The November 2nd, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Erick Aybar won a Gold Glove, DiPoto begins hiring his staff, Vernon Wells does NOT opt out of his contract and much more…
The Story: Erick Aybar won his first Gold Glove, but Peter Bourjos did not.
The Monkey Says: The Gold Gloves continue to be a joke. Aybar is a good defensive shorstop, but neither UZR nor DSR graded him out as anything but average this season. As for Bourjos, he got screwed. Ellsbury beating him out is a classic case of the players and manager being unable to separate a player’s offense from his defense. It isn’t that Ellsbury is a poor fielder, but both Bourjos and Austin Jackson graded out much better.
The Story: Jerry DiPoto hired Larry Corrigan as special assistant to the general manager.
The Monkey Says: Corrigan has a scouting and coaching background and has been in baseball for forever. This seems like a strong hire, so DiPoto is off to a good start, but I’d still like to see him bring in someone a little more business savvy.
The Story: Vernon Wells officially does NOT opt out of his contract.
The Monkey Says: Oh, the snark. So very much snark.
The Story: Jerome Williams has been dominant in the Venezuelan Winter League.
The Monkey Says: Drawing any conclusions from winter leagues is a fool’s errand, but having him be excellent is definitely better than him being awful.
The Monkey Says: Considering that Carpenter has allowed seven runs in just over five innings of work, I am going to go ahead and not consider this game to be anything worth caring about.
The Story: The Angels have signed two Dominican prospects.
The Monkey Says: Ayendi Perez and Ranyemi Alberto Mendoza are both outfielders and also worth like a gazillion points in Scrabble. The reason this is significant is because DiPoto had talked about wanting to get more active in international scouting and he obviously wasted no time in ramping up that initiative.