Daily Distractions: How bad is the Angels’ pitching?

Jerome Williams

Spot starter Jerome Williams allowed two home runs in the Angels’ 8-4 loss Sunday. (Associated Press photo)

“Terrible” and “absolutely awful” are two ways to describe the Angels’ pitching staff. And those were suggested by their manager yesterday.

I could have cited a few more stats about the Angels’ staff in my game story from yesterday’s 8-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles and where they rank among the 30 teams, namely:

• Opponents’ on-base percentage .344 (29th)
• Opponents’ slugging percentage: .427 (25th)
• Opponents’ OPS: .770 (28th)
• Blown saves: 5 (t-23rd)
• Save percentage: 44.4 (t-29th)
• HR allowed: 39 (t-25th)
• Wild pitches: 17 (27th)
• WHIP: 1.48 (29th)
• Strikeouts per nine innings: 6.80 (24th)
• Strikeout-to-walk ratio: 1.70 (28th)

The Angels are among the worst in the league in nearly every pitching category. It’s almost hard to be this bad. And this is *after* two stellar complete-game efforts by Jason Vargas last week.

That’s why even Mike Scioscia isn’t pulling punches. It’s hard to be optimistic.

Nowhere to go but up, right?

Onto the bullet points:

• From SI.com: “(Oakland) has gone 3-2 since its 19-inning win. Despite losing Crisp and Young to the DL, they’ve benefited from good outfield depth, with Smith, Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick all still healthy. The Angels, however, have gone 2-4 since, though their problems go far beyond one extended game.”

Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com is the latest to suggest that the Angels and Scioscia break up (and that Scioscia might hook up with the Dodgers later).

Josh Hamilton is still an easy target in Texas.

• ICYMI, Orioles pitcher Pedro Strop caught teammate Manny Machado‘s home run yesterday.

The Denver Post chronicled Orange County kid Nolan Arenado‘s rise to the big leagues with the Colorado Rockies.

ESPN asks: Who will replace Bud Selig?

• Baseball is The Only Real Game for one city in Northeast India.

• A song that had me mesmerized much of the last 24 hours, Tame Impala’s cover of “Prototype” by OutKast:

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