLB city for each award, tallying 30 total votes. There is no crossover—meaning AL writers vote only for that league award, and same for the NL—and in smaller markets, some members may vote for multiple awards, per the BBWAA.

With the MVP announcement slated for Nov. 19, here is a look at the candidates and predictions.

American League

Trout turned in another phenomenal year, but the reigning MVP may be hindered by his team’s overall struggles and a breakout season from Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson.

Donaldson scored 13.6 percent of Toronto’s MLB-best 891 runs this season, led the AL with 123 RBI and 352 total bases, and tied with Trout for third with 41 homers. He was undoubtedly the best bat in a Blue Jays lineup filled with power and consistency.

Donaldson was an exceptional hitter and defender in four seasons with the Oakland A’s—he was an All-Star in 2014—before being traded last offseason. But his ascension to MVP favorite came at a rapid rate and as somewhat of a surprise given the A’s were willing to let him go in part of an overall rebuild. 

The third baseman could become the first player to win MVP following an offseason trade since the Detroit Tigers’ Willie Hernandez in 1984, according to JP Morosi of FOX Sports.

Donaldson’s peers voted him the overwhelming winner in the Sporting News MLB Player of the Year honors, determined from 387 player votes—of which 150 were for Donaldson. Trout finished sixth with 12 votes.

His Los Angeles Angels were 14-1 odds to win the World Series this spring, per Odds Shark, sixth among the majors after winning 98 games the year prior. They would’ve assuredly been worse without the versatile outfielder, as only two teammates had a FanGraphs WAR of 2.0, the mark of an average position player. Trout’s 9.0 topped the AL with Donaldson second at 8.7.

Handcuffing the five-tool Trout for his team’s struggles might not be fair—and it defies BBWAA protocol—but that’s not why Trout shouldn’t win. It’s because Donaldson was simply the better player, who also happened to play on a better team.

Donaldson winning MVP would leave Trout the runner-up for the third time in his fourth full MLB season, but he’s only 24, is the face of baseball and will assuredly contend for the honor in many years to come.

Prediction: Josh Donaldson

National League

The NL MVP race isn’t nearly as close or varied, with the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper the clear favorite despite his team failing to reach the postseason as unanimous preseason World Series favorites, per Odds Shark.

Harper blasted a league-high 42 homers and was the batting title bridesmaid with a .330 average. The former first overall draft pick finally lived up to his prodigy pedigree after three seasons of above-average, but not necessarily remarkable, performances forecasted when he entered the league, as Eddie Matz of  indicated:

Harper hasn’t had a bad season since he came to the majors, but this is the first year many feel he has really lived up to his superstar potential. Part of that is patience, he says, sure. But a bigger part is that, for the first time, he has been able to play an entire season.

Harper fulfilled his preseason goal of playing at least 150 games—he reached a career-high 153—in large part to baserunning and defensive discipline. And his presence benefited the Nationals greatly, as he led the majors with a 9.5 WAR, per FanGraphs.

His competition for the award doesn’t seem as stiff as others’ in years past, either. 

There is a trio of starting pitchers—Jake Arrieta, Zack Greinke and Kershaw—each worthy of the Cy Young Award, but they probably won’t challenge Harper given the writers awarded Kershaw in a once-in-a-generation selection a year ago when he became the first NL MVP pitcher since Bob Gibson in 1968.

Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo and Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado each had exceptional seasons, but none quite reached Harper’s echelon. Rizzo was the only one among that trio to reach the postseason.

Should writers select Harper, he would be the first NL MVP on a non-playoff team since Albert Pujols won in 2008 with the St. Louis Cardinals. In total, six have won the award since MLB expanded its playoffs in 1994 to incorporate the League Division Series, according to Dayn Perry of CBS Sports. 

And per BBWAA protocol, the performances of Harper’s teammates shouldn’t be a factor in determining the award. 

Prediction: Bryce Harper

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Praise the second wild-card berth.

Without it, this final weekend in Major League Baseball might be the kind that forces even the steadfast fan to shift his or her attention to the gridiron. But because we are in the era of two wild-card teams in each league, there is no need for attention to be taken off the diamond over the next two days. 

The Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels and Minnesota Twins are still alive in the sprint for the second AL wild-card spot. Houston leads the race thanks to a blowout win spearheaded by a stellar start from ace Dallas Keuchel against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, also keeping them alive in the race for the American League West title.

The Angels again relied on Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, along with former ace Jered Weaver, to get a win against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers to remain one game behind the Astros. And the Twins lost to the Kansas City Royals on Friday, putting themselves in a position where they need a ton of help now that they are two games behind the Astros.

All three teams have two games remaining.

The Rangers have a magic number of one to clinch the West, so one more win against the Angels, and the Astros are locked out of that possibility. However, the Astros dictate their own fate for the second wild-card spot. If they win their next two games in Arizona, there is nothing the Angels or Twins can do to knock them from that spot.

Houston is set to use Collin McHugh, who stunningly has 18 wins this season despite a 3.98 ERA and 101 ERA+ over his 31 starts, on Saturday. In his last four turns, the right-hander has a 5.70 ERA (15 earned runs allowed in 23.2 innings), and the Diamondbacks are one of the highest-scoring teams in the National League.

The Astros have not named a starter for Sunday yet, but it would normally be Lance McCullers‘ turn in the rotation. The 22-year-old rookie has given the team six quality starts in his last seven turns, and the lone outing that was not he pitched five innings and allowed two runs. His ERA over those seven stats is 3.27. 

The Angels saved themselves Friday, getting a gutty six innings from Weaver. Four relievers then combined for three scoreless innings, which allowed for Trout’s leadoff triple in the ninth inning followed by Pujols’ run-scoring single to hold up for the victory.

“I probably didn’t have my best stuff going out there,” Weaver told reporters. “… Somebody was looking out for me tonight.”

The Angles need to win out and have the Diamondbacks pick off the Astros once over the next two games. Do that and the Angels force a one-game playoff to get into the do-or-die Wild Card Game.

Hector Santiago takes the ball for the Angels on Saturday, but he has not completed six innings in any of his last three starts (10 earned runs allowed in those games), but in two starts before that he allowed just two runs in 13 innings. The Angels desperately need him to revert back to that form in his final start of the regular season.

Right-hander Nick Tropeano throws Sunday. He has pitched well lately, allowing three earned runs in his last 17 innings, but the Rangers could counter him with ace Cole Hamels. The southpaw allowed six runs in six innings in his last turn, but before that he had a 2.78 ERA in his previous eight starts.

After the Angels won Friday, manager Mike Scioscia stated the obvious based on his team’s position in the standings.

“We consider all of these playoff games,” he told MLB Network Radio.

The Twins gave up two runs in the top of the eighth inning and ended up losing 3-1 to the Royals on Friday, pushing them two games behind the Astros and a game behind the Angels. Now, for the Twins’ games to mean anything, the Astros have to lose their next two and the Angels have to lose at least once. Even if the Twins win their next two, they will not get into the playoffs without that help.

The Twins are going with Tommy Milone on Saturday, but the Royals have Yordano Ventura (five earned runs in his last three starts) and Johnny Cueto (eight earned over his last three) scheduled for the weekend.

“I don’t like it but all we can do is keep battling and see what happens,” Twins right fielder Torii Hunter told reporters. “The scenario is those guys lose two, we win two.”

The Astros clearly hold the advantage as the schedule comes down to its final two days, but the MLB regular season has seen stranger things happen than what would have to go down for Minnesota to make the playoffs. 

Oh, how that second wild-card spot is keeping it interesting.

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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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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If you load the bases for Mike Trout, good things are going to happen.

In the second inning against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night, the Los Angeles Angels did just that—and the reigning American League MVP delivered.

Trout took A.J. Achter’s pitch deep to right-center field and gave his Angels a 6-5 lead. It was his 37th long ball of the season.

[MLB]

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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 main plot of the three-game series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels that concluded Sunday was the playoff chase.

The Halos are in the thick of the wild-card hunt, and the Jays hold a narrow half-game edge over the New York Yankees in the American League East.

But there was a solid subplot to this weekend’s action: the burgeoning AL Most Valuable Player race between Josh Donaldson and Mike Trout.

Like the postseason scramble, the Trout/Donaldson MVP showdown is far from settled. But this recent bout of head-to-head action afforded a fine opportunity to assess where things stand between the two stars.

Based on these three games, the momentum is with Donaldson.

The Blue Jays convincingly swept the series, outscoring the Angels 36-10, while Donaldson went 8-for-13 with four doubles, a home run and nine RBI.

After going 0-for-6 with four strikeouts through the first two games, Trout redeemed himself by going 3-for-4 with a triple and an RBI Sunday, but it wasn’t enough.

The Angels now sit in third place in the AL West, looking up at the first-place Houston Astros and the suddenly scalding Texas Rangers. If the season ended today, Los Angeles would miss the postseason.

Yes, the MVP battle is about individual performance. But frequently, voters have leaned toward the guy whose club punched an October ticket, particularly if the stats are close.

Right now, the stats are close.

Here, let’s just lay out the numbers, as of Sunday, and toss in Trout’s complete 2014 MVP campaign for comparison:

If you like counting stats, Donaldson has a slight edge in home runs and a sizable advantage in RBI. Trout, meanwhile, has drawn more walks (64 to 51) and owns a higher OPS.

On the WAR front, Trout edges Donaldson, 7.35 to 7.09, according to ESPN.com.

As a shorthand for overall value that accounts for offensive and defensive contributions, WAR has its utility. But numbers that close, with so much baseball yet to play, indicate a virtual dead heat.

That’s not the way many saw it playing out, even recently. On Aug. 9, High Heat Stats MLB tweeted an unequivocal Trout endorsement:

That might yet turn out to be true, minus the Montel Vontavious Porter bit. Donaldson, though, has made certain it’s anything but a foregone conclusion.

Then again, perhaps it is, if you ask Donaldson’s Toronto teammate, Jose Bautista.

“You put him on this stage, it’s easy to figure out what he can do,” Bautista said, per Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star. “He’s doing it and he’s the best in the league so far…by far the MVP. If anybody doesn’t think that, they’re a fool.”

Call me a fool, then, because I’d say it’s definitely up for grabs. Based on the stats, Trout might enjoy a razor-thin advantage. Based on the standings, which matter whether you like it or not, Donaldson’s the man.

“It’s not my main focus,” Donaldson said of the prize, per Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown. “It’s not something that would make or break me. I believe in the player I am. So I have confidence in that.” 

As TSN.ca’s Scott MacArthur opined, “The player that doesn’t win the award is in no way diminished. Trout falling short to Donaldson or vice versa doesn’t lessen his importance to his team; it doesn’t change the fact he is one of the best players in the sport.”

So we’ll have to let the season play out; no one is running away with this. Trout and Donaldson should swap blows the rest of the way, though they won’t meet again in the regular season.

Speaking of which: As topsy-turvy as the AL playoff picture is, don’t be surprised if the Angels and Blue Jays wind up winning the two wild-card slots and meeting in a one-game, do-or-die playoff.

That hypothetical matchup wouldn’t impact MVP voting, which is based solely on regular-season performance. But it’d be one hell of a plot twist in this thrilling, evolving story.

All statistics and standings current as of Aug. 23 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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In the movies and on TV, the cool kid who transfers into a new school mid-year is always a point of wonder—the girls swoon over him, and he immediately becomes popular simply because he has the mystery of being new.

Baseball award races can be that way sometimes. You don’t necessarily have to be the best in order to win. You just have to show up at the right time—sort of the way R.A. Dickey swiped Clayton Kershaw’s Cy Young Award in 2012.

That is happening again in the American League MVP race this season.

Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson is the newcomer, turning heads and forcing his peers to do double takes in his direction. He is certainly worthy of consideration, and in many other years before 2012, his season would have won the award going away.

The problem for Donaldson: Mike Trout is still playing in the same league. Also, Trout is the best player the sport has to offer, and he has been since 2012.

So, as long as the Baseball Writers Association of America’s AL MVP voters do not decide they are tired of the Trout storyline, the Los Angeles Angels‘ 24-year-old center fielder should take the honor for the second consecutive season after finishing second in the two years before that.

MVP race: AL 1) Mike Trout 2) Mike Trout 3) Mike Trout 4) Mike Trout 5) Montel Vontavious Porter

— High Heat Stats MLB (@HighHeatStats) August 9, 2015

Trout went into Thursday leading the league in adjusted OPS (180, which would be the highest of his already dashing career), isolated power (.300), FanGraphs WAR (6.5) and Baseball-Reference WAR (6.9). He was second in home runs (33), slugging percentage (.600), wOBA (.416) and wRC+ (176), third in OBP (.393) and ninth in walk rate (11.8 percent).

In those telling offensive categories Trout did not lead in, Donaldson was not the reason. He does not check in higher than Trout on any of those lists.

Oh, and Trout ranks where he does despite having a crummy August—.159/.275/.250 going into Thursday—since he injured his wrist late last month diving for a ball. That cold stretch is part of the reason the gap has closed and Donaldson is in the discussion.

But Trout has not gone into prolonged slumps in his brief career, so as long as he is healthy, a breakout could be coming soon to truly put this race to bed.

“I still like Mike Trout to win the award. I would not bet against him,” Sports Illustrated baseball writer Tom Verducci said on its website. “But at least now, we have some intrigue.”

Donaldson betters Trout in some categories. He has more total bases and RBI (255 and 85, to Trout’s 248 and 70), which is more of a product of Donaldson’s team, and he rates better defensively, though center field is a far more premium position than third base.

Another thing that has to be considered when discussing the MVP race—and only because BBWAA voting history forces us to—is where the Angels and Blue Jays sit in the standings. Toronto currently leads the AL East, while the Angels have a two-game lead for the second wild-card spot. If the Angels miss the playoffs, it could factor into voting, as it did in the National League‘s MVP race in 2011 when Ryan Braun beat out Matt Kemp. 

While that should not matter—a single player has little control over the six-month success or failure of his team—it unfortunately does to a certain segment of the voters, especially when a race might be viewed as close.

Also, the voting base is human, and Toronto’s recent surge (14 wins in the last 15 games), if it earns a playoff berth, will be in recent memory and could play a factor in Donaldson’s receiving votes over Trout.

One more Trout thought for the day: How annoyed are we all going to be if the Angels miss the playoffs and that’s why he loses MVP?

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) August 7, 2015

Then again, if the Blue Jays storm into the postseason, ace David Price could earn some votes. If that happens—which it could, since the Jays were about a .500 team before the Price trade last month—it would steal votes from Donaldson, widening the gap between him and Trout.

For Donaldson to have a real shot, Trout would have to remain pedestrian in his team’s final 48 games, and Donaldson would have to remain scorching-hot in his team’s next 46. In his 24 second-half games before going 0-for-4 Thursday, Donaldson hit .308/.413/.725 with a 1.138 OPS and 10 home runs.

Reality tells us Donaldson comes back to this planet sometime soon, Trout has a bit of a rebound, and the MVP race will not end up as close as it might seem right now.

This year, there is no Miguel Cabrera Triple Crown to contend with. There are no other players clearly trumping Trout’s all-around value. And his team’s success/failure might be his biggest challenge to walking away with the MVP award this season, making him the eighth AL player to win it in consecutive seasons.

While Trout might have to swat away the new contender on the block, he is still the best player in the game and the most valuable in this league. Period.

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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