Daily Links for the LA Angels including the Athletics pull out of the Beltre bidding, FanHouse names Trout Prospect of the Year and abritration cases are about to take front and center…
The Story: The A’s have dropped out of the bidding for Adrian Beltre.
The Monkey Says: Many are tagging this as evidence that the Angels are back in the lead of the Beltre sweepstakes, but I never actually believed they fell out of first place. The A’s had already spent quite a bit of money this off-season, so it didn’t seem likely that they had enough money for Beltre remaining anyhow. The only real hope here is that the public withdrawal of one suitor will somehow expedite Beltre finally making a decision.
The Story: FanHouse names Mike Trout the MLB Prospect of the Year.
The Monkey Says: Trout has gone totally mainstream. All Angel fans were excited for him before 2010, but now the whole world is going to be watching him in 2011. Let’s see if he is up to the challenge or if he starts to cave under the pressure like Brandon Wood did.
The Story: The Angels have the most arbitration cases to settle this year.
The Monkey Says: The arbitration process is set to begin pretty soon, and once it does, we might actually see the Angels get more active since they will have a little firmer grasp on what their payroll is going to be set at going into the season. The most intriguing cases will be Jered Weaver, coming off a career season, and Kendry Morales, who had monster numbers in 2009 but a major injury in 2010, who are both Scott Boras clients. Yep, this incredibly slow news cycle is about to get much-needed kick in the pants.