Los Angeles Angels midseason awards: Most disappointing pitcher

The MLB season is at its unofficial halfway point with the All-Star Break and the Los Angeles Angels have some midseason awards to give out.

The Los Angeles Angels have been consistent through the first half of the season in the fact that they have hovered around .500 for the entire year. They have not gone too far under nor too far over the .500 threshold and fittingly enter the break with a 45-46 record.

The first half of the season has had its ups and downs. Mike Trout has done Mike Trout things and Shohei Ohtani returned and has been spectacular. Albert Pujols returned to St. Louis and Hansel Robles has introduced the best walkout music in baseball.

And there have been lows.

The tragic passing of Tyler Skaggs caught the entire baseball world by surprise as the Angels have been strong enough to play through the pain. This is much bigger than baseball and we send our deepest condolences to Skaggs’ family, friends and everyone affected by his passing.

On-field lows include the countless number of injuries that have plagued the team thus far as well as some players that have underperformed through the first half.

Just like we are doing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, we are going to be giving out four midseason awards, two good and two bad, to the Los Angeles Angels. This is not the traditional MVP or Cy Young, as that is quite obvious and instead takes a different path.

Starting on the negative side of things, as we did the Dodgers, here is the most disappointing pitcher of the first half for the Los Angeles Angels.

Los Angeles Angels most disappointing pitcher: Trevor Cahill

There are several names that could take this award as the Los Angeles Angels have had one of the worst starting rotations in the Major Leagues this season. In particular, the three new additions from this past offseason have been bad and disappointing thus far.

Instead of giving it to Matt Harvey, who has the highest ERA on the team, or Cody Allen, who is no longer even with the team, the honors are going to none other than Trevor Cahill.

The reasoning for giving it to Cahill, who sports a 6.92 ERA opposed to Harvey’s 7.50, is that he had higher expectations entering the season.

Both Harvey and Allen were big names that certainly brought promise with them to Anaheim but neither were coming off of good seasons and were actually several years removed from their last good season.

While it was okay to be optimistic, most fans probably realized they would not be getting the younger versions of these guys.

Cahill, on the other hand, was coming off a solid year where he posted a 3.76 ERA with the Oakland Athletics. Not only did he have a solid 2018 but he also posted a 2.74 ERA with the Chicago Cubs in 2016, although most of his appearances were out of the bullpen.

Nobody expected Cahill to be a world-beater but the transition to the starting rotation appeared to be something that he could do and could do well. All the Angels needed him to be was an innings eater who could post an ERA under four.

That obviously has not been the case as Cahill is on pace for the worst ERA of his career. He no longer is in the starting rotation but cannot even regain the success he found being a reliever with a 5.19 ERA since returning on June 26.

Cahill and his peers are going to have to pick it up if the team wants to capitalize on the solid offense and make a run at the Wild Card. Right now, though, he is the most disappointing pitcher of the first half.