The Los Angeles Angels, to the extent they are discussed at all, have mostly been shamed for having the last two best players in the game over the past decade and doing nothing of substance with either. This has in large part been because they have produced, acquired, and retained a scandalously low number of useful pitchers during that period, although their similar struggles to do that with position players other than Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani haven't helped much, either. They have tried in the determined, strange, deeply ineffective way that the Angels tend to try, signing mid-tier free agents who instantly break in one or more ways and, more recently, spending their entire 2021 draft class on pitchers, an unprecedented admission of need in any sport. The last true impact starting pitcher their system produced was either John Lackey, who spent less than half of his 15-year career with the team, or Chuck Finley, who won 200 games in his career but whose last year as an Angel was 1999.
There's a theme here, and that is that the Angels stink at pitcher discovery, development, acquisition, and nurturing. When the team found 17-year-old Jose Soriano in 2016, there was no great reason for optimism, less because of anything Soriano did well or poorly than because of which organization would be paying him to do it. Soriano made it to the bigs and flashed a high-powered and appealingly strange arsenal, but until late last month he was just another Angels pitcher like the 210 others in that decade's worth of work product. And no, that's not really meant as a compliment.
It may now be that even that level of bloom is off this one solitary rose, as Soriano was lit up for two homers and three runs in five innings by the ultramodest Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. But the reason this matters, to the extent that it might, is that those three runs tripled Soriano's ERA from 0.24 to 0.84, and quadrupled his runs allowed on the year from one to four. And in case you're thinking he managed this as a spot starter, long reliever, or recent callup, you cynical swine, this came over seven starts, 42 2/3 innings, and 163 batters faced. Soriano, who pitches for the Angels, has been the best pitcher in baseball all season long—or at least he was until last night, when he was the 19th best.
Ahead of a field that includes the Yankees' Max Friend and Cam Schlittler, the Dodgers' Tyler Glasnow and Tungsten Arm O'htani (just did that to see if you're still paying attention) and the Tigers' Tarik Skubal (you may include your own favorites), Soriano was the baddest dude in dudedom through his first six starts. His one gaffe all season in 567 pitches had been a chest-high 98-mph heater to Atlanta's Drake Baldwin three weeks ago, which became the longest of the 18 hits he had allowed all year. That, kids, is how you get your earned run average down to 0.24 in the first place. That, or pitching for the Troy Haymakers.
Last night, though, the mighty White Sox were (comparatively) all over his nonsense, from erstwhile cornerstone Colson Montgomery to catcher Drew Romo, he of 60 career MLB at-bats. Both homered as part of the American League's Bring This Guy Back To Earth campaign, and that success on an otherwise desultory April evening is difficult to argue with. Yes, runs are down this spring, and yes, it's still ridiculously early, but 0.24 is even more absurd a number on a stat of any relevance than anything Mason Miller is doing in San Diego. Miller's ERA is an embarrassingly inflationary 1.26, and he has only struck out 28 of the 50 batters he has faced, the piker.
But let's forget about that 0.24, since Soriano would have to pitch scoreless baseball until the All-Star Break to get that number back. Let's not even use 0.60, which is Ohtani's current ERA in two fewer starts and 12 fewer innings. Let's go with the 0.84 figure that Soriano has now, and try not to compare it to anything else but our sense of the preposterous and just revel in the hilarity and implausibility of it. Jose Soriano, of the Angels, gave up two homers last night and lost his first game of the season, and his ERA rose to 0.84 as a result. The last guy to match that in seven starts was the immortal Cisco Carlos with the 1967 White Sox, and his mark was so indicative of not just having two first names but of the career to come that he went 4-14 in 1968, got traded in 1969, and was out of baseball in 1970. The last guy to come close to this sort of run was Ferdie Schupp in 1916, and he is most noted for being named Ferdie Schupp. And he is not very widely noted for that at all, although he should be.
This could just be a moment for Soriano, who, after all and once again, pitches for the Angels. The Angels, for their part, have been more or less themselves, and more to the point are 6-18 in the games Soriano hasn't started. That doesn't just merit him winning the Cy Young Award as much as it merits him having the award named after him. No single person has done more, even in such a short time, to show the Angels what an actual living pitcher can do.
