The April 30th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Arte Moreno taking meetings on a potential new stadium in downtown Los Angeles, Angels inquiring on trades for bullpen help, more and more specualtion on why Pujols is struggling and much more…
The Monkey Says: Say hello to leverage. The Angels can opt out of their stadium lease after 2016, so they are, at a minimum, looking to create some leverage over the city of Anaheim to get themselves a better deal. However, it would not be the biggest surprise in the world if Arte Moreno actually did bolt from Orange County for Los Angeles. It would be a ticket to potentially even more revenue, but it is also something he should not decide to do without careful consideration of potentially alienating the residents of Orange County that have followed the team partly because they are not a Los Angeles team. Really, this is a whole long topic that I will get into later, much later.
The Monkey Says: I am always skeptical of Cafardo, but there were many other outlets reporting similar rumors. The Angels are clearly in need of relief help, so it makes sense that they have done their due diligence. Keep in mind though that Jerry Dipoto has recently said that the price for relievers right now is out of hand, so that almost surely means that we shouldn’t expect a deal in the near future.
The Monkey Says: OK, we’ve got a suggestion that it is the pressure, that he misses his family, that he misses his manager and that he is struggling with switching leagues. So, basically, nobody knows what is wrong or everything is wrong. I’m glad that seventeen of these articles get written every single day.
The Story: The best Albert Pujols photoshop ever.
The Monkey Says: See. Now that is cutting edge criticism that I can get behind.
The Story: The Angels are viewing Mike Trout as a spark, not a savior.
The Monkey Says: Bull shit. Those aren’t different things given the problems this team is facing. Also, if he wasn’t viewed as a savior, they wouldn’t have made a big deal about not calling up him just days before they finally buckled and promoted him. However, it is important that they act as if he isn’t the savior so that he doesn’t crumble under the pressure of expectations that seems to have decimated the rest of the lineup.
The Monkey Says: This is an absolute must for him as he can only be so effective if batters realize they can just sit on his fastball, no matter how hard he throws it. His slider can be devastating, but is useless if he can’t consistently get it over the plate. His changeup appears to have plenty of promise as well, but it is even less refined than the slider. It would also be a mistake for him to ignore the fact that his fastball command has been lacking as well. Gosh, the more I describe him, the more he sounds like Kevin Jepsen.
The Story: Do Mike Scioscia’s ever-changing batting orders really matter?
The Monkey Says: New Angels blog alert! This article summarizes many of the arguments I have been having on Twitter quite well. The issue isn’t how Scioscia arranges the order, it is who is in the order that is the biggest problem. He finally seems to be settling into something resembling a stable starting nine, so I think he is close to finally getting out of his own way. However, it doesn’t matter what he does if the entire lineup continues to not remember how to hit.