A Change of Scenery

McLightning Drives one to Deep Center.

Drive.

Home.

Safely!

With that call from the legendary Robin Reynolds, the Indians had a comeback walkoff homer and won their final game of Season 2 moving to 10-8. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles finished their 2nd -and technically best- season in franchise history with a 4-14 record by giving up that homer. To say that the Orioles were bad in their first 2 seasons is an understatement- they were atrocious. Awfulness seemingly unattainable by guessing random numbers was regularly reached by the squad, who improved on their 1-6 opening season with a 4-14 2018. Also crazy, that team started 2-2- meaning that yes, the Orioles ended last season 2-12 in their final 14 games. Success appeared out of reach for the Oriole franchise without a major change of personnel. 

After the season was over, the Orioles played in the September Sadness tournament, where they would win a mere 1 game by forfeiture against Seattle. They would then host Colorado, who would prevent Baltimore from getting a hit in their 1 run 3 inning victory. During this game, however, an announcement was made by the new GM Meerkat Timmons that the Orioles would be moving to the west coast over the offseason. For many Baltimore fans, they couldn't care less; what had this team done for them?

For the franchise though, this was exactly what they needed.

The Orioles rebranded to the Angels in October of 2018. Everything looked to be the same, as the Angels lost their opening game to Arizona. But suddenly, everything clicked. Anaheim began tearing up their competition, winning their next 4 games. At the time of this article, they've won 6 of their last 7, with a single 1 run loss in session 6. In the first half of season 3 (8 games), the Angels won more games then the Baltimore Orioles did in their entire tenure (25 games).

So, what happened? I talked with Angels General Manager (General Meerkat?) Meerkat Timmons to figure out what was going on. There were 2 big changes he mentioned.

"The biggest change has been the culture in the locker room. I certainly don't feel like I can take much credit for it, the guys who came in in the draft have been awesome and absolutely integral to the new look team. Last year, it was tough to care about the outcome of the season, since we had little-to-no shot at playoffs early on. The S2 clubhouse was much more about hanging out, sharing dog pictures and chatting about whatever, and swinging when we had to.

The other related culture change was a push away from reddit-only guys. We had some great players last year who never hopped on discord, and it was tough to part ways with them (Pancakes and Petrol come to mind). But I made up my mind that win or lose, the whole team was going to be in the dugout together."

A lot of that had come true as well. While Meerkat certainly did release a decent amount of former players, he kept a lot of big names around the MLR circuit. Chipper Dipper remained the only pitcher from the previous seasons, as the Angels opted to bring in Daniel Collins, the inconsistent starter from San Francisco, as well as Pickle Rick, the rookie from NPR. On offense, a few names changed, but the core of the lineup was kept intact. Names like Nikki Falke, Indy Sayne, Nik Romero, Whit Merto, and Sam Smith were still the focuses of the lineup.

Timmons during the 5th inning of the Angels' 4th straight win in session 5

I found it interesting that a lot of the lineup was similar, so- as I tend to do- I looked at the statistics. Now many of those who read this article have probably already seen the stat leaderboards for season 3, and one name keeps popping up; Sam Smith. In fact, Smith is the top of the home run and RBI chart, as well as top 5 in 4 other categories. Smith's 14 RBIs lead the league by 5- and are more than the Padres have total in Season 3.

To say Sam struggled in the first 2 seasons would be a gross understatement; Smith batted .170 with a .396 slugging percentage in his first 2 seasons. If we ended Smith's career here, he'd have 53 at bats to his name with 3 home runs. As a power hitter, this is inexcusably bad. He mustered up 7 walks in season 2, but his performance was less than stellar at best, and atrocious at worst. Any manager in his/her right mind would have every reason to call it off after the 2nd season and claim Smith as a bust.

But Meerkat Timmons didn't.

Instead, the culture change was just what Sam needed as well. To display this drastic change and how important Smith was and is to the success of his team, here is Sam Smith's SLG and OPS by season (brighter shades). Compare this to the rest of the Orioles/Angels SLG and OPS by season (darker shades).

At the halfway point in the season, Sam has had 21 plate appearances. 3 have landed him on base; 6 have ended with him jogging around the basepath. Sam is tied all time for the all time MLR home run lead, and at his current pace, he'll be leading by himself very soon. I asked Sam what had changed for these drastic improvements to start to happen.

"Well, besides my new album, a lot has changed! chuckles. I think I used to read too much into scouting reports and thought too much about my swing in the past. I needed to get out of my own head."

Smith homering off of Jeff Steelflex in Session 8, to tie the all time MLR HR record

I also wondered if being picked 4th overall in the inaugural draft had been on his mind a lot, as it had been on mine since last week's article. Sam said it was always on his mind too:

"It was always something I thought about. The Orioles GM and I had spoken prior to the draft so I knew they were probably going to take me early, but I could never seem to get things on track in Baltimore, especially with the expectations of being the 4th overall choice. I think it was important not just for me, but for our whole franchise, to make the move to LA."

Smith has clearly had a phenomenal season, and he's been the locomotive of the Angels at their current #1 seed in the American League. The move to Anaheim has certainly helped boost Smith and the Angels as they make their first run for the paper cup. With just 8 games left, the Angels are amongst, if not the frontrunners for the American League. So far it's been due to Smith's filling of his formerly too-big shoes, as well as a slightly improved pitching staff. But at the end of the day, the whole team has improved itself through better scouting, better activity, and better belief in their selves-risen from their change of scenery.

Maybe if you're stuck in a rut, what you need might not be a change in what you're doing. Maybe you're doing just fine and are just in a bad place. So take it from Sam Smith and the former Orioles; Instead of changing what you're doing, you might just need to change where you're doing it.