Tuesday, February 22, 2011

2011 LA Angels Preview: The 10 Biggest Keys To Return To Playoff Form

The Los Angeles Angels are treading in relatively rare waters. They are coming off only their third losing season in the Mike Scioscia era and scored the fewest amount of runs in one season since 1992 (not counting the strike-shortened year of 1994).

While there are many pundits who have lamented the inability of the Angels’ front office to land free agents Cliff Lee, Adrian Beltre and Carl Crawford, the Halos did pull off a major trade, albeit a controversial one.

By trading for the services of Vernon Wells, owner Arte Moreno proved that he wasn’t afraid to dig deep into his considerable pockets, shelling out $86 million for the next four years for Wells to patrol a brand new position—left field.

I mean, who are we to doubt Arte Moreno? The man took a start-up business and sold it for $8 billion, and then bought a baseball team from nasty corporate giants, so who are we to argue about his business acumen?

But, I digress. We are here to look at the current crop of Los Angeles Angels. We are here to see if there is a way that the Angels can do a little better than score an average of 4.2 runs and hit better than .248. We are here to see if they can resurrect a bullpen that for years had been the model for other teams to follow. And, we are here to see if the Angels can avoid back-to-back losing seasons since 1992-93 (again, not including the strike-shortened year of 1994).

Here are 10 important keys that the Los Angeles Angels could employ during the 2011 season in order to avoid the ignominy of another losing season and having to listen to the naysayers who will no doubt be screaming about the failure of the Vernon Wells Project.

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