Los Angeles Angels: Biggest flaw being exposed early on

The Los Angeles Angels have not started the season how they hoped and the team’s biggest flaw has been exposed in the process.

The 2019 Major League Baseball season is officially a week in and there have been some exciting storylines thus far. While not exciting for fans, one of the prominent things to note is that the Los Angeles Angels have started the season with a 1-5 record.

Right off the heels of extending Mike Trout for 12 seasons, the Angels have not been able to start the year how they, or the fans, had hoped.

The Angels join the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds as the only teams in the MLB with just one win. Of those four, the Angels are the only team with five losses as well.

This does not mean the Angels are going to be poor all season and are going to finish with the worst record in the league. Jumping to those kinds of conclusions after just six games is a bit absurd and the Angels will eventually rebound.

However, we can still learn a lot about a team in the first week of the season and in these losing efforts, the Angels’ biggest flaw has been exposed.

The Angels have virtually no depth. All it takes is one or two significant injuries and the Angels spiral downwards. The two significant injuries that have derailed the team right now are Justin Upton and Shohei Ohtani. Missing Andrew Heaney, Nick Tropeano and others does not help, either.

It might feel as if the Angels are the unluckiest team in the league with these injuries but injuries are something that every team has to deal with. Heck, the New York Yankees are missing their most notable names and the 2016 Los Angeles Dodgers set the record for players on the DL and still made it to the NLCS.

A huge equation in building a contender, which the Angels have overlooked and haven’t been able to do because of overspending, is building depth.

Not to beat the Dodgers’ point to the ground but the Dodgers entire bench would be starting options for the Angels.

The Los Angeles Angeles are never going to get over this contending hump without building that depth. So even when Upton and Ohtani return to boost the offense, there will still be something that holds the team back.

Whether it is a starting pitcher or two that is out or another member of the starting nine, there is going to be some sort of setback. And as we have seen this decade, the Angels are arguably the worst team in the league to prepare for these setbacks.

On the surface, the Angels should be a playoff team. They have the best player in baseball, a top three shortstop, some young arms with potential and other bats that can make noise.

They are certainly talented enough to make a postseason run, as long as everyone stays healthy and literally everything goes right.

It does not take long in sports to realize that there is never a case in which everything goes right, which is why the Los Angeles Angels have not won a playoff game this decade.