Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Potential Trade Partners for Tyler Anderson

Los Angeles Angels

The Los Angeles Angels entered the season with a handful of questions with their pitching staff, thus far, it’s far been their strength. It’s a real shame too because Mike Trout is only able to do so much. They do have the offense with Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Jared Walsh, Anthony Rendon, David Fletcher and Justin Upton all in the lineup. But they do need more pitching.

Ohtani has been solid this year. The two-way star is being limited in his innings per start as he only has 8.2 innings between two starts, but has only allowed a single earned run, has struck out 15 batters, and has only surrendered three hits. His control hasn’t been great though with 11 free passes.

However, Alex Cobb, Andrew Heaney, Jose Quintana and Griffin Canning all have an ERA above 4.00. Quintana has a 9 ERA through 10 innings. Both Canning and Cobb have ERAs above 6.00. All told, the Angels are among the top 3 worst teams when it comes to ERA (5.48), WHIP (1.42), and walk rate (11.5%). However, they have been an unlucky group as well. They have a 3.59 FIP, 3.29 SIERA and 3.64 xFIP. They have kept home runs to a per-9 rate of just 1.1, have a strikeout rate above 30% (31%) and the lowest left on-base percentage in baseball.

Still, they could use another pitcher in general. Getting Anderson means pushing one of their starters to the bullpen, another area the team has heavily struggled with. Pitching has been an issue for the Angles for a while now. Luck has played into their struggles so far this year, but a more stable lefty arm could give the team the boost of pitching it needs.