The August 8th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Takahashi likely to join the rotation, Weaver drops his appeal, the free Hank Conger campaign goes national and much more…
The Story: Hisanori Takahashi is likely to move into Joel Pineiro’s rotation spot.
The Monkey Says: I really dislike this idea. The Angels barely have a competent middle relief corps and I don’t see how taking one of the semi-competent components out of it to work in the rotation is a good idea, especially when Taka has a pretty poor (but short) track record as a starter in MLB.
The Story: Jered Weaver decided to drop his appeal and began serving his suspension.
The Monkey Says: This ended up being a weird story because Weaver said he was NOT going to drop his appeal after his start this weekend and there was word too that Scott Boras was somehow involved and encouraging him to not drop the appeal. Yet somewhere between that post-game press conference and the game the next day, Weaver changed his mind. Just strange.
The Story: It is time to Free Hank Conger!
The Monkey Says: This story kind of gets the reasoning behind Conger’s early limited playing time and subseqent demotion wrong, overlooking his confidence issues related to defense, but the main theme of the piece is a rallying cry we should all adopt.
The Story: Prospect CJ Cron suffered a dislocated kneecap this weekend.
The Monkey Says: No word yet on the severity, but the Angels would be wise to just declare his season over anyway since he already has a torn labrum in his shoulder that need surgery. Hopefully this is not serious though because Cron, this year’s first-round pick, is absolutely laying waste to the Pioneer League and seems poised to make a quick run up the minor league ladder and establish himself as one of the top prospects in the Angel farm system.
The Story: Tony Reagins is “confident” the Angels will be in position to make some trades this month.
The Monkey Says: Well, the team better hurry because they have some big series coming up and now have a rotation hole to deal with in addition to a lineup that seems to have hit the skids. They are only one game back in the division, but make no mistake, the Angels need some help.
The Story: Joel Pineiro won’t work in close games in relief yet.
The Monkey Says: Nor should he since he has plenty of problems to work out. The big problem with that is it leaves an already thin Angel bullpen even thinner.
The Monkey Says: How long have I been making this point? And yet I also think he should be batting cleanup, which really speaks to just how terrible the middle of the Angel order is this year.
The Story: The Angels will NOT honor Derek Jeter this season.
The Monkey Says: There were rumors that the Halos were going to dedicate some kind of celebration to him when the Yankees came to town, but the public outcry from the fans quickly put a kibosh on whatever plans they may have had. Good work, everyone.
The Story: Mike Napoli is glad to no longer be playing under Scioscia’s scrutiny.
The Monkey Says: Obviously the Halos could use his bat, but what concerns me more here is the description of how Napoli felt about the scrutiny and how Hank Conger might have been subjected to the same thing during his few months in the majors. At a point, Scioscia has to realize he is doing more harm than good by being such a slave-driver with his backstops.
The Story: Mike Scioscia is going to stick with Jeff Mathis despite his offensive slump.
The Monkey Says: First off, it isn’t a slump when it lasts your ENTIRE CAREER!!!!! Second, god dammit!!!!!!!