The May 11th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Chris Iannetta out 6-8 weeks after wrist surgery, the Nationals have inquired on Peter Bourjos, Pujols reacts angrily to an elbow slap from Aybar and much more…
The Story: Chris Iannetta is out 6-8 weeks after undergoing wrist surgery.
The Monkey Says: Oof, this hurts. The one position on the field that the Angels didn’t have the depth to absorb a major injury was catcher, which is of course the position where the starter gets hurt. It is just that kind of season. Bobby Wilson will take over the starting job for the time being, but who his back-up will be remains to be seen since Hank Conger is on the Triple-A DL with an elbow strain and has not yet even begun throwing yet. Odds are the Halos will call up Robinson Diaz for the short-term, but a trade for a more reliable backstop to pair with Wilson is not at all out of the question, just don’t expect anyone significant to be brought in.
The Story: The Nationals and Angels have had some level of discussion about Peter Bourjos.
The Monkey Says: Hold your horses, folks. The Bourjos-to-Nationals rumor has been around forever and we have no idea how serious these talks were. In fact, I imagine most teams in the league have at least checked in with the Halos to see if Bourjos could be pried loose now that he isn’t playing very much. I wouldn’t expect anything to come of this right now, but rumors could heat up closer to the trade deadline.
The Monkey Says: Cardinals fans are eating this up and trying to make Pujols out to be a hothead, but I’m more concerned that he reacted so instantly to being hit in the elbow that he has had problems with in the past. I am probably overthinking it, but with that kind of reaction, I can’t help but wonder if his elbow is really tender and perhaps the reason why he isn’t playing well right now. Or maybe he just thinks Aybar is an annoying little twerp. Let’s hope it is the latter.
The Story: A graphic look at the decline of Albert Pujols.
The Monkey Says: There is nothing new here, other than just some pretty graphs, but I link to it because at some point we need to start wondering when this slow start is just small sample size fluke and an actual problem. I want to just dismiss all of this and call these comparative articles bunk, but he’s had 126 at-bats and isn’t showing any signs of turning things around. I fear that it is getting awfully close to time to declare that there actually is something deeply wrong with Albert and the mantra of “he will be fine” dead. Let’s go ahead and call June 1st that deadline, until then, I’ll be over here with my head in the sand.
The Monkey Says: This is a great read if you didn’t know much about Autry other than he was the “singing cowboy” and Angel owner, which is more or less all I knew about him.
The Story: A look at what could have been for former Angels star Bo Belinsky.
The Monkey Says: It was 50 years ago, but if there is an argument against the Angels physically relocating to Los Angeles, this is it. Belinsky famously (or perhaps infamously) cared more about the Hollywood lifestyle than baseball, to the detriment of his career. That would be more of a problem for the Halos if they were in LA and not Anaheim. Or maybe not, because I can’t remember the last Dodger player who saw his career go off the rails because he was too busy living it up LA-style. Heck, Matt Kemp dated Rihanna for awhile and I would say that things have worked out pretty well for him. Forget I brought this up, bad idea.