By Andre Castillo - AngelsWin.com Columnist
Most Valuable Angels: Pitchers
Welcome back everyone to Inside the Numbers. This week we’ll look
at the most valuable pitchers on the Angels staff, using Fangraphs.com’s Wins
Above Replacement (WAR) metric.
1. Jered Weaver: 1.8
2. Dan Haren: 1.8
3. C.J. Wilson: 1.2
4. Jerome Williams: 0.8
5. Scott Downs: 0.6
6. Ernesto Frieri: 0.4
7. David Carpenter: 0.3
8. Jordan Walden: 0.2
9. LaTroy Hawkins: 0.1
10. Hisanori Takahashi: 0.1
11. Jason Isringhausen: 0.1
12. Garrett Richards: 0.0
13. David Pauley: 0.0
14. Rich Thompson: -0.1
15. Kevin Jepsen: -0.1
16. Bobby Cassevah: -0.2
17. Ervin Santana: -0.3
At the top of the list we have no surprises. Jered Weaver and Dan
Haren have been one of baseball’s best duos since Tony Reagins fleeced the
Arizona Diamondbacks back in 2010, and are still packing quite the punch for
opposing hitters. Behind them we have C.J. Wilson making the argument that he
may be the Angels’ best off-season signing since Torii Hunter -- at least so
far anyway. Jerome Williams continues to be a very pleasant surprise at the
fourth spot and is well on his way to acquiring the kind of WAR that one would
expect of a solid #3 starter, let alone a #5.
Just past the top four we see how the Angels bullpen has really
turned itself around. Mike Scioscia has deservedly been giving Scott Downs the
top bill for high leverage situations over Jordan Walden and for good reason.
Downs has acquired 0.6 WAR in only about 6 weeks of actual game time -- an
astounding pace for a reliever not named Mariano Rivera. Frieri has quickly
shown himself to have been an awesome acquisition by new GM Jerry Dipoto,
filling a key need and racking up WAR at an even faster pace than the
pertinacious Scott Downs. Downs and Frieri have been the driving force behind
the Angels’ bullpen overcoming the train wreck that it had been at the start of
the season.
The biggest surprise, and disappointment, is naturally at the
bottom. Ervin Santana has been a disaster for most of the early season.
Typically we would expect him to be at or above 1 WAR at this point of the
season. Instead, he has been worse than useless. Ervin Santana’s early season
struggles have alone cost the Angels 1 or 2 wins.