Series preview: Guardians vs. Angels

This is usually the part of the series preview where I get to rip on the Angels for being such an inept organization that they have two generational players on the same roster yet still can’t field a winning team. However, seeing as the Guardians are several factors worse than the Angels right now, they have effectively ruined that. Like so many other things this season.

I would like to tell you that the Guardians batters should be feasting on trio of pitchers featuring two guys with ERA’s over 5.00 and Patrick Sandoval, but all three are lefties and the offense has a habit of making every lefty look like Greg Maddux on the mound, so I don’t know.

Don’t get it confused — the Angels are still probably going to be as bad as ever by season’s end. Their positive run differential masks a starting rotation with an ERA of 4.99 and carried by Shohei Ohtani. Of course, Ohtani also carries the offense — along with that Mike Trout guy — because that’s just what he does. Truthfully, their offensive is surprisingly good early on, which isn’t a new phenomenon for the Angels. They’re kind of the opposite of Terry Francona teams in that they start hot and fizzle and eventually implode like clockwork over the last few months of the season.

Along with Ohtani and Trout, Hunter Renfroe and Anthony Rendon are the only other players with more than 100 plate appearances and a wRC+ over 100. Old friend Gio Urshela lags behind a bit at 85 as whatever magic the Yankees and Twins imbued in him has left. Rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe was off to an incredible start, slashing .283/.339/.547 in his first 16 games, but tore his labrum and will likely miss the rest of the season.

The exciting thing to watch in this series, besides a glimpse at some real GOATs, will be more starts from Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee. Allen can just keep humming along after three solid starts, while Bibee will look to put his bad outing against the Twins behind him. They start Game 1 and Game 3, respectively, but if you want to watch Bibee’s early-morning start on Sunday you’ll need to hop over to Peacock.

Team at a glance

• Record: 20-18
• Runs scored: 195
• Run differential: +11
• Last 10: 6-4
• Slash: .258/.330/.420
• wOBA: .329
• wRC+: 107
• ERA: 4.24
• SIERA: 4.24
• K-BB%: 13.6%

Projected starters

Friday, May 12, 7:10 p.m. ET: LHP Tyler Anderson vs. LHP Logan Allen
Saturday, May 13, 6:10 p.m. ET: LHP Reid Detmers vs. RHP Cal Quantrill
Sunday, May 14, 11:35 a.m. ET: LHP Patrick Sandoval vs. RHP Tanner Bibee

Roster

• 40-man roster
• Depth chart