Baltimore Orioles vs Los Angeles Angels: 5 players to watch

The Baltimore Orioles take on the Los Angeles Angels this week. It’s a mismatch on paper, but the Halos’ recent struggles should mean a fair fight.

Fresh off a series win at Camden Yards, the Baltimore Orioles are headed west to take on the Los Angeles Angels, and they have to be feeling good about their chances. While a quick look at the standings might suggest a clear mismatch, the teams have been trending in opposite directions over the past couple of weeks.

The Orioles have been averaging 5 runs a game since last Wednesday, well above their season mark of 3.5. Manny Machado has been raking all year long, and with a little help from his teammates, that production is finally translating to the win column.

The Angels, meanwhile, have dropped 9 of their last 12 games, making them one of the coldest teams in the league. While the Orioles were averaging 5 runs a game, the Angels put up five runs total during their weekend series against the Yankees. It’s been a tough stretch, especially in light of their 13-3 start to the season.

Orioles fans should be careful not to get too excited — the Birds haven’t won back-to-back series since last August — but the levee has to break at some point. In the following slides, read up on five players who could decide the series.

Mark Trumbo, DH

Trumbo was having a rough spring training when he suffered a quadriceps strain that kept him sidelined for Opening Day. After a cautious rehab assignment, the towering righty is finally set to return to the starting lineup on Tuesday.

In a post that went live yesterday, I pointed to Trumbo’s regression in 2017 and argued that Orioles fans should be skeptical of his ability to turn the offense around. That said, he can still be incredibly dangerous when he’s swinging it well.

Check out this blast from last year, featuring the highest pitch hit for a homer of 2017:

It boils down to this: in 2016, Trumbo’s first year in Baltimore, he slugged .533. Last year, that figure dropped to .397. It may take him a while to find his groove against major league pitching, but if he can put up numbers that come close to his 2016 performance, he’ll be a major asset, his one-dimensional game notwithstanding.

For what it’s worth, Trumbo has hit well against the Angels’ probables for this week, with homers against both Nick Tropeano and Andrew Heaney on his resume. A successful series could be just what he needs to jump-start a productive season. With any luck, he’ll reestablish his trade value before the deadline.

Chris Tillman, RHP

Tillman has posted a nightmarish 7.67 ERA since the start of 2017, but you wouldn’t have believed it watching his last start against the Detroit Tigers. The Anaheim native pitched like his old self, recording five strikeouts and surrendering just one hit over seven scoreless innings.

The reasons behind the improvement were clear: location, deception and guile. With his average fastball clocking in at under 90 mph, Tillman doesn’t induce a lot of swings and misses, but he got the Tigers to whiff at 10.2% of his pitches, up from 4.8% against the Indians in his previous outing.

Take a look at some of the highlights from his sterling start:

Now comes the business of figuring out whether the strong performance was a happy outlier or a legitimate step toward regaining his old form. Tillman has had to compensate for his lost velocity, but with a bit of creativity, soft tossers can still survive in today’s league. Per Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun:

“All of [the secondary stuff] was [working],” Tillman said. “All three of my off-speed pitches were there for me when I needed them. With the fastball the way it is right now, you kind of have to mix and match and Caleb [Joseph] and I sat down before the game and we put together a pretty good game plan and executed.”

Ultimately, we won’t know what to make of Tillman’s last outing until we have more context, and that includes his scheduled Thursday start against the Angels. For all you historians out there, Tillman has an 0.64 ERA in two career starts at Angels Stadium — make what you will of the tiny sample size.

Shohei Ohtani, DH/RHP

He may have been scratched from his Tuesday start due to an ankle sprain, but a chance to watch everyone’s favorite two-way phenom at the plate should still be thrilling enough. Forty-seven plate appearances into his MLB career, Shohei Ohtani is much more than a gimmick — he’s a legitimate power threat.

With a .341/.383/.682 slash line and 4 home runs, the 23-year-old has already made good on his tantalizing potential. Aside from Mike Trout and Andrelton Simmons, the Angels don’t have a single qualified player with a league-average OPS+, making Ohtani’s contributions as a DH all the more valuable.

Check out this big fly from last week, off of Luis Severino no less:

Looking ahead to this week, it would be awfully nice if the Orioles had a lefty in their rotation. Twelve games into his career, Ohtani is already sporting a serious split: .406/.441/.875 against righties, but just .167/.231/.167 against southpaws. Buck Showalter may have to look to Richard Bleier to provide shutdown work in the later innings — as if that hasn’t been happening already.

No matter how you feel about his future as a player, Orioles fans should get excited to watch Ohtani swing the bat this week. Even going beyond the novelty aspect, he’s one of the best hitters in Los Angeles.

Mike Trout, CF

Did you really think we would get through an entire list of players to keep an eye on without mentioning Trout? The 26-year-old center fielder is the best player in baseball, and he’s also the biggest thing standing in the way of another series win for Baltimore.

The man known as the Millville Meteor needs no introduction, but we’ll give him one anyway. In six full seasons, Trout has won two MVP Awards and five Silver Sluggers. He owns a career slash line of .306/.410/.568. With 56.5 Wins Above Replacement, he has passed dozens of all-time greats on the career leaderboard, including Luis Aparicio, David Ortiz, Vada Pinson and Ducky Medwick.

The idea that Trout may still be improving, then, is a truly terrifying one. But just look at the numbers — since striking out in 26% of his plate appearances in 2014 (the year he won his first MVP, by the way), he has lowered his K rate every season, bottoming out with 17.8% in 2017. His walk rate is on an opposite trajectory, jumping from 12% in 2014 to 18.5% last year. Modern baseball is based on the three true outcomes, and no one has epitomized this shift better than Trout.

Of course, those changes didn’t happen overnight. In this ESPN piece, Buster Olney portrays Trout as a master tactician, constantly analyzing his game to find room for improvement. If he plays at anything close to his regular level, the Orioles pitchers will have their work cut out for them.

Next: Mark Trumbo set to return on Tuesday

Who are you going to keep an eye on in the upcoming series? Let us know on social media, and keep it here at Birds Watcher for more updates on the Baltimore Orioles.