30 Teams in 30 Days 2018 11 Anaheim Angels

All told, I doubt that any organization had as dynamic an offseason as the Angels. After making the playoffs just once in the last 8 years, despite having the game's best player, GM Billy Epler made some shrewd trades and free agent signings to beef up the roster around Mike Trout, including luring perhaps the most intriguing international free agent EVER to play in Orange County.

All-Acquired Factor

Even given the level of talent possessed by Shohei Ohtani, both as a right handed pitcher and a left handed slugger, the most fascinating part of his story could be how inexpensively the Angels were able to gain control of his prime years. Based on the new owner-friendly collective bargaining agreement, Ohtani gave up his right to a market value contract by not waiting until the magic age of 25 to make the jump to the major leagues, but there is something to be said about wanting to spend your prime years competing against the top players in the world. He's been spectacular on both sides of the ball, hitting home runs in his first 3 home games, and pitching 9 no-hit innings combined over his first two starts. Of course pitching against the A's is the best type of MLB training wheels you could hope for, and we'll see how he holds up over the course of a season considerably longer than he's used to in Japan, but for now, he looks like the real deal.

Shohei Ohtani pitching and hitting for his former team, the Nippon Ham Fighters.

The infield in Anaheim also got a makeover, thanks to a trade for Ian Kinsler, to play his customary position of second base, and a free agent deal for Zack Cozart, with the intention for him to move off the more defensively challenging shortstop in favor of third base (given the presence of defensive whiz Andrelton Simmons). In an ironic move though, Kinsler went on the DL immediately after the start of the season, leaving Cozart to take over second in his absence, a position he's never before played in the majors. And just to give a complete All-Acquired picture, both the bench AND the bullpen got two new pieces: catcher Rene Rivera (ranked 562 by MLB.com) and outfielder Chris Young (661) for the former, with former Orioles/Braves closer Jim Johnson (593) and Rule 5 pick Luke Bard (brother of Daniel) for the latter.

Fifth Starter

Not only is the Major League season about 20 games longer than those of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, NPB pitchers also take the hill with longer periods of rest between their starts. That's why the club that plays in Anaheim will add not one, but two pitchers to the rotation options presented by the SI baseball preview in order to give their newest Japanese import some extra breathing room. Actually, they'll have to add three pitchers if they want a six person rotation, since lefty Andrew Heaney started the season on the DL with elbow inflammation. Those three were going to be Matt Shoemaker (354), JC Ramirez (474), and Parker Bridwell (551), until Ramirez was lost for the year to Tommy John surgery and Shoemaker went down with the ever-ominous forearm strain. If you go by recent diagnoses, that injury has about a 600% likelihood to require another Tommy John surgery, so that could mean some increased responsibility for depth piece Troy Scribner... *checks notes* oh dear, Scribner was actually placed on waivers and claimed by the Diamondbacks just days ago. Maybe Nick Tropeano will be able to rebound from a lost 2017 to contribute again.

Fantasy Astrology Relevance

You can't talk about this team's fantasy implications without talking about the #1 ranked player in all of fantasy, Leo center fielder Mike Trout. His astrology teammate Zack Cozart will likely use his holdover shortstop eligibility to his advantage this year. Elsewhere in the outfield, Justin Upton will for sure lock down a corner outfield role with Virgo, while Kole Calhoun will find himself on the outside looking into a star-studded Libra mix (same with Cam Bedrosian in the bullpen department). If Garrett Richards can stay healthy, he will give likely non-contender Gemini a strong starter to pair with potential closer Blake Parker (pegged by SI as this team's "Fantasy Breakout" candidate). When I discovered that Shohei Ohtani plays for my "home" sign of Cancer, I was equal parts excited for his upside and totally flummoxed as far as how I'm going to fit him in my database (which has just one line per player) if he takes off as both a pitcher and a hitter.

Song

California - Phantom Planet

For the first four years of the Angels franchise's existence (from 1961-64), the club was known as the "Los Angeles Angels," which was appropriate, since they played their home games in Dodger Stadium through 1965. For their last year in Chavez Ravine, the team became the California Angels, and then moved to Angel Stadium in Anaheim a year later. This name stuck for more than three decades, until the city of Anaheim decided they wanted some credit, and the name was changed to the Anaheim Angels, the moniker under which the team won its only World Series title in 2002. Then three years later, the folks in charge of Angels Baseball LP decided to try and take advantage of the booming Los Angeles TV market, despite the fact that the team doesn't even play in Los Angeles County, and changed their name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, which doesn't make a lick of sense geographically.

Anyhow, the city of Anaheim (along with Angel Stadium itself) is located in Orange County, also known as the O.C. (much to the chagrin of Michael Bluth). There was also once a popular TV show called The O.C., which used the above-embedded song "California" by Phantom Planet as its theme song. I think I've made my thought process pretty clear on this one.

Colossus

The two smallest Colossi in the game are nearly identical in size and appearance, both resembling large mastiff-type dogs. Actually, if I had to pick different animals for each, one reminds me of a bull
and the other calls to mind a lion, and it's this first of these two, Celosia, that I associate with the Angels. Colossus #11 lives in a temple-like structure - which is appropriate because Angels are religious concepts first and foremost - adorned with four burning braziers - which is unfortunate, because Celosia is afraid of fire. So afraid, in fact, that if Wander holds a torch from one of these braziers, the Colossus will back away from him until it falls off a cliff, ruining its armor plating and opening itself up to the stabby-stabby. I like to consider the fire as symbolic of the City of Anaheim, and the cowardly nature of the Colossus as the Angels hanging onto their flimsy legal defense of the 2005 name change. I know that history didn't turn out the same way as the battle with the Colossus in the game, but I can dream, can't I?