Angels mailbag: What is there to do at the deadline?

Greetings, fans of the Angels. Your team swept the Texas Rangers and then got swept by the Houston Astros this week. There is probably a joke about messing with Texas to be made here. Anyway, the Angels are 43-55, on pace to lose 91 games, and the trade deadline is one week away. 

As always, this is the place to ask anything you want about the Angels, with questions submitted through my email (pedro.moura@latimes.com) and Twitter account (@pedromoura).

Of course, the Angels’ magical six-game stretch of victories is now over. But even if this were a Friday mailbag, not Monday, I would’ve told you there was no realistic chance the team could contend in September.

It’s fun to dream, I get it, and I don’t want to be in the business of telling people not to enjoy themselves. Good baseball is good baseball, and the Angels are probably better than they played in the first half. To contend in September, they’d have to be the best team in baseball from here on, and they are not that.

The Angels have been looking for decent 3rd baseman for years. Now they have a guy who's in top 5 in BAvg & one of best in baseball with runners in scoring position. Why trade him? I know they're not going anywhere this year, but they've played a lot better recently & I believe that with their injured starters coming back they could be real contenders next year with Escobar. Whatever they get for him this year won't even get them into playoffs & they'll be back looking for another 3rd baseman who won't be half as good as Escobar. In this case, I think patience would be a virtue.What do you think?

Alvin (via email)

First, batting with runners in scoring position is simply not a skill. The historical record shows that players do not retain the ability to hit demonstrably better with runners in scoring position. A good example of how fluky RISP-hitting can be is Allen Craig, who hit .454 in those situations in 2013 and .216 in 2014.

Do you think he just wilted under the pressure wherein he once thrived? No. Hitting with runners in scoring position is fueled by randomness.

Yunel Escobar is a wonderful hitter. He is exceptionally skilled at spraying the ball to all fields. He does not strike out very much and walks enough. But he is about a league-average third baseman, all told, because he is bad baserunner and lackluster defender. Not long ago, defensive metrics rated him as one of the elite shortstops in the sport, but his effort has waned since, according to scouts who watch him play regularly. He is a desirable player ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline, certainly, and his $7 million salary for 2017 is affordable, but he is not a star by any means. 

This is the question much of the industry has been asking for two months now, as Matt Shoemaker has been one of baseball’s best pitchers throughout that time. It is a stretch reminiscent of his breakout 2014, but better, and it is confounding considering how he pitched last year and for the first month of 2016. 

He was an undrafted free agent who ascended the minor league ladder at a languid pace. Suddenly he finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year balloting. Then he reverted to being a fifth or sixth starter.

Now he is 29, soon to turn 30, and turning in a strikeout-walk ratio like Clayton Kershaw. If Shoemaker can keep up this pace for two more months, there will be much more to be written about him.

I’d imagine an acquiring team will want to see Geovany Soto play a few games and stay healthy before providing the Angels any kind of prospect in return. So Soto is more likely to be traded in August, assuming he can clear waivers, which he probably can. He’s not going to be acquired as a starter, but plenty of teams could use a power-hitting backup backstop.

It is tough to gauge exactly where the Angels stand on Carlos Perez. He just spent two weeks in triple-A after opening the season as their starter. I think they will want to suss out what his true offensive talent is before they do anything drastic.

I expect Tyler Skaggs to flash the same potential he has for more than a half-decade now. There are a lot of baseball scouts who still believe he can become a No. 2-caliber starter. I have no reason to doubt them.

Also, he will probably say some funny things. Skaggs is a riot.

To recap, for those of you who were away for the weekend: On Saturday, ace left-hander Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox was scratched from his scheduled start just before game time. At first, people thought he had been traded. It turns out that he had been sent home from the stadium because he reportedly cut up throwback jerseys in protest of the team insisting they be worn that night. It’s a crazy story.

I don’t have any idea where he could be traded. I would not want to bet against the Boston Red Sox, though. And I do not think the meltdown will alter his value whatsoever. In all seriousness, I understand why Sale was upset. Some of the throwback uniforms teams wear are significantly less comfortable than the normal gear, and if you are judged on only 33 performances per season, you want as many conditions as possible to be optimal on each of those 33 nights. 

If he cut up his own jersey in protest while his teammates were taking batting practice, it’s amazing, probably my favorite baseball story I can recall. If he cut all of them, it’s not as funny anymore. That just seems like it would take too long.

Arte Moreno, the owner of the Angels, has steadfastly refused to answer questions from The Times throughout 2016. Astute readers of this space will recall me mentioning this previously. So it is unclear how much he plans to be involved in acquisitions in the future. Of course, he orchestrated the signings of Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and C.J. Wilson that totaled more than $450 million. Those have not worked out so well for the team.

Below Moreno, General Manager Billy Eppler has talked about developing a fully organic organization, and much of that has little to do with the major league team. It will be difficult to evaluate his success in that realm this year or next. But he is not necessarily approaching player procurement all that much differently than Jerry Dipoto did during his tenure.

Make sure you detail which prospects you’d like in return. Send a first-class letter via the United States Postal Service to:

ATTN: Billy Eppler

Angel Stadium

2000 E Gene Autry Way

Anaheim, CA 92806

(Note: Don’t actually do this.)

I think the Chicago Cubs are the best team in baseball. Outside of that, I’m not sure enough to waste anyone’s time on my dumb predictions.

This is pretty much the same question I answered in May after Garrett Richards went down with the same torn UCL that Andrew Heaney suffered in April. But with Nick Tropeano now out with the same injury, it’s worth revisiting.

Pitchers break. It happens. Certain pitchers are less likely to break than others, but we don’t know all the reasons that account for that likelihood. As most UCL tears are a product of tearing over time, it is noteworthy that both Heaney and Tropeano were acquired within the last two years. It’s also noteworthy that before Tyler Skaggs ripped his UCL two years ago, the Angels had extraordinary luck with avoiding Tommy John surgeries.

No and yes.

Those two questions can be addressed together. It is not a good free-agent year. There will not be any big starting-pitching names available on the market, and the best position player is probably going to be Yoenis Cespedes, whom the Angels could have signed last off-season.

For those reasons and a few others — pitching injuries, a dearth of near-ready minor leaguers, budget constraints — it’s not particularly realistic to expect the Angels to truly contend in 2017. 

As I wrote last week, 2018 makes more sense.

My answers vary based on how specific “city” is within the question. For example, the Dallas metroplex boomburb named Arlington is maybe my least favorite place I’ve been. The Texas Rangers play in Arlington, but I can feasibly stay in either Dallas or Fort Worth — fine cities both — to cover a Rangers game. So which is the city that counts here?

Also, I have not yet been to every major league city. I am missing Atlanta and Philadelphia.

Anyway: my top five are Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Minneapolis and Toronto. Not sure about my bottom five, but if Arlington counts, Arlington is in it.

That concludes this week’s Angels mailbag. Send your questions to the below addresses at any time, and check back each Monday for answers.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura

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