The December 16th, 2011 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Pujols’ effect on Howie Kendrick, another Trumbo trade idea, the Pujols signing gets the Downfall treatment and much more…
The Story: What effect will Albert Pujols have on Howie Kendrick?
The Monkey Says: This assumes Kendrick will bat second and Pujols will bat third, neither of which are a guarantee with Scioscia involved. It would be great if this means Howie will see more fastballs, but I’m not sold it will. The presumption is pitchers won’t want to fall behind on Howie, so he’ll get more heaters. However, Kendrick swings at a lot of pitches, so he is actually kind of hard to fall behind no matter what pitch you are throwing.
The Story: Should the Angels trade Mark Trumbo to the Brewers for Francisco Rodriguez and cash?
The Monkey Says: This trade makes a fair amount of sense until you consider that you are trading five team-controlled years of Trumbo for one year of K-Rod. Once that pops into your head, the deal falls apart totally. Also, when it comes to trades like this, I’m not sold that the Angels are so desperate to shed a few million dollars for just the 2012 that they would essentially give away Trumbo.
The Story: A Downfall parody of Hitler reacting angrily to the Albert Pujols signing.
The Monkey Says: Welcome to the internet era, folks.
The Story: The Dodgers will give away Mike Scioscia bobbleheads when the Angels come to visit this year.
The Monkey Says: This seems horribly misguided. For starters, the Freeway Series always does great attendance-wise, so luring fans to the game with a bobblehead just seems unnecessary. Second, and not that I’m complaining, but the Dodgers have to realize how it makes them look to be honoring the crosstown rivals manager, right? I know he was a great player for them, but I think we’ve reached a point where Sosh is going to be remembered more for managing the Angels than he will be for catching for the Dodgers.
The Story: A newspaper columnist in Dorchester, MA gives Arte Moreno the “Dumb Owner of the Year” award.
The Monkey Says: I am not familiar with Clark Booth, so I don’t know if he should be taken seriously, but this is one of the most idiotic things I’ve read in a long time. I can understand someone questioning the wisdom of the Pujols signing, but to make it seem like it is the dumbest thing ever, especially since we now know that the Angels can afford it thanks to their TV deal, is so unbelievably stupid, I don’t know where to begin. I mean, his whole basic take in the column boils down to “no owner should spend any money ever.” I hesitated to even link to this because I’m fairly certain that this guy wrote this just to be provocative and get a bunch of pageviews for his tiny newspaper.
The Monkey Says: Great work here by the West Coast version of Mark Simon.