MICHAEL LORENZEN AND SHOHEI OHTANI, IN THAT ORDER, & THE CITY OF ANGELS
The last time the Angels won a World Series was in 2002.
It was the first and only time.
The franchise was founded in Los Angeles in 1961 by Gene Autry, as one of MLB’s first two expansion teams.
The other?
A new club was started in Washington, D.C. that year and took the existing name of the Senators; the previous team of the same name moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul for the start of the ’61 season and became the Minnesota Twins.
The two new teams each paid a fee of $2.1 million and became the 17th and 18th franchises in major league baseball.
The Angels played in Los Angeles, until moving to Anaheim in 1966.
Due to the move, the franchise was known as the California Angels from 1965–1996, and the Anaheim Angels from 1997–2004.
Los Angeles was added to the name in 2005, but because of a lease agreement with Anaheim, which mandated that the city also be part of the name, the franchise was known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim until 2015.
The current Los Angeles Angels name was adopted in 2016.
Lots of kerfuffle for one lousy title in 61 years of existence.
In the meantime, today’s Angels are led by two of the game’s greatest players, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
Trout is a modern-day Mickey Mantle minus the alcohol, and Ohtani is Babe Ruth.
Oh yes.
The Angels signed right-handed pitcher Michael Lorenzen to a one-year $6.75 million contract on November 30.
I have graced these pages with words of admiration about Michael Lorenzen and Shohei Ohtani in the recent past.
Lorenzen is a wonderful kid who can pitch…and hit.
Sound familiar?
Both the Angels and Lorenzen were assuming risk.
The club was giving a rotation spot to a pitcher who hadn’t performed in that role for years.
And Lorenzen, 29, was shunning longer-term, more lucrative offers for a short-term deal.
But he’s a different pitcher today, with a more complete, cleaner and tighter arsenal of pitches than those he featured as a big-league rookie in 2015.
“I know what I want to do, and I know how my stuff plays,” he said.
“And I’m just smarter and more experienced.
My stuff is my stuff, whether I’m in the bullpen or in the rotation.
And I feel like stuff that I have now translates a lot better in the rotation.”
His change-up now, he says, is 10 mph slower than his fastball.
His two-seamer is different from his four-seamer.
And his curveball is refined; he’s excited to use it and mix it in as a starter.
“I don’t think people understood how rudimentary my skills were when it came to being in the rotation my rookie year,” he said.
“I had no idea what I was doing…I’m surviving with no skill.”
All well and good.
The thing is, he can also hit.
Seriously.
Lorenzen has always been a good hitter.
For a pitcher yes, but for real.
In 147 MLB plate appearances he has a .710 OPS with seven HRs.
In his freshman year at Cal State Fullerton, he hit .342, a trend that continued throughout his collegiate career.
In a conversation with Angels skipper Joe Maddon, Lorenzen explained that he would prepare in the offseason to be an outfielder and a hitter too.
Maddon replied that he would fine-tune the situation with GM Perry Minasian, who described Lorenzen’s skill with the stick as, “intriguing.”
“Of course I would like to hit,” Lorenzen remarked.
“I’m never going to come in and demand anything.
But if it’s something that the team sees that I can help the team with, win some ballgames, then yeah, of course, I’ll be ready to hit.”
Michael Lorenzen, like Shohei Ohtani, is a multi-dimensional athlete, a maverick in every sense.
“I’m betting on myself, too. For sure. That’s my M.O. I’m always going to bet on myself…I never take the safe route. I never do.
Navigating the ups-and-downs, the ebbs and flows, the peaks and valleys, is part of living.
Of life.
I would never bet against Michael Lorenzen.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in March 2022.]
