What We Got Right - And Wrong - About the Angels 24 Games Into the Season

As the team left its Spring home in Tempe and began the regular season, I made a lot of predictions about the team. Some have looked really good and others remind me of why I do not gamble often.

Let's take a look at what I got right and wrong so far.

Jose Soriano is even better than I predicted.

One of my first stories for Angels on SI predicted Jose Soriano for a breakout season. The reasoning was simple. Take a talented, prime aged pitcher with great stuff and add the best pitching coach in the business to guide him.

Soriano was the obvious choice to start on Opening Day and is simply dominant right now. The reasons for his dominance are encouraging as well.

I got Mike Trout right.

Mike Trout showed plenty of reasons why he is Mike Trout again in the Cactus League. Not only was Trout sprinting faster than he had in years, his mechanical adjustments at the plate were starting to lead to hard contact.

On Opening Day he had a vintage Mike Trout game that reminded us why we love him.hitti Over the next couple of weeks Trout continued to hit the ball hard but simply was not finding hits. I said he was due for a hot streak last Monday and he went on to crack 5 home runs in 4 days.

I got Yusei Kikuchi wrong, but probably not for long.

Kikuchi showed up to camp looking ready to roll. He left to pitch for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic and I assumed the veteran would be ready to lead the rotation when he returned.

Early on that prediction looked foolish as Kikuchi pitched the worst stretch of his Angels career. I looked at his pitch mix and thought that was the problem. Nope, turns out it was his arm slot and a mechanical adjustment led him to throwing 6 scoreless frames against the Padres on Saturday.

I underestimated the offense.

While I nailed the starting nine and stated the lineup had plenty of power I still worried about the strikeouts and low on base percentage. On the plus side, the Angels have hit the second most home runs in MLB at 34. Only the Dodgers 37 is better.

Being 7th overall in OBP is something I never envisioned. Nor is being in a 3 way tie for the lead in walks with 109. The Angels offense has improved dramatically in OBP and it might be sustainable.

As of now, the lineup is much deeper than I anticipated. Oswald Peraza is playing up to his potential and the addition of Adam Frazier is looking smarter every day. If they could just jettison Josh Lowe and add Nelson Rada at the top of the lineup this could be a dynamic offensive and defensive team.

Unfortunately, I nailed the bullpen.

The Angels went cheap on the bullpen hoping a number of former closers could enter camp and one good closer would emerge. They also hoped Robert Stephenson could remain healthy and Ben Joyce could get healthy.

Hope is not a plan, although it seems to be Perry Minasian's main strategy in building a bullpen. Take away a couple of Jordan Romano choke jobs in New York and this team is above .500.

It does look like Yates will be back soon with Joyce not too far behind. Maybe, hopefully, those arms plus some better match up useage by manager Kurt Suzuki result in a better bullpen soon.

I got Walbert Urena wrong in a good way.

Very early on I profiled Walbert Urena as a guy who took big strides at the minor league level and warranted attention in Spring Training. I said he could be a bullpen arm later this year, possibly a starter down the road.

Urena made the big league roster out of camp as a reliever. He struggled a bit and was sent down to get a couple of starts at AAA. Brought up as a starter he was brilliant against the Padres on Sunday. Throwing 100 MPH sinkers to set up a newly sharp change up is a great path for success.

Like with Soriano, pairing great raw stuff with Mike Maddux could result in great things. Urena has the fifth starter's job for the time being. Let's see what he does with it.

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