The March 16th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including C.J. Wilson sharp in spring training win, Angels trim spring roster to 43, Santana feeling fine after being struck by comebacker and much more…
The Story: C.J. Wilson was sharp in a 3-1 spring training win over the Reds.
The Monkey Says: The bullpen also was sharp, allowing just one hit, no walks and no runs over five innings. The position players though still have some work to do since they committed three errors (though one was by Wilson, so I guess two) and got picked off twice.
The Monkey Says: With so many players being sent down, we are now at the stage of spring where we will start seeing the Angel regulars play a lot more, especially now that injured or less ready players like Jason Isringhausen and Mike Trout are getting ready for action too.
The Story: Ervin Santana is feeling good a day after being struck in the shoulder by a comebacker.
The Monkey Says: He isn’t quite 100% but he there is little reason to believe he will not make his next scheduled start or be behind schedule when the regular reason starts.
The Monkey Says: If Morales is ready this weekend, he’ll only get about two and a half weeks worth of pre-season to get ready for Opening Day. That doesn’t seem like a lot as it is, so if he suffers another minor setback, there is a reasonable chance that he will not be ready for the start of the regular season.
The Story: Torii Hunter predicts big things for Howie Kendrick.
The Monkey Says: I like Torii’s positivity, but he is not so great when it comes to predictions and big proclamations, so I think he may just jinxed Howie.
The Story: Mark Trumbo is confident that he can handle the transition to third base.
The Monkey Says: That seems like an innocuous statement, but Trumbo’s comments before spring training started were overflowing with apprehension. Him being mentally confident in the field is a big part of him getting his actual physical performance up to a passable level.
The Story: The Angels starting rotation is really, really good.
The Monkey Says: The best point made here is that all of the Angel pitchers achieve their success in different ways, especially with C.J. Wilson now on board. The funniest part is that anytime someone says the Angel rotation is the best, it causes Phillies fans to freak out. They get so worked up over something so ridiculously arbitrary. In other words, they act like Philadelphia fans.
The Story: Fangraphs rates the Angels bullpen #6 in their positional power rankings.
The Monkey Says: Looking at the teams rated behind them, I can’t really object, but at the same time I still feel like they are rated way too high.