Daily Links for the LA Angels including Kazmir finally gets released, Weaver’s high pitch counts shouldn’t be cause for concern, ESPN calls the Halos the fourth best franchise in sports and much more…
The Story: The Angels finally released Scott Kazmir.
The Monkey Says: This has been inevitable since last year, really. The Halos gave Kazmir every chance to keep his job, but things just kept getting worse for him. His acquisition will no doubt go down in Angel history as one of the worst ever, but I’ll be taking a look later today on just how bad it really was.
The Story: A retrospective of just how quickly Kazmir’s performance declined.
The Monkey Says: It really is staggering how fast Kazmir went from very good to absolutely miserable. Hopefully he can catch on with a pitching guru like Dave Duncan in St. Louis and salvage his career since he is still plenty young enough to have a quality career.
The Story: The Angels aren’t worried about Jered Weaver’s high pitch counts.
The Monkey Says: The Halos seem to buy into the theory that all pitch counts aren’t created equal, a theory I also subscribe to. Some pitchers have the ability to throw a bunch of pitches, others don’t, but history has shown Weaver can handle it. He has exceeded 120 pitches three other times this season and in his very next start, he hasn’t allowed more than four hits or two earned runs. In fact, he threw 121 pitches the start before he went the distance last night and threw 128 pitches two starts before that. Let’s all just accept that he has a rubber arm and quit worrying about hsi pitch count until there are actual signs of a problem.
The Monkey Says: Imagine how much higher the Halos would rank if they didn’t crap the bed this off-season? This is a nice little thing for the Angels to brag about, but it seems like a big machination of bull honkey from ESPN, especially since it somehow rates the Tampa Bay Lightning second even though nobody has ever met a Lightning fan in the history of mankind.
The Story: Alberto Callaspo could still end up on the DL if the bullpen gets taxed before he gets healthy.
The Monkey Says: It says he has been doing some running to test his injured hamstring which indicates he could be back soon, but the fact that they would DL him to call up another bullpen arm seems to fly in the face of that assertion. I would consider it a relatively safe bet that Callaspo won’t return to active duty until after the weekend.
The Story: Mike Trout could soon be promoted to Triple-A.
The Monkey Says: That is pure speculation, but I speculated the same thing in my Trout Tracker update earlier this week.
The Story: The AL West has the best pitching in baseball.
The Monkey Says: You likely won’t get an argument from anyone in that regard, but picking which team in the AL West has the best pitching is still up for debate, though I think the Angels have a real edge in lieu of some of the injuries the Oakland rotation has suffered through of late.
The Story: Prospect Luis Jimenez is showing some impressive power in Double-A this year.
The Monkey Says: Lucho isn’t real high on most prospect lists, but he has plenty of upside, but is more of a boom-or-bust candidate. Given the lack of any real organizational depth at third in front of him, Jimenez could be a dark horse to man the hot corner for the Halos some time in 2012.
The Story: Scenes from the 2nd Annual Nick Adenhart Memorial 5K.
The Monkey Says: I never know what to say on these stories, so I will simply say good work to whoever put that event together.