Daily links for the LA Angels including Pineiro appears ready to return, Scioscia recommend a shorter regular season, Reagins accepts the blame for this season and much more.
The Story: Joel Pineiro threw five no-hit innings in his rehab start.
The Monkey Says: Gee, you think he’s ready? Yeah, me too.
The Story: Trevor Bell is being moved to the bullpen.
The Monkey Says: With an off-day today, the Angels will just skip Bell’s spot in the rotation and give it Pineiro when it comes back around next time. That the Halos willingly skipped Bell’s turn to move him to the pen rather than get one more look at him suggests to me that they are far more concerned with seeing if he might not be better off as a reliever than a starter. This is all just part the process of the team evaluating the roster for next season.
The Monkey Says: I actually like the idea and I wonder if it might not get real consideration, especially since Scioscia is on the special committee for rule changes that Bud Selig put together. I just don’t know that they regular season schedule actually needs to be trimmed down in order to accommodate an expanded divisional series round. The idea of regularly scheduled doubleheaders is intriguing though.
The Story: Tony Reagins accepts the blame for the Angels’ disappointing season.
The Monkey Says: Glad to see that Reagins is man enough to take the criticism and not try and go into spin control like so many other GMs would. Frankly, I’m not so sure that he really did all that bad of a job constructing this team given what everyone expected from the roster after the 2009 season ended. He definitely made some mistakes, but not enough for him to take 100% of the blame.
The Story: Mike Scioscia says the current roster only needs some tweaking and not an overhaul for 2011.
The Monkey Says: I disagree. X gets the square!!! Sorry, back to the analysis. Sosh is probably right that they don’t need an overhaul, as the rotation is rock solid while the bullpen might only need a more reliable closer and nothing else. The offense, well, that’s a horse of an entirely different color.
The Story: Rodney says, “nothing is happening how I want it to.”
The Monkey Says: I certainly hope so, because I’d be really worried if he thought everything was going according to plan.
The Story: The path of Kohn.
The Monkey Says: As the article states, Kohn is still relatively new to pitching, which should actually be quite encouraging to Angel fans even though he has been up and down this season. Kohn has great stuff and could end up being a dominant reliever once he gets some seasoning.
The Story: Ron Roenicke is ready for the call to manage.
The Monkey Says: Roenicke is sure to get a look for a manager’s gig again this off-season, especially with other proteges, Joe Maddon and Bud Black, having so much success this season.
The Story: How the Angels spent their first paycheck.
The Monkey Says: If only we knew that Scott Kazmir nearly got spinning rims, his whole trade could have been avoided. Talk about a red flag.