The February 15th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Angels inquired on a trade for A.J. Burnett, spring training and season ticket sales skyrocketing for Angels, pondering what it would take for the Angels to trade Mike Trout and much more…
The Story: The Angels inquired on a trade for A.J. Burnett.
The Monkey Says: The inquiry apparently didn’t go far since the Angels are on Burnett’s no-trade list (he doesn’t want to live on the West Coast because of his wife’s fear of flying). That the Halos even kicked the tires on Burnett sends chills down my spine since he appears to be in rapid decline, but I am starting to get the sense that Jerry Dipoto is a GM who is going to do his due diligence on just about every available player that is even a tiny bit of a fit for the roster. That is a stark change from the secretive Reagins era, so we’ll all have to get used to these kind of rumors and learn to take them all with several grains of salt.
The Story: Season ticket and spring training ticket sales are skyrocketing for the Angels.
The Monkey Says: For some reason I expected the new season ticket sales to be bigger than that, though it isn’t like 24,000 season tickets is something to sneeze at. As for spring training, as I said several weeks ago, you best get your tickets now if you are planning to take a trip to Tempe this March.
The Story: Given an ideal scenario, what would it take for the Angels to part with Mike Trout?
The Monkey Says: The final pollster on that survey sounds like a pretty smart guy. Suffice it to say, nobody who knows anything about the Angels thinks that Trout would ever be traded this year barring Andrew Friedman losing his mind.
The Story: Single-game tickets for regular season Angels games go on sale March 3rd.
The Monkey Says: You best get in on the action early because with a few thousand extra season tickets chewing up availability (which I am guessing doesn’t include all the 10-game and 20-game mini-plans), there isn’t going to be very many single-game tickets available through the standard box office by the end of March.
The Story: A look ahead at what the Angels outfield could look like in 2013.
The Monkey Says: This is a nice idea, but it fails to account for the presence of Vernon Wells almost entirely. It also makes the broad assumption that Trumbo can shift to right field and that Trumbo will still be an Angel, neither of which are remotely guaranteed.
The Story: Assistant athletic trainer Rick Smith is entering his 35th season in his position with the Angels.
The Monkey Says: And it won’t be an easy season since he will have to help get Kendrys Morales healthy and keep him there in addition to taking on the all-important task of keeping Albert Pujols healthy and productive for the next decade.
The Story: It has been 5,000 days since the very bizarre ending to an Angels-Rockies game.
The Monkey Says: I completely forgot about that game, but I definitely won’t now after reading who was on the mound for the Rockies at the time… Jerry Dipoto!
The Story: The Angels bullpen isn’t as big a concern as you might think it is.
The Monkey Says: I’m starting to come around to this line of thinking myself, but I am very worried that it relies too much on a lot of things going right. LaTroy Hawkins needs to be highly reliable. Bobby Cassevah needs to pitch like he did last season. Hisanori Takahashi needs to remember how to get lefties out. Scott Downs needs to not get hurt. Jordan Walden needs to keep his head straight. And even after all that, they might still need Rich Thompson, Michael Kohn, Kevin Jepsen or some prospect to emerge as a potential right-handed setup man. Like I said, I’m starting to come around, but I have a long way to go to get there.
The Story: The Angels are about to feel the power of Pujols.
The Monkey Says: Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet… he returns… LYLE SPENCER!!!!!!!!!!!