The August 16th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Angels unable to sign three draft picks, Richards injures his groin, diagramming Peter Bourjos’ range in the outfield and much more…
The Monkey Says: The two guys they signed were pitchers and the three they didn’t sign were all position players. Not signing mid-round picks happens all the time in the draft, but I think the Angels had to have been hoping to do better on that front, especially since this is their first post-Eddie Bane draft. At least the Halos weren’t gunshy about drafting another guy named Wood.
The Story: Garrett Richards left last night’s game in the first inning with a groin injury.
The Monkey Says: Just brutal. Richards might not have been any good, but losing him to injury really puts the Angels in a bind. Joel Pineiro is still a mess and has no business returning to the rotation, and the bullpen can’t really afford to lose Takahashi to the rotation. That leaves them having to choose from either Trevor Bell (who is not pitching well in Triple-A) or Jerome Williams (who is pitching very well in Triple-A, but is a journeyman) to fill the hole in the rotation. It is also possible that the Angels will urgently seek a trade before the weekend, but that is going to be complicated.
The Story: Diagramming just how much ground Peter Bourjos really covers in the outfield.
The Monkey Says: This confirms what we all already kind of knew, but it is still cool to see in graphic form.
The Story: Vernon Wells took some video of himself from earlier in his career home after the series in Toronto.
The Monkey Says: I’m guessing this means Toronto refused his request to borrow “the man in white” for the rest of the season. It actually bothers me that Wells is resorting to this because it indicates that he is pretty desperate for a fix, not that I totally blame him for that, but I do think that there is solid evidence that his struggles this season are largely due to bad luck. Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind. I will show my work on that claim later this week.
The Story: Eddie Bane gives his scouting report on Garrett Richards.
The Monkey Says: Bane gives a pretty glowing report, which is no surprise, since he drafted him.
The Story: John Sickels reviews his pre-season prospect rankings for the Angels.
The Monkey Says: Basically, most of his top 20 prospects have either graduated to the majors, gotten hurt or underperformed this year.
The Story: Mike Scioscia downplays the importance of the current series with the Rangers.
The Monkey Says: And he said all of this BEFORE the disaster that unfolded last night.