2003 Anaheim Angels Baseball Graphs Review

It was a tough year for the defending World Champs. At the All-Star break, they were within hailing distance of the A's, but the two teams went their separate ways after that. The last half of July and the first half of August were the worst period of the season for Anaheim.

Unlike last year, the Angels were hit by the injury bug this year, as Erstad, Fullmer, Glaus and others spent significant time on the Disabled List. The Angels were also hurt a bit by the Pythagorean forumla (three wins below their projected won/loss record, based on runs scored). But the real hurt was in the offense.

Like last year, the Angels had one of the best fielding teams in the majors. Unfortunately, it was not quite as good as last year's, when they had the best DER in the league. The pitching, which was slightly better than average, was not as good as in 2003.

The Angels had some good fielders all around, but two guys who deserve mention are Bengie Molina and Darin Erstad, when healthy.

During the worst stretches of the Angels' year, the hitting was primarily to blame. During that run in August, the defense was somewhat worse than average, but the offense was way worse than average. At one point, average runs scored over a ten-game stretch dipped to 1.5/game. Same sort of thing happened in the end of June and the middle of September.

Part of this was due to the schedule. Anaheim played some tough pitching teams during their worst offensive stretches, such as the Yankees, Dodgers and Mariners. When your primary competition in interleague play is Los Angeles, your offense is going to suffer.

Anaheim Angels' Win Shares

Player          Team    Pos     Hit     Field   Pitch   Sum     WS 	
--------	-----	----	----	----	-----	-----	---	
G Anderson      ANA     OF      21.51   3.75    0.00    25.26   25	
T Salmon        ANA     OF      15.83   1.20    0.00    17.02   17	
B Molina        ANA     C       7.98    7.86    0.00    15.84   16	
A Kennedy       ANA     2B      8.26    5.26    0.00    13.51   14	
S Spiezio       ANA     1B      10.52   1.91    0.00    12.42   12	
S Shields       ANA     P       0.00    0.00    12.04   12.04   12	
B Donnelly      ANA     P       0.00    0.00    11.71   11.71   12	
J DaVanon       ANA     OF      9.31    2.29    0.00    11.60   12	
D Eckstein      ANA     SS      5.56    4.98    0.00    10.54   11	
J Washburn      ANA     P       0.00    0.00    9.64    9.64    10	
T Glaus         ANA     3B      7.45    1.72    0.00    9.17    9	
F Rodriguez     ANA     P       0.00    0.00    9.09    9.09    9	
B Weber         ANA     P       0.00    0.00    8.04    8.04    8	
C Figgins       ANA     OF      5.98    2.03    0.00    8.01    8	
T Percival      ANA     P       0.00    0.00    7.74    7.74    8	
B Fullmer       ANA     DH      7.48    0.20    0.00    7.69    8	
J Lackey        ANA     P       0.00    0.00    7.65    7.65    8	
R Ortiz         ANA     P       0.00    0.00    5.22    5.22    5	
D Erstad        ANA     OF      0.59    2.65    0.00    3.23    3	
E Owens         ANA     OF      1.22    1.57    0.00    2.79    3	
D Turnbow       ANA     P       0.00    0.00    2.45    2.45    2	
J Molina        ANA     C       0.00    2.32    0.00    2.32    2	
S Schoeneweis   ANA     P       0.00    0.00    2.29    2.29    2	
K Gregg         ANA     P       0.00    0.00    2.15    2.15    2	
K Appier        ANA     P       0.00    0.00    1.94    1.94    2	
A Sele          ANA     P       0.00    0.00    1.78    1.78    2	
S Wooten        ANA     1B      0.22    1.30    0.00    1.52    2	
B Gil           ANA     2B      0.00    1.46    0.00    1.46    2	
W Delgado       ANA     SS      0.80    0.56    0.00    1.36    1	
A Amezaga       ANA     SS      0.00    1.32    0.00    1.32    1	
G Glover        ANA     P       0.00    0.00    1.03    1.03    1	
A Riggs         ANA     1B      0.66    0.32    0.00    0.99    1	
G Jones         ANA     P       0.00    0.00    0.96    0.96    1	
R Quinlan       ANA     1B      0.08    0.28    0.00    0.36    0	
R Rodriguez     ANA     P       0.00    0.00    0.33    0.33    0	
G Johnson       ANA     OF      0.13    0.07    0.00    0.20    0	
B Wesson        ANA     OF      0.05    0.10    0.00    0.15    0	
T Gregorio      ANA     C       0.00    0.09    0.00    0.09    0	
T Durrington    ANA     2B      0.00    0.08    0.00    0.08    0	
J Ramirez       ANA     OF      0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
C Bootcheck     ANA     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
M Callaway      ANA     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	
B Miadich       ANA     P       0.00    0.00    0.00    0.00    0	

Garret Anderson had a very good year, and even beat his team-best Win Share total from last year. He is about the only Angel for whom that's true. Scott Shields had a very fine year, but only started 13 games and is may be a bit underrated by Win Shares.

Troy Glaus went from 22 to 9 WS. Salmon went from 22 to 17; Eckstein: 20 to 11; Washburn: 18 to 12; Spiezio 17 to 12; Kennedy: 17 to 14; Erstad: 17 to 3; Percival and Fullmer: 13 to 8.

Two guys who stepped it up from last year: Bengie Molina and the amazing Brendan Donnelly.