- The Story: PECOTA has fixed itself and issued new projections. The Monkey Says: The Halos are no longer the worst team in the AL West, but they are sub.-500 and in a tie for second in the division that the Rangers will supposedly win. Considering how badly PECOTA missed last season on team projections and how hosed their first attempt at predicting this season was, they better hope they are right this time if anyone is going to take them seriously.
- The Story: The Angels have already shelled out over $11 million in arbitration settlement contract raises. The Monkey Says: They still haven’t settled with Aybar and Mathis either. As bad as that sounds, it is only going to be worse next year and might be baseball Armageddon when several of these young players all hit free agency at the same time.
- The Story: Rex Hudler won two Southern California Sports Broadcasters awards this year. The Monkey Says: And yet he remains unemployed. Hopefully these awards beef up his resume even more and help him land a gig before the seasons starts.
- The Story: Mike Scioscia will be making an appearance at a fundraiser this Sunday at a local Italian restaurant. The Monkey Says: Insert obligatory “Scioscia is fat and likes Italian food a lot” joke here.
- The Story: The Seattle Mariners signed 1B Ryan Garko to a contract. The Monkey Says: Rob Neyer wrote a scathing piece about why the Mariners continue loading up signings like this, but I actually think this is another savvy move for Seattle who is basically improving their depth and hedging their bets that one of these many acquisitions ends up hitting the jackpot.
- The Story: A profile of Angel prospect Michael Kohn. The Monkey Says: A reliever who relies on a funky delivery to achieve success? What could possibly go wrong with that? Just don’t ask Brian Fuentes.
- The Story: A profile of Angel prospect Tyler Chatwood. The Monkey Says: All I knew about Chatwood was that he is tiny, so this actually is a great explanation of how he achieves success.