The December 1st, 2011 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including reactions to the Iannetta-Chatwood trade, Tim Salmon on the Hall of Fame ballot, Trumbo receives another rookie honor and much more…
The Story: Keith Law likes the Iannetta acquisition for the Angels.
The Monkey Says: If Keith Law actually says something positive and snark-free about something, then you must be doing something right. I really like his point about how Colorado could be the worst place for Chatwood’s style of pitching to succeed.
The Story: Chris Iannetta has finally been freed.
The Monkey Says: An underreported aspect of this trade is that Iannetta got jerked around a lot by the Rockies management, kind of like Scioscia jerked around Mike Napoli. Naps clearly flourished once he escaped Scioscia’s rule, so maybe Iannetta can do the same now that he is out of Colorado, but that assumes that Scioscia won’t put the same kind of pressure on Iannetta that he put on Napoli,
The Story: Tim Salmon is making his first, and possibly last, appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot.
The Monkey Says: Let’s be honest, the King Fish has no chance in hell of making it to Cooperstown. The only thing I am curious about is if he will get the needed 5% to stay on the ballot for another year. I doubt he does since he never even got enough appreciation from the media or fans to get him into an All-Star game. One thing he has in his favor is that he is one of the “definitely no PEDs” sluggers, so he might get a slight boost there. I’m guessing he gets 3% of the vote.
The Story: Mark Trumbo was named to the 2011 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team.
The Monkey Says: I love the tidbit about Shawn Wooten being the last Angel to receive that honor. Talk about a blast from the past.
The Story: Jerry Dipoto trumpeted Chris Iannetta’s on-base skills as a big reason the trade.
The Monkey Says: I’m going to try and put this delicately so as to not offend, but this is a very key point Dipoto is making and some people don’t seem to get it. OBP is very important. It is much more important than batting average. If you don’t like this trade because Iannetta hits for a poor average, you aren’t seeing the whole picture. In his worst season, Iannetta’s OBP was .318. In Mathis’ best season, his OBP was .288. That’s a lot of outs Iannetta can save and that doesn’t even factor in the big power advantage he has over Mathis. If you want to dislike this trade, fine. Just don’t try and hate on it based on his damned batting average.
The Story: With catcher now upgraded, Jerry Dipoto is focusing on adding starting pitching and bullpen help.
The Monkey Says: That’s interesting because it makes it sound like he is done upgrading the offense. Iannetta will definitely help, but this team needs more lineup help than that.
The Story: An appreciation of gritty players, starting with former Angel Darin Erstad.
The Monkey Says: 19-year old me loves this post. My mancrush on Erstad in his prime ran so deep it is scary. This might even inspire me to write a long ode to my love of Ersty at some point later in the off-season when the news cycle slows down.