New pitchers don’t always strike it big for Angels

The Angels acquired Zack Greinke from Milwaukee to shore up their rotation. He has already delivered a strong outing in his local debut Sunday, though he probably wished he’d packed power hitter Ryan Braun in his carry-on luggage after a 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay.

The right-hander makes his second Angels start Friday in Chicago against the White Sox.

The deal for the 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner marked the eighth time the Angels have swung a big deal to acquire a starting pitcher during a season, including twice in 1985. Yet, the Angels won division titles after those deals only twice.

A look at those acquisitions:

1982: The Angels acquired Tommy John from the New York Yankees on the last day of August. John went 4-2 the rest of the way and the Angels held off Kansas City to win the AL West by three games. John won the opener of the AL Championship Series against Milwaukee but the Angels blew a 2-0 series lead, their most infamous collapse — until 1986. John had a 20-30 record the remainder of his Angels career.

1985: John Candelaria came over from Pittsburgh in August and Don Sutton arrived from Oakland in September. Candelaria won seven of 10 decisions. Sutton went 2-2. The Angels had a one-game lead over Kansas City on Sept. 22, then lost eight of their next 10 games. Candelaria and Sutton were both 0-2 in that stretch. The Angels finished one game behind the Royals. Candelaria was 18-8 and Sutton 26-22 in their remaining years with the team. Both were key players as the Angels won the AL West in 1986.

1995: The Angels brought Jim Abbott home, acquiring him from the Chicago White Sox in July. Abbott went 5-4, but the Angels suffered one of baseball’s biggest collapses. They blew an 11 1/2-game July lead and lost a one-game playoff to the Seattle Mariners to decide the division title. Abbott had a record of 2-18 the following season, his last with the Angels.

1997: Ken Hill came to Anaheim from St. Louis in July. His 4-4 record did not help the Angels to the playoffs — they finished six games behind Seattle — but it earned Hill a big payday: a three-year, $16-million contract. Hill had an 18-24 record those three years.

2009: The Angels traded for Tampa Bay’s Scott Kazmir in late August, and he had a 2-2 record with a 1.73 ERA to help the Angels win the division. However, the left-hander took a dive after that, going 9-15 in 2010 and winless in 2011 before he was released in June.

2010: Dan Haren was acquired from Arizona in July. With the Angels, he had a 5-4 record and a 2.87 ERA, but the Angels went 28-33 after he joined the team and finished 10 games behind Texas. Haren remains a key member of the rotation. He has a 29-23 record as an Angel.

chris.foster@latimes.com