The August 29th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Walden is secure as closer despite his struggles this weekend, Trumbo to experiment at new positions during winter ball, Conger proud of his hometown Ocean View team for winning the Little League World Series and much more…
The Monkey Says: Walden actually blamed the the heat and his sweat for his command issues, which I am going to go ahead and believe even though it sounds like a BS excuse, simply because I don’t want the Angels to bullpen to be any worse than it already is.
The Story: Mark Trumbo will experiment at third base this winter.
The Monkey Says: I have a hard time believing he’d be anything more than a below average fielder at third, but if I think the move would be worthwhile since it gives him more of a chance to work his way into the lineup next season, which might be hard to do if Kendrys Morales finally gets healthy. Outfield is a possibility for him too. He may not have much range out there, but he certainly has the arm to handle right field. Plus, if he has Bourjos and Trout out there with him, his lack of range can be largely mitigated.
The Monkey Says: How old does it make you feel to know that Conger played in the LLWS in the year 2000?
The Story: Vernon Wells credits studying old video of himself in Toronto for his recent surge.
The Monkey Says: I don’t care what got him going again, but he needs to keep doing it because the Angels have no chance if he is going to be in the lineup everyday and not hitting.
The Story: Grantland’s Jonah Keri explores how the Angels keep outperforming expectations.
The Monkey Says: He gives much of the credit to Scioscia and even make a half-serious allusion to Jeff Mathis possibly being an unforeseen factor in all the success. It is a pretty good read, even with the Mathis stuff.
The Monkey Says: That move backfired for Mauch, while Scioscia got mixed results, so I guess we should consider Scioscia a winner in this match-up.
The Story: Inside the awesomeness of Peter Bourjos.
The Monkey Says: New favorite player? New favorite player.
The Story: Hank Conger and Mike Butcher discuss game-calling and working with pitchers.
The Monkey Says: This is a long one, but it is very interesting because this just isn’t the kind of thing you ever hear discussed at length in public. Butcher and Conger are both fairly candid and, frankly, Conger comes off as very mature and clearly cognizant of the fact that he still has some learning left to do.