LA Angels Lacking Pop And Pitching

As the LA Angels of Anaheim were blown out by the Colorado Rockies by a score of 11 to 1, a lot of questions that hampered the team early in the season resurfaced.

On the same night that starting pitcher Ervin Santana was sent to the disabled list, Matt Palmer the surprising starting pitcher for the LA Angels this season suffered his first loss of the season.

And while the LA Angels suffer from a lack of depth at the starting pitcher spot their offense also seems to be sputtering as they managed only three hits last night against a meager Colorado pitching staff.

Granted the Colorado Rockies are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now but they're still not the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees.

Matt Palmer is a 30-year-old rookie who won his first six decisions and filled a huge gap in the strating rotation for the LA Angels but was pounded last night for seven hits and six earned runs in less than five innings. Palmer was behind in the count most of the night and as a result the Rockies hitters were sitting on good pitches to hit.

The LA Angels are going to need Matt Palmer in the starting rotation with Ervin Santana going on the disabled list for who knows how long given his 7.47 earned run average and the continued absence of Kelvim Escobar another guy who's status is pretty uncertain. Sean O'Sullivan, the 21 year old who was impressive in his first major league start a week ago, has been called up to replace Ervin Santana.

Kendry Morales continued to show some pop by hitting his 12th homer of the season last night but that was pretty much all the Angels could muster as they were only able to string together 3 hits.

With their recent struggles, and I do mean recent as they've lost their last three but won 7 straight prior to that, the LA Angels are facing the questions of whteher or not they have enough pitching to win the AL West (they're behind the Texas Rangers right now) and do they have enough pop to beat the stronger AL East teams?

Vlad Guerrero has always been a source of power for the LA Angels but his power numbers are down this season evidenced by his 1 HR and 10 RBI this season. Torii Hunter (.316 16 52) has been a rock for the LA Angels, Kendry Morales (.272 12 36) and Juan Rivera (.310 10 37) seemed to have panned out at their positions but the LA Angels are seriously lacking either a more dominant offense or better pitching if they plan on competing for the World Series this year...

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