The November 15th, 2011 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Trumbo finishes 2nd in AL ROY voting, Angels and C.J. Wilson have mutual “serious” interest, Astros coming to the AL West in 2013, Hal Morris hired as pro scouting director and much more…
The Story: Mark Trumbo finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting to Jeremy Hellickson.
The Monkey Says: Trumbo’s poor OBP damned his ROY credentials, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he didn’t win it all, at least not in this year where the competition is so competitive. Still, some Angel fans seem to feel like he got robbed.
The Story: The Angels have “serious” interest in C.J. Wilson and it appears to mutual.
The Monkey Says: Multiple stories along these lines were released today but this one highlights what the Angels are thinking in terms of “you can’t have too much good pitching.” That is actually a pretty decent strategy by DiPoto. After all, it seems apparent that there is no obvious offensive help on the market in the Angels’ price range, so why not double-down on pitching? It certainly won’t make the Angels worse next year, but long-term it is questionable because signing Wilson would just tie up another large chunk of future payroll that could go to a hitter next off-season. With all that said, I still believe the Angels can’t afford Wilson but are feigning interest in order to drive the price up on the Rangers. And now Wilson is reciprocating that interest because it is in his best interest to have as many serious suitors as possible. There is also rumors now that Wilson is the Yankees’ top priority, so if they swoop in with a massive offer, he is probably going to wind up in New York.
The Story: The Astros appear on the verge of officially being set to move to the AL West as soon as 2013.
The Monkey Says: This has been inevitable for months, but it finally seems to be completed. The new Astro owner is going to be getting at least $50 million off his purchase price in order to agree to the move, but Houston will probably still be terrible by the time they make the jump. I like that the Angels finally are in a five-team division like everyone else, but I dislike the choice of the Astros. I know that bringing over Houston makes for a good natural rivalry for the Rangers, but it also means more games in the Central time zone for the Halos and the other two AL West teams. Personally, I would have rather the league forced the Rockies to mvoe over. Their geographic location is fairly central for all the teams, so everyone kind of wins. But, hey, at least it will mean interleague play all the time.. D’OH!!!!
The Story: Former Red Hal Morris has been hired as the Angels director of pro scouting.
The Monkey Says: All of Morris’ scouting reports on hitters include the sentence “doesn’t shuffle his feet mid-swing enough.” But seriously, Morris was a pretty good player in his day, despite his unique batting style, and has been working as a scout for the Pirates and Red Sox the last few years. Once again, Jerry DiPoto hires a former player for his front office support. I certainly can’t complain about any of the hires, but I sure would like to see him mix in some diversity of backgrounds and experiences before his hiring is complete.
The Story: The genesis of the Ryan Doumit to the Angels rumor, dissected and ridiculed.
The Monkey Says: This is perfect in every way. Needless to say, the Doumit rumors should be taken with a grain of salt, especially if I end up involved with the spread of said rumor.
The Story: Upset about Mark Trumbo losing the ROY? Then revel in just how arbitrary it really is.
The Monkey Says: No fair with Sam Miller being so smart twice in one day.
The Monkey Says: Sam Miller = Very smart. Jeff Miller = Not so much… by a longshot. Jeff aka “The bad Miller,” is often comically wrong with his takes, though he is usually doing it just to be provocative or to blatantly pander. In this case he is both. The idea that Trumbo deserves bonus points because his teammates can’t really hit makes no sense since his teammates have almost no impact on how well Trumbo performs. He couldn’t be trying harder to troll all the sabermetricians out there. The disgusting part is how he makes absolutely sure readers get the point that HE voted for Trumbo, a desperate and cheap cry for fan adulation if I ever heard one. This concludes our monthly edition of “Go F#@k Yourself, Jeff Miller.”
The Story: A look at what the future might hold for Mark Trumbo.
The Monkey Says: About a month ago, there was a great article about how Trumbo was highly likely to end up like Mike Jacobs, but at least this analysis shows some hope, even if the comparison to Torii Hunter was cherry picked.
The Story: The 2011 Angel Minor League All-Stars.
The Monkey Says: Considering that Baisley and Velazquez both are minor league free agents now shows how meaningful this list is.