Daily Links for the LA Angels including Callaspo avoids arbitration, who is to blame for the Angel off-season, Selig won’t expand the playoffs or instant replay in 2011 and much more…
The Story: Alberto Callaspo signed a one-year, $2 million contract, avoiding arbitration.
The Monkey Says: It is is nice to see the Angels getting busy early on with resolving their many arbitration cases, but this is too much money for Callaspo. In his first year of arbitration, Howie Kendrick settled for $1.75 million and had a MUCH better body of work than Callaspo. Heck, Erick Aybar only got $2.05 million after his breakout 2009 campaign. In the end, Alberto is probably getting half a million more than he deserves (at least according to my predictions for the eigt arbitration cases) and setting a bad precedent for the remaining Angel arbitration cases which all now figure to potentially settle at numbers higher than expected.
The Story: Who do you blame for the Angel off-season?
The Monkey Says: With so much blame to go around, why blame just one person?
The Story: Bud Selig says there will be no playoff expansion or increased instant replay usage in 2011.
The Monkey Says: It sounds like both topics are still possible in the future, but I don’t think MLB can even really expand the playoffs without clearing it with the players’ union first, so that likely won’t happen until the current CBA expires. As for instant replay, I would like to see them expand its usage, but I think a lot of the old codgers in the league offices will have to move on before it happens. Unfortunately, one of those guys that is advising Selig is Mike Scioscia, who sits on a special panel the commissioner put together, and Sosh has never struck me as a real progressive thinker.
The Monkey Says: If you thought that Soriano might sign with the Angels at a bargain just because it is one of the few closer roles still available, Mr. Olney clearly thinks you would be wrong.
The Story: The Angels make appearances on the best bunts of 2010 and the worst bunts of 2010.
The Monkey Says: Oh, god, I remember that Jeff Mathis bunt and recall being pretty apoplectic about it at the time. Is there anything Mathis can do right? Howie Kendrick’s “bunt” was listed as one of the best and coincidentally came against Cleveland as well. I guess the two cancel each other out.