Mike Trout has been in the Major Leagues since 2011. He’s played in 999 games and has been worth a whopping 61.2 wins above replacement. He’s not just great, he’s historically great. Since 2011, the Angels have made one playoff appearance.

That’s right. The bitch-ass Angels have gobbled up the prime years of Mike fucking Trout, a dude who, if he retired today, would be a Hall of Famer, and all they have to show for it is a goddamn sweep in the American League Division Series to the Kansas City Royals.

The Angels currently sit in purgatory. They’re 39-35 and are third in the AL West. They’re 10 games back of the Houston Astros for the division and they’re seven games back of the Seattle Mariners for the wild card.

I mean, sure, we can empathize with how much it sucks to be jammed in a division behind two really good teams. But these aren’t the never-ending-bank-account Yankees or Red Sox. These are the fucking Astros and the fucking Mariners. Yes, the Astros are great, but good lord, the Mariners?! Come on! You have a player on-pace to set the single-season WAR record and you’re relying on a team whose top player is Jean Segura to collapse so that you can get into a play-in game?

For shame, Angels. For shame. You’ll forever be the organization that wasted Mike Trout.

It’ll be Aaron Sanchez and Tyler Skaggs in the series opener on Thursday night. Sanchez has made three quality starts in a row which is his longest such streak since the middle of April. The oft-injured Skaggs miraculously hasn’t been on the disabled list this season. He’s having the best season of his career as he owns a 2.81 ERA through 14 starts. He’s allowed just one earned runs over 20 innings in his last three starts. Performing well individually for the Angels with absolutely no glimmer of home for team success? Skaggs is learning what it feels like to be Mike Trout.

Marco Estrada is doing wonders for his trade value with three-straight quality starts in June. Over his last three outings, Estrada has allowed just two home runs, which is something that plagued him throughout most of the season. He’ll go against some John Lamb character who’s making his first big league start since 2016. Lamb, for his career, has made 25 starts and owns a 6.06 ERA. This is the kind of guy a team trots out there when they want to not utilize the contention window Mike Trout has created for them.

Marcus Stroman’s return! Will is be legendary? Probably not as legendary as the one in 2015! Stroman will make his first start since May 8 against Seattle. For the season, Stroman owns a 7.71 ERA and he’s made just one quality start. Hopefully he’ll look like his old self now that he’s healthy. Andrew Heaney will start for the Angels. Heaney, who was acquired in a deal involving Howie Kendrick a few years back, is enjoying what appears to be a breakout season. He owns a 3.64 ERA, though he’s been kind of up down as of late, posting a dominant start and then getting shelled his next time out. He’ll need to put together more consistently good outings to ensure the Angels don’t waste yet another year of Mike Trout.

Somewhat shockingly, the Jays will roll Jaime Garcia out there again on Sunday. Garcia has allowed nine runs in eight innings over his last two starts and it seemed like the Jays would be ready to pull the trigger and chuck him back in the ‘pen. Well, for now, Garcia will continue to make starts. He’ll go against Jaime Barria, a rookie who got off to a nice start to his big league career this year but has struggled a little bit as of late. Barria owns a 3.57 ERA through nine career starts, but got shelled for six runs in four innings his last time out. That’s how you pitch if you want Mike Trout to miss out on the playoffs again.