Who’s Hot, Who’s Not #15 (First Half Recap)
July 23, 2025 - Written by Kian Behravan & Brayden Zielke
Photo Credit: @Angels - X
The All-Star Break has passed, which means it’s time for a special edition of Who’s Hot, Who’s Not! This week, Brayden and Kian dive into stats, film, and metrics to pick a handful of players who have been doing well–or some who haven’t. This week’s edition will cover the entirety of the first half.
So far in 2025, The Angels are 47-49. They sit in fourth place in the AL West, nine games back from the first-place Astros. In the Wild Card race, however, they’re only four games back, sitting behind the Rays, Twins, and two division rivals in the Mariners and Rangers. It’s been the same story for most weeks on Who’s Hot, Who’s Not: One side of the ball does well, and the other struggles. The lack of consistency and finding a middle ground has cost the Angels many games, and could put them out of reach of a playoff spot or even reaching .500. Fans hope that the All-Star Break gives the team a time to rest, reflect, and perform in the second half.
Batters: Kian
As a team in the first half, the Angels slashed .232 / .302 / .409, making for an OPS+ of just 95–20th in the league. They rank fifth in home runs (139), but have the second-most strikeouts (927) behind the Colorado Rockies. They are below league average in almost every stat.
The Angels lineup’s worst stretch was from April 15 to May 2, where they posted a batting average of .184 and struck out an average of ten times per game. The lineup scored just 36 runs in that 16 game span due to the complete lack of discipline at the plate (162 K / 25 BB). Their best part of the season was a 15 game stretch ranging from May 16 to May 31, when the team slashed .260 / .322 / .465. The lack of plate discipline was still prominent, but the team’s BAbip sat at a comfortable .315, and the power numbers were showing, as they hit 25 homers, almost two per game. There have been players who contributed on both sides of the spectrum in the lineup, Some have either improved (or regressed), and others have either kept doing well or fallen down.
Hot! Nolan Schanuel
Nolan Schanuel has been doing Nolan Schanuel things all season: Get on base. In the first half (92 games), he slashed .275 / .364 / .401 with 13 homers, 43 walks and just 47 strikeouts. His recent development in the power department has done nothing but help him this season. Although he’s still not crushing baseballs left and right, he’s had a drastic improvement in average exit velocity (2024: 86.1 MPH, 2025: 87.3 MPH), barrel% (2024: 3.5, 2025: 5.3), hard-hit% (2024: 25.4, 2025: 28.3), and bat speed (2024: 65.2 MPH, 2025: 68.0 MPH). These improvements, combined with his 93rd-percentile squared-up% (33.3), have made for a solid season so far. The numbers get better every year; Schanuel will be a .300 hitter in no time, possibly emulating Joey Votto.
Schanuel's worst stretch of the season lasted 15 games (4/15-5/2), where he collected just seven hits in 47 at bats (.149) and was dominated by sinkers and sliders. He had a strikeout rate of 16%, which is still low. However, when compared to the 12% mark on the season, it looks bad. He got out of his slump on May 3, going 3-4 with a run. In the 16 games (5/7-5/24) shortly after his cold streak, he tore up the baseball, hitting .389 and posting an OPS north of 1.000. He walked 13 times to just five strikeouts, and collected multiple hits in seven of the games. His best game from that stretch came on May 19, where he went 3-4 with two doubles and a homer. All of his hits posted exit velocities of 103 MPH or harder, and the very pitch he struggled with–the sinker–was driven 418 feet for a home run off J.T. Ginn.
Nolan Schanuel has put on a great season so far. Unfortunately, lots of first baseman put on spectacular seasons to make the All-Star team. He does better every year in every aspect of the game, so an All-Star nod should be coming his way soon.
Not… Rookie Year Linsanity Runs
Kyren Paris
Every Angels’ fan thought Kyren Paris was going to be the next face of the franchise. To be fair, it really did look that way. From his first start (3/30) to April 9 (8 games), he posted a SLUGGING percentage of an astounding 1.227 with half of his ten hits being home runs. For his first 15 games of the season, he slashed .366 / .458 / .805 with 7 extra-base hits. Then, as fast as it happened, it vanished. Paris went on a nine-game hitless streak, striking out 14 times. For the rest of the season, he hit just above .100. His batting average dropped to .190 by the time he was sent down to Triple-A Salt Lake, where he hasn’t done well either, posting a .228 average, striking out 32 times in 29 games.
Hopefully Paris can find his spark again and turn things around. He’s only 23 years old, so he has plenty of time and baseball left in him.
Matthew Lugo
Matthew Lugo burst onto the scene, mashing a triple in his Major League debut then a pinch-hot homer the next night. In the first nine games of his career (5/9-18), he slashed .360 / .385 / .880, with six of his nine hits being for extra bases (2 2B, 1 3B, 3 HR). He hadn’t walked a single time, and struck out multiple times in three games, which caught up to him. On May 19, he put on the golden sombrero, striking out four times in that game. From that game through May 28 (6 games), he did not get on base, striking out seven times in 14 at bats. He was sent down in early June, where he now posts a .260 batting average in 65 games.
Lugo’s just 24 years old. Unlike Kyren Paris, he does decent in the Minors, so his development is still going as planned. Fans should see him back in the Majors either in September or next season.
An Odd Case with Mike Trout
On the surface, Mike Trout is having the worst season of his career with a .238 batting average and .272 BAbip. If we dig deeper, however, we find that he’s actually hitting the ball pretty well; while it’s not on par with his past seasons, he is still well above average for the league. As it turns out, Trout’s having the unluckiest season of his career. To prove this, we head to Baseballsavant to examine the percentile rankings of expected stats. One that jumps out is Expected Weighted On-Base Average (a.k.a. xwOBA). xwOBA is a stat that uses the data from Statcast to estimate a hitter's offensive production. This is not based solely on results, however. Instead, it’s based on the quality of batted balls. It incorporates exit velocity, launch angle, and sprint speed (depending on the type of batted ball).
In 2025 so far, Mike Trout’s wOBA is .355, which isn’t impressive compared to his prime, where he put a wOBA above .400 from 2015, when Statcast was introduced, to 2022. The reason we are using the expected amount, however, is because the hitter can’t control the ball after it's put in play. When we use xwOBA, that number jumps to .404, which sits in the 96th percentile. Once we look at the other two big “expected” stats (xBA, xSLG), we see that Mike Trout’s doing just fine–baseballs are just hit right at fielders.
When you were the greatest of all time in your prime, high expectations are held for you in current times. Fans who watch the games and know that stats can see that Mike Trout’s decline is not drastic at all, but he’s still performing like an amazing ballplayer.
Pitchers: Brayden
The Angels pitching this season has been quite up and down. There have been some great stretches by the bullpen and rotation, but the consistency hasn’t really been there. Through the All Star Break, the Angels are the only team to have only used 5 starting pitchers, but that isn’t really a great thing when 2 of those pitchers have been struggling. Regardless, I think the choices for mid-season WHWN are pretty cut and dry.
Statistically, the Angels pitching staff hasn’t been great as a whole. Our team ERA ranks 26th at 4.66, 26th in hits allowed at 888, 26th in earned runs allowed at 455, etc. The Angels pretty much rank close to the bottom in every statistical category. I don’t think that there is a statistical category that the Angels are top 15 in when it comes to pitching. However, there have been a few bright spots. Yusei Kikuchi has been great. Jose Soriano has 9 starts in which he went at least 6 innings and allowed 1 or less runs, including 4 scoreless appearances that went 7 innings. Without his one bad game against the Tigers, Kenley Jansen would have an ERA of 1.80. There has been some real shine from this team, but they just haven’t been great as a whole staff.
Hot! Yusei Kikuchi
When the Angels signed Kikuchi during the off-season, many fans saw him as a #2 pitcher in our rotation and thought the Angels would still sign an “ace”. At the time, I was pretty sure that he was going to be our #1 pitcher and Opening Day starter, which is what ended up happening. Kikuchi has been great this season, pitching to a 3.11 ERA and an ERA+ over 130. He also had over 9.1 K/9 and has a 3.5 WAR, which leads the entire team, both hitters and pitchers.
Choosing Kikuchi’s best start this season came down to 2 choices, either his June 9th start against the Athletics or his June 25th start against the Red Sox. While he did have more strikeouts against the Red Sox, he did allow 2 runs to score on 3 hits. These runs were unearned, so I am still choosing this game because of his dominance in terms of strikeouts. Kikuchi was rocking his Slider, getting 7 of his 12 strikeouts on the pitch, 5 of which were chased out of the zone. I also noticed that 10 of Kikuchi’s strikeouts were swinging, showing that he was really missing bats this game.
Kikuchi had an outstanding stretch throughout the months of May and June, having a combined ERA of 2.07 through those 11 starts. He didn’t really have any bad starts during this stretch, with only one questionable game coming on June 3rd against the Red Sox. Kikuchi has kept almost all of his games under control this season and has been all around great this season. Kikuchi was named to the All Star Game this season and I am extremely happy with how this signing has turned out thus far.
Not… Jack Kochanowicz
Jack Kochanowicz spent the entire 2025 season on the struggle bus before being sent down to AAA shortly before the break. Kochanowicz started 19 games during the first half, all of which included a run scored, meaning he had 0 scoreless appearances as a starter this season. His K/9 was also abysmal at 6.22. He only had more than 6 strikeouts in a game once and only had 2 starts in which he didn’t walk anyone. He finished out the first half with a 6.03 ERA, an ERA+ of 71, and a WHIP of 1.628.
Kochanowicz's worst start came directly before the All Star Break on July 10th vs the Rangers. During his 2.2 innings of work, Kochanowicz really struggled to find the zone, throwing only 29 of his 70 pitches inside the zone. He allowed 9 hard hit balls, 7 of which came on his sinker. Kochanowicz’s final statline came in 2.2 innings pitched, 8 hits allowed, 8 runs scored (all earned), 3 walks allowed, and 3 strikeouts. This dreadful start proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, as Jack K was optioned the next day.
Kochanowicz’s worst stretch was undoubtedly his final 8 starts. He threw to a 7.75 ERA in the months of June and July and averaged just over 4 innings per start. It is frustrating that it took so long for Kochanowicz to be sent down, as I do think he has potential and could be solid in the future. We have to hope that this rough period didn’t kill his confidence and that he can pitch well in the future.
It’s been a story of ups and downs for the Angels this season. Though it may not look like it, the team is still a contender in the Wild Card race. With the right moves at the deadline, if the organization decides to push for a playoff run, the team will be in position to work up the division and barely scrape by. See you next week on Who’s Hot, Who’s Not!
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