The May 29th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Albert Pujols is the fourth youngest to 450 home runs, Torii Hunter has rejoined the team, Angels attendance has suffered the biggest decline in baseball and much more…
The Story: Albert Pujols is the fourth-youngest player to reach the 450 home run milestone.
The Monkey Says: For awhile there it looked like he might never even reach 450. I think we can all breath a little easier now that The Machine appears to have actually turned the proverbial corner this time.
The Story: Torii Hunter has rejoined the team.
The Monkey Says: He is back with the team, but they are still trying to figure out how quickly to work him back into the fold since he has had such a long layoff and, as such, haven’t activated him just yet. One has to imagine he’ll be activated today or tomorrow and probably starting everyday again by next week at the latest.
The Monkey Says: This is truly puzzling. The Angels have hosted almost exclusively opponents that are poor draws, but looking back at how well attended those teams were at Angel Stadium last season, the numbers are still down sharply. The slow start has to be a contributing factor here, but this kind of across the board lack of attendance makes me think that it might just be the economy, though I have on idea what the local Orange County economy is like right now, so that is just conjecture on my part.
The Monkey Says: That’s awfully high praise. Everyone knew Trout was going to be good, but I don’t think anyone expected him to be quite so good so early on.
The Story: Albert Pujols is slugging again, but he still isn’t walking.
The Monkey Says: Consider your parade rained on, everyone.
The Story: Mike Scioscia took batting practice with the team in Seattle.
The Monkey Says: Don’t quit your day job, skip.
The Story: Mike Scioscia still has confidence in Kendrys Morales despite his waning power numbers.
The Monkey Says: Kendrys has responded with some pop since those comments were made, but that is probably just a coincidence. The notion that Morales is adjusting to being a DH is almost laughable, the bigger adjustment is probably more adjusting to having a bionic ankle and generating power from his lower half with that physical limitation. I think the power can come back, it is just going to take time.
The Story: LaTroy Hawkins is throwing off a mound again, but has no timetable for a return.
The Monkey Says: The sooner Hawk comes back the better, especially with how much the bullpen has been taxed of late. When he does comeback though, the Angel bullpen will be even more potent than it has suddenly become.
The Story: Hank Conger is DHing in minor league games and just started throwing to bases again.
The Monkey Says: It still sounds like he is a few weeks away from even being considered for a call-up.
The Story: David Pauley cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake.
The Monkey Says: Hard to believe that nobody wanted to claim a guy who can’t get Clayton Richard out.
The Monkey Says: No, don’t! Just keep doing what you’ve been doing the last two weeks. Scioscia sounds as if he won’t be able to resist the idea of slotting his relievers according to inning again, but I hope he thinks better of it because the way he has been mixing and matching Walden, Downs and Frieri has been absolutely masterful, whether he realizes it or not.
The Story: Kole Calhoun will likely stick with the big league club even after Torii Hunter is activated.
The Monkey Says: I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand, Calhoun doesn’t look overwhelmed at all and the Halos could use a solid lefty bat off the bench. On the other hand, he still could use some development and would probably be best served in the long run if he were in the minors playing everyday rather than almost never in the majors.