On Wednesday February 4th Josh Hamilton underwent surgery on his right shoulder. He had surgery to repair the AC joint in his shoulder, a procedure that will take at least six weeks to recover. This has him doubtful to be ready for the Angels opening day. This now brings in the question of who will replace Hamilton in the outfield? No matter who replaces him the Angels have faced a tough blow without Hamilton. But now that trade for Matt Joyce in December looks even better than it originally did. When the trade first happened Joyce was probably going to split the time being the DH along with C.J. Cron. Now Joyce could be starting in Left Field on Opening Day. That still doesn't say how well the Angels will do without Hamilton. Well since Hamilton joined the Angels in 2013 he has hit only .254 with a total of 31 homeruns and 123 RBI's. He has decreased a tremendous amount since when he was in Texas. As in his five years in Texas he hit .305 with 142 homeruns and 506 RBI's. Now his years with Texas is 3 years more than with Los Angeles but even in his last two seasons with Texas he hit .290 with 68 homeruns and 222 RBI's. That drop from hitting .285 (his last year in Texas) to hitting .250 (first year in LA) is terrible. Hamilton hasn't been consistent since 2012 and probably wasn't going to be in 2015. But will Joyce be a good part time replacement? Joyce has a career average of .250 which isn't the best but his on base percentage is .342 only 10 points lower than Hamilton's. They are also both very solid defenders and Joyce even has a higher fielding percentage. The Angels will miss those homeruns though as Joyce averages 13 homeruns a year and Hamilton averages 24. Hamilton also only had a WAR of 1.2 in 2014 which can be overcome by Joyce. All in all the Angels will be just fine without Hamilton for the first month of the season.
-Chris Suddeth
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