- The Story: The Angels will likely have to find an ace from within next season. The Monkey Says: Barring a Halladay trade, that appears to be the case. However, I am already getting a little tired of the Angels trying to paint Jered Weaver (or any other Angel pitchers) as aces. He might be #1 on the rotation depth chart, but that doesn’t mean he is an ace. Aces dominate on a consistent basis and strike fear into opposing batters. There are only a handful of true aces in the majors and none of them are on the Angels, even if John Lackey does re-sign.
- The Story: Over 100 MLBers are taking prescription drugs for ADHD in 2009. The Monkey Says: This is a thinly veiled look at more PEDs leaking into baseball with the assumption that many of these 100 players are using trumped up ADHD diagnoses in order to be able to legally take stimulants that are normally banned. It isn’t really Angel-related, but something worth monitoring as a general fan of baseball.
- The Story: The cause of death has been made public for the wife of former Angel pitcher Scott Schoeneweis. The Monkey Says: Scott’s wife was tragically found dead in the family home earlier this year and it turns out it was a drug overdose and the linked report alludes to some other shady shenanigans surrounding that day. Probably the saddest part about this now is that all of this was made public which probably only serves to exacerbate the pain the Schoeneweis family is feeling.
- The Story: Part 2 of AngelsWin.com’s interview with personnel director Abe Flores. The Monkey Says: Flores talks in-depth about the promising hitters in the Angel minor league pipeline. The best tidbit is that Mike Trout continues to get glowing reviews from the organization and seems to be on the fast track to being anointed the next great Angel (which hasn’t exactly work out for Brandon Wood, but still).
- The Story: The Angels offered salary arbitration to Chone Figgins and John Lackey but not Darren Oliver or Vladimir Guerrero. The Monkey Says: The Lackey, Figgins and Guerrero decisions were all expected, but the lack of an offer to Oliver is somewhat surprising as they could have basically ensured he would remain an Angel although it might cost a bit more than he is really worth. The good news is that the Angels will not get draft pick compensation if Figgins and/or Lackey signs with another team.
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