The November 1st, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including four Angels are Gold Glove finalists, Eppler was the runner-up for the Angels GM job, an Angels free agency primer and much more…
The Monkey Says: The Gold Gloves are now being revamped for television, so there are finalists for the first time. Typically, the Gold Gloves are also pretty terrible at selecting the right winners, but this list looks pretty good to me, although I would like to have seen Howie Kendrick get some love. It is worth noting though that no Angel players won the sabermetric driven Fielding Bible awards.
The Story: Billy Eppler was reportedly the runner-up for the Angels general manager job.
The Monkey Says: That is no surprise since we already know that Eppler got a second interview just before they hired DiPoto.
The Story: Mark Saxon offers his own free agency primer for the Angels.
The Monkey Says: Saxon makes a great point about how the market for relief pitching has turned into a buyers’ market, which should bode well for the Angels being able to upgrade their leaky bullpen on the cheap, which is huge for them since they’ve flushed so much money down the toilet on overpaid relievers the last few years.
The Story: A few roster overhaul suggestions for Jerry DiPoto.
The Monkey Says: You know, I used to be a huge proponent of trading for David Wright, but his back injury coupled with mediocre production afterwards has me rather scared of him, although if the Halos can actually get him for Abreu and Trumbo, I’d probably make the deal.
The Story: Introducing the All True Angels Team.
The Monkey Says: Basically, it is a full roster of players who spent their entire career with the Angels, which is pretty cool… even if Reggie Willits somehow made the team.