The May 23rd, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Mickey Hatcher is taking his firing in stride, Howie Kendrick’s strikeout rate is a growing conern, Erick Aybar day-to-day with a bruised knee and much more…
The Story: Mickey Hatcher is taking his firing in stride.
The Monkey Says: As well he should, after all, he probably should’ve been fired years ago and part of me has to think he knows that too.
The Story: Howie Kendrick’s strikeout rate is cause for concern.
The Monkey Says: The strikeout rate is just a symptom, Kendrick isn’t making good contact right now and advanced metrics show that he is hitting a great deal more more groundballs than he ever has. He is too good a pure hitter to not get it straightened out before long.
The Story: Erick Aybar is day-to-day with a bruised knee he suffered when hit by a pitch in last night’s game.
The Monkey Says: That pitch caught him pretty flush and he was in a lot of pain, so this seems like a bullet dodged. Even with as miserable as Aybar has been at the plate this season, the Halos’ depth is stretched rather thin right now which would’ve made it hard for them to absorb losing another player to the DL.
The Story: Dick Schofield and Nick Gorneault will represent the Angels at the upcoming MLB Amateur Draft.
The Monkey Says: I don’t know why the Angels are sending any representatives considering that they don’t have a pick until 114th overall.
The Story:A look at the contract situations for the Angels heading into 2013.
The Monkey Says: I agree with almost every assumption there other than Morales getting non-tendered. I do think that is a possibility, but it is far too early to make that call. He is nothing special right now, but considering how much time he missed, he was never going to reach his peak performance level inside of two months. Let’s see how he looks come mid-August before seriously considering whether or not he should be tendered a contract for 2013.