Free MLB Baseball Prediction From Doc's Sports: Take #975 L.A. Angels over Kansas City (8 p.m., Friday, May 24) It's been a tough season for the Los Angeles Angels so far. But there's way too much talent on this team to stay down forever, and they've started to show signs of life this week. They dug themselves a very similar hole last year and ended up having one of the best records in baseball from the end of May on. I think they have the potential to do that again as they have an important four-game series with a pretty good Kansas City Royals team. Jason Vargas goes for the Halos on Friday, and he got off to a horrible start to the 2013 season. It may have been the adjustment period for a new team and surroundings or poor offseason conditioning, but he just couldn't get it going in April. But since then he's been fantastic in May. In four starts he's 3-0 with a 2.20 ERA and 1.05 WHIP to go along with a 23-8 K/BB ratio. One of those starts was against the Royals in which he pitched seven strong innings while allowing only two runs in picking up a win. The Royals counter with journeyman Luis Mendoza, who has bounced back and forth from the starting rotation, bullpen and minor leagues throughout his career. Mendoza is just a stopgap who really doesn't have good enough stuff to pitch deep into games. He holds a 5.50 ERA and 1.36 WHIP this season and hasn't found a good rhythm yet. He'll be up against it today with how well the Angels are swinging the bats. I'd be surprised if Mendoza can get them through five innings today, which will put extra pressure on the bullpen. Take Los Angeles in this one.