The Angels are already good. The Angels already made trades. It's cool.
The Angels didn't do anything on Thursday's trade deadline. They probably sat by their phones and thought about doing something, but never got around to turning those moments into anything. It might seem a little odd for a team who is hoping to make it to the postseason to do nothing while so many of the teams in front and behind them spent their mornings and afternoons upgrading, but doing nothing made sense for the Angels. They already had done what they could, and as such were already in a better position than most.
The Angels presently sit two games back of the Athletics in the AL West. The A's acquired Jon Lester, Jonny Gomes, and Sam Fuld on July's final day, but there was nothing the Angels were going to be able to do to match or top that: they don't have many worthwhile prospects aad they need the productive players they have in order to maintain their strong lineup. Lester cost the A's Yoenis Cespedes, who has his flaws but is a bat most teams in the league would love to have in their outfield. The Angels can't afford to give up anyone of that caliber, because their pitching isn't strong enough to weaken the lineup any more than they already have -- more on that later. The A's, as a far more balanced club that also had a competitive balance pick to sweeten the deal, can take that risk.
So, maybe the Angels don't catch the A's thanks to the Lester deal and Oakland's earlier acquisition of Jeff Samardzija, but this isn't 1993: there are other ways to get into the postseason besides the division. The Angels have the AL's second-best record and it isn't close, as they sit 5.5 games ahead of the Blue Jays, the AL's second wild card holder, and are 8.5 up on the Mariners, who are first among losers in the Junior Circuit at present. Los Angeles of Anaheim is in a good place. Besides, they'd already made some moves.
Before July even began, they dealt Ernesto Frieri to the Pirates for Jason Grilli, who had recently been relieved of his closing duties after blowing saves all over the place. Grilli has been his old self with the Angels, striking out 11.5 batters per nine in his 15 games with the club, posting a 1.35 ERA in the process. It's early, but Grilli's early-season struggles were not the norm for a pitcher who had flat-out dominated the previous three years of late innings. Early in July, the Angels picked up Joe Thatcher and Tony Campana from the Diamondbacks, giving them a left-handed relief option and a little bit of emergency outfield depth. Unlike the Grilli deal, this hasn't done much for the Angels, but there's plenty of time and Thatcher's found plenty of success against lefties before.
The club's biggest move was acquiring yet another reliever, Huston Street. The Angels gave up four prospects for the rights to Street's 2014 and his reasonable $7 million option for 2015, but as we've already discussed, the Angels didn't have much in the way of prospects: four decent-for-Angels-prospects prospects isn't a hefty price to pay, and they still managed to grab a reliever who has been absurd as a closer for nearly a decade now: Street's career ERA+ is 149, the eighth-best ever for pitchers with at least 200 career saves, and he's just as good now as he's ever been. He's the stopper the Angels needed, Grilli the setup man, and suddenly the path from their occasionally suspect starting pitchers to wins was cleared.
There was starting pitching available at the deadline, but the consensus seemed to be that it was expensive. Lester cost Cespedes, David Price required a young starting pitcher in return as well as help from a third team -- the division rival Mariners, who were unlikely to help the Angels improve by giving up Nick Franklin in their name -- and John Lackey took Allen Craig's substantial likelihood of a rebound alongside another useful young starter in Joe Kelly. Justin Masterson came fairly cheap from the Indians, but he's been as poor as the Angels starters they'd be seeking to replace, and less healthy.
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The Angels know they can hit. They've been able to hit for the last three years, even when Albert Pujols has been disappointing and Josh Hamilton has been hurt. They have the top OPS+ in the American League at 112 and are tops in the majors as well, thanks to a lineup that features a productive Pujols, Howie Kendrick, Kole Calhoun (134 OPS+!), designated hitter C.J. Cron, a resurgent Hamilton, backstop Chris Iannetta, and of course, the best baseball player on the planet and presumably the rest of the Sol system, Mike Trout (Trout "struggled" in July to the tune of .265/.341/.504.)
The starting pitching has been the issue and remains the issue, but the Angels tried to address that to a degree this past offseason by dealing a source of offense, Mike Trumbo, to the Diamondbacks for Tyler Skaggs. While that hasn't worked out as planned, their acquisition of Hector Santiago from the White Sox has, at least enough to give them another average arm.
C.J. Wilson was struggling immediately before he hit the disabled list with an ankle injury, but chances are good he'll be as productive as usual when he returns. Jered Weaver isn't the ace he used to be, but Garrett Richards is playing that role while Weaver plays Richards' mid-rotation one, so it's all coming out in the wash. Upgrading on Skaggs would have been nice and all, but he's the fifth starter on a team who can deal with one pitcher spotting the opposition three or four runs per six innings, especially now that they've improved the pen.
The Angels could have picked up the phone and done something, but they already spent the last month doing so. Standing pat on July 31 hasn't negated the upgrades they've already made, both in-season and prior to it, and they're a better bet than basically anyone to succeed down the stretch, just like they've succeeded on their way to it.
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