The July 14th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Aramis Ramirez trade rumors are just a hoax, the Halos could sit out the trade deadline, Howie Kendrick is a top candidate for a second half slump and much more…
The Story: Rumors of the Angels completing a trade for Aramis Ramirez proved to be a hoax.
The Monkey Says: Someone made a fake Mark Saxon Twitter account and tried to say the Angels had completed a deal for Aramis Ramirez, but Saxon himself refuted the report. Buster Olney even followed up on it and both teams said they haven’t even talked to each other about Ramirez, which could be true since Aramis has a no-trade clause and has said he would block a potential trade out of Chicago.
The Story: The Angels might stand pat at the trade deadline.
The Monkey Says: Of course, any team has the potential to not be able to pull any trades off. I doubt the Angels will be completely inactive though, especially since Tony Reagins went out of his way a few weeks ago to publicly state that the team can add payroll via trade and even said he intended to do so. At a minimum, they figure to be pretty likely to add a veteran arm to the bullpen.
The Story: Howie Kendrick is a top candidate for a second half slump.
The Monkey Says: I can undestand the skepticism, but I also think it is just as likely that Howie keeps it up. After all, he is entering his prime and he could simply have learned a few things over the years, explaining his spike in patience and power. Even if he does regress to the norm, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is going to be awful in the second half, just not as great as he started out.
The Story: Comparing Jered Weaver’s All-Star start to his Angel predecessors.
The Monkey Says: Just in case you were wondering how he compared to other Angels in games that don’t count for anything.
The Story: A few former Angels made Deadspin’s list of the 100 Worst Baseball Players of All-Time.
The Monkey Says: Really the only player that was actually most associated as being an Angel in his career is current Pirate, and our old friend, BRANDON WOOD!
The Story: Young talent is keeping the Angels competitive.
The Monkey Says: So very true. Really, it is hard to imagine the collective group of first and second year Angels providing more impact than they already have this season. Now it is up to the veterans that had poor first halves to start doing their share of the work to push the Angels over the top and into the post-season.