Angels mailbag: What about this great week?

Hello, Angels fans. Welcome to the weekly mailbag. The Angels played good baseball last week, including a historic ninth-inning comeback victory over Seattle on Sunday. They are 5-2. Only one Major League Baseball team has won more games: the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Just like last year, please submit questions through my email (pedro.moura@latimes.com) or Twitter account (@pedromoura).

Let’s get right to the point. The Angels are 5-2 right now, which is a 116-win pace over a full season. Obviously, that will not happen. I don’t think anything that happened last week can adjust their season-long projections in any meaningful manner. The team is flawed, and those flaws were visible, just drowned out by their strengths and some randomness. If hitting and defense continue to outweigh their rotation and bullpen for a few more weeks, then a lengthy discussion will be warranted.

Until then, just enjoy the wonders of small-sample baseball!

This is an unpopular opinion: I do not dislike commercial air travel in America. I think it’s fairly easy and painless, at least for frequent fliers. I hear fellow writers complain about Los Angeles International all the time, and I try to defend its legitimacy as a purveyor of nonstop flights across North America. I get that the traffic is terrible getting into the airport, but the traffic is terrible getting into any area across Los Angeles.

I feel more comfortable ranking the best airports than the worst. I like Seattle, I like Oakland and San Francisco, I like Love Field, I like Hobby, I like Minneapolis...

I mostly care about public transportation connecting to the terminals. In sprawling cities, a rental car facility you don’t have to board a shuttle to get to is a plus. Tampa, Fla., is like that.

I do not like Dulles or LaGuardia. Mostly just Dulles.

I think I answered this question in a mailbag last year, but I can’t seem to find it, so I’ll answer it again and run the risk of producing an embarrassingly different result.

He’s at 592 homers after his first of 2017 on Sunday. He needs 171 more to break Barry Bonds’ record. He’s 37 years old, and under contract for four more seasons after this one. He hit 31 homers a year ago and 40 the year before. The absolute best-case scenario is he somehow retains that power as he ages further, and generates an average of those two for this season and the next four.

In that case, he’d have 769 homers at the end of the 2021 season, and the Angels would reap the benefits from the home run record holder wearing their uniform.

But that is the best-case scenario. The 75th-percentile scenario is he continues to decline, as he has for six consecutive seasons, and he hits something like 36 this year, 32 next, 29 the year after that, 26 in 2020, and 24 in 2021. That’d be 738. That’d be close, and he’d probably get chances to break the record for the next year or two that follows.

The worst case is he falls off a metaphorical cliff, as can and does happen with players of a certain age. In that instance, he might finish with like 650 homers.

So, maybe there’s a 15%-25% chance he becomes the record holder?

Neither? If they’re both healthy all season long, I’d guess the allotment of starts would be about 100-60 between the two, with Cameron Maybin ahead. It’s not a straight platoon because if so, Ben Revere, as a left-handed hitter, would play more. I don’t anticipate that happening. But plenty of things I don’t anticipate happening happen.

I’m not sure what to expect from Tyler Skaggs. As in Pujols’ case, there’s a wide range of potential outcomes. Plenty of people within baseball still believe in him as a No. 3 starter long-term. Others are more skeptical that he’ll be able to stick as much more than a swing-man role. The velocity decrease he has displayed this season is a concern. But he should get a chance all season long.

Garrett Richards. If he’s not in the rotation, I do not see a path to the playoffs.

It depends on Luis Valbuena’s health, but, yes, I think Cron is certainly a candidate to be traded. That was an option in the off-season, and remained one until Valbuena strained his hamstring late in spring training. It’s difficult to predict who they pursue. In the case of a midseason trade, so much is dependent on immediate needs. Which team will want a first baseman or designated hitter in a month? Who can say?

Pedro,

I understand that for decades the Angels have valued solid defensive catchers, but in all these years why couldn’t they also obtain (or develop!) ones that could also hit reasonably? Why is that not a major priority? In a related question, why is Tony Sanchez in AAA right now? And finally, what more could Cody Ege have done this spring to make the team?

Dan Morgan (via email)

There aren’t many solid defensive catchers who can hit well, so that’s probably the primary reason. I can’t really speak to the Angels’ player development process in the 2000s. But in the last seven years, at least, there’s been a lack of talent infused into the system, not just at catcher. That’s why their farm system is ranked one of the worst in the sport.

I think it’s important to note here that while Mike Scioscia clearly values great defensive catchers, that does not mean he’s on the road scouting them, in the draft room picking them, or spending his summer in a minor league stadium developing them. Those tasks fall on different people.

The Angels picked a catcher named Taylor Ward with their first-round pick two years ago. An agile defender with an elite throwing arm, the industry pegged him as a second-round pick, because of questions about his ability to hit in the major leagues. The Angels said he’d hit. In his first professional season, he did. In his second, he did not.

As far as Cody Ege, I don’t think there was anything he could have done to make the team out of spring training. He has options and he hasn’t proven himself in the major leagues. He’ll be up at some point this season.

Send questions to the below addresses to be considered for the mailbag every Monday, all season long.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura