The February 20th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Trumbo needs to pass one more test before being fully cleared, Morales feels confident he’ll be ready for Opening Day, some still expect the Angels to make trades and much more…
The Story: Mark Trumbo has a CAT scan scheduled for Feb 28th to determine if he can be fully cleared medically.
The Monkey Says: Mark is reportedly taking fielding practice at both corner infield spots, but still hasn’t been cleared to run. Last we heard, he was still said to have a small crack in his foot, so this final test may not be a given. Hopefully all goes well and the Angels can check one of their biggest training camp question marks off of the list.
The Story: Kendrys Morales is more confident than last year that he will be ready for Opening Day.
The Monkey Says: Sprints on the field today and no swelling sounds promising. Still, I am not going to get too excited yet.
The Monkey Says: Moving Abreu seems like it might be inevitable given how close they came to swapping him for A.J. Burnett, but I’m not sure they are going to trade Abreu and Trumbo as that would hurt their depth too much. The same goes for Izturis. I thought he could be dealt earlier in the off-season, but moving him now doesn’t make much sense as the Halos won’t have adequate time to find a veteran replacement, assuming that they wanted some competition for Amarista and Romine.
The Story: Projecting the Angels roster.
The Monkey Says: My only objection is that I think Jeremy Moore might make the team over Ryan Langerhans if only because it would mean having to clear a spot on the 40-mar roster for Langerhans.
The Story: Grading the MLB off-seasons version #1 and version #2.
The Monkey Says: A’s all around!
The Story: Players to see for every MLB team.
The Monkey Says: You’ll never guess who it is for the Angels, he said sarcastically.
The Story: The arrival of Pujols is reminiscent of the arrival of Vladimir Guerrero.
The Monkey Says: I view this more like the arrival of Vlad times one hundred because Pujols not only brings the big bat, but also the respect, leadership and general presence. Vlad changed the Angel lineup, but Albert has the ability to change the Angels’ entire perception locally and nationally.
The Story: The best pitches of 2011, the “other” category.
The Monkey Says: It is very interesting to see Haren’s cutter rate so highly since he is generally more well known for his splitter. The success of his cutter is probably one of the reasons we have seen other Angel pitchers adopt it in the last year, aside from it being the trendy pitch of the decade to begin with.
The Story: How Jerry Dipoto got forced into retirement and into the front office.
The Monkey Says: Jesus, it is hard to believe that someone could risk paralysis by throwing pitches. There’s also a lot of great stuff here about Dipoto as a person and an executive, so give it a long read. All I know is that I don’t think I could do all the things Jerry does without a caffeine IV permanently inserted in my arm.
The Story: Angel prospects that could help in 2012.
The Monkey Says: We know Trout and Richards, so no worries with them. We also kind of know Moore and Romine, but both of them are only likely to help as 25th men on the roster. Carpenter, however, could have a major impact out of the bullpen. Given the current state of the pen, there is a non-zero chance that Carpenter could emerge as the top righty in middle relief by the end of the year.