It’s not hyperbole to call the Los Angeles Angels the biggest disappointment of the 2013 baseball season. In fact, L.A. should be used to it by now. The $129 million-plus Lakers went bust in the regular season and playoffs. The $239 million Dodgers are tanking in the NL West. And entering Saturday’s game against the White Sox, the Angels (payroll: $148 million) were off to their worst start since 1976, and worse than the dreadful start that doomed their 2012 season.

What’s gone wrong for the Halos? What hasn’t? Start with the injuries that have claimed No. 1 starter Jered Weaver, then move to the decimated bullpen, where Kevin Jepsen, Ryan Madson and Sean Burnett are all on D.L. After using eight starting pitchers in 2012, the Angels have already used nine in the first six weeks of the 2013 campaign, and sport a team ERA well over 5. With Weaver and Tommy Hanson sidelined, Garret Richards, Jerome Williams, Barry Enright, and Michael Roth have made 10 starts, posting a collective 6.79 ERA. Not good. CJ Wilson, the high-priced acquisition from Texas, has been middling. 

The bullpen, missing too many key players, has been almost as bad as the starting rotation, putting undue pressure on an offense that was not supposed to struggle as mightily as it has. Albert Pujols, his upper-body power comprised by injuries to his foot and knee, has borne little resemblance to the feared slugger he was in St. Louis. And this season’s major offseason acquisition, Josh Hamilton, has been in a season-long funk, his average barely above the Mendoza line, his power (five home runs, only surfacing in tantalizing glimpses.  He has swung early and often at pitches outside the strike zone, and batting in the No. 5 slot, hasn’t given Pujols much protection.

Manager Mike Scioscia has never been one to reveal much, and it wasn’t much different when the subject of Hamilton came up. “It’s taking a little longer than we might have anticipated,’ he said. “These guys aren’t machines; they get frustrated… I think you can probably check off a number of things of why Josh is where he is as far as his numbers.”

The Angels rank in the middle or lower end of the pack in runs scored and on-base percentage.  They’ve hit into a league-worst 46 double plays. It’s hard to believe when you look at their batting order, and see names like Mike Trout, Mark Trumbo, and Howie Kendrick surrounding Pujols and Hamilton, but the fact is that this is a team that seems more dependent on the long ball than ever, and is not suited to the aggressive small-ball style – runners going from first to third, taking extra bases, forcing mistakes – that has defined successful Scioscia teams of the past.

And with Torii Hunter gone, the Angels also seem to lack a true team leader, though according to outfielder Mark Trumbo, Hunter was a “once-in-a-lifetime personality” who would be irreplaceable for any team. “It would be out of character for anyone to try and do what he did, both on and off the field,” Trumbo said. “Most teams don’t have a guy like that, and we got a little spoiled. But the atmosphere in here is as good as it can be for where we’re at.”

Symbolizing everything that’s gone wrong for the Angels this year was Saturday's starter, Joe Blanton. The Angels had lost the first eight games he started, the first time that had ever happened in the club’s 53 seasons. His ERA was 6.47. He had given up ungodly 75 hits in 46 innings, and yet even after getting pounded by the Royals in his previous start, there was no indication from Scioscia that Blanton’s spot in the rotation was in danger, since his ERA over his three previous starts was 3.48, and the manager hoped that was a sign of progress.

It’d be hard to prove much progress was made today, however. Blanton lasted only four and-a-third innings and was in trouble in every one of them. He gave up 11 hits and put the Angels in an early 4-0 hole. Luckily for him, this would be a day the Angels bats would come alive. It was Armed Forces Appreciation Day at the ballpark, and the Angels finally showed some fight.

Stifled for three innings by White Sox starter Hector Santiago, the Angels fared much better on their second time through the lineup. Trumbo led off the fourth by driving a hanging off-speed pitch from Santiago – on an 0-2 count – 441 feet into the left-field bleachers, and it got everyone going. The Angels would score 10 unanswered runs, breaking it open with a five-run seventh highlighted by a three-run homer by Alberto Callaspo and a two-run double by J.B. Shuck, to take what seemed like a fairly safe 10-4 lead heading to the eighth inning.

But no lead is safe with the Angels this year. After getting sparkling middle relief from Robert Coello and Dane De Rosa, the Angels nearly gave it all back in the eighth, when Garrett Richards imploded, giving up four hits in two-thirds of an inning. Scioscia brought in closer Ernesto Frieri in the 8th for a four-out save, and he promptly gave up a three-run homer to catcher Hector Gimenez (who was 4-5 on the day) to bring the White Sox to within 10-9.

The Angels, though, picked up two insurance runs in the bottom half of their eighth, and Frieri struck out the side in the 9th. The Angels won, 12-9, in a win that some might charitably describe as ugly. Pujols was not one of them.

“No game is ugly,” he said. “It's just a game, no matter how you win it or how you lose it. I mean, you look at their ballclub and there's no easy out on their side, either. But when we get it going, we're a pretty good ballclub and we can score runs at any time in the game."

If the Angels are looking for bright spots, they can look at the performance of Coello, recently brought up from Salt Lake City. The 28 year-old right hander has yet to allow a run in six appearances, and fanned three batters in  1.2 innings of work.

“Those were five huge outs to get in the middle of the game, and we need that kind of contribution from our bullpen," Scioscia said. "He's got a really good out pitch, he's got life on his fastball, and he throws strikes. That's a good combination."

At 16-27, 12 games behind division-leading Texas, the Angels are going to need a lot more combinations to go right if they want to avoid a very long summer. It’s been said that pennants aren’t won in April or May, but can certainly be lost in April and May, and for the second straight year, the Angels have dug themselves a hole that is likely too big to get out of.