Daily Links for the LA Angels including waiting on Bourjos’ bat to come around, Rodney wants to claim the closer job for himself, Mathis still isn’t “the man”and much more…
The Story: The Angels are waiting on Peter Bourjos’ bat, but banking on his glove.
The Monkey Says: This is nothing new, but it is just more evidence that the Halos have absolutely no intention of removing Bourjos from the everyday lineup until he has been given every last opportunity to succeed.
The Story: Fernando Rodney is ready to step up and claim the closer role.
The Monkey Says: The bit about his splits actually being better with runners on base perfectly encapsulates Rodney’s problems He throws hard and has a great changeup, but he quite simply doesn’t trust his own stuff, so he tries to be too fine, which doesn’t really work for him since his command is suspect to begin with. I don’t know if it necessarily a focus issue though as Fraudney is also just plain streaky, no matter what the situation, which indicates to me that his struggles are at least partly mechanical.
The Story: Jeff Mathis still isn’t “the man” at catcher.
The Monkey Says: This is the first I’ve seen of Scioscia being slightly non-committal on making Mathis the primary backstop and putting some real pressure on him to perform offensively. Alas, Sosh was sure to hammer home that defense comes first at catcher, so I still think this means that Conger starts the season in Triple-A, but it does open the door to Bobby Wilson possibly seeing more playing time than expected.
The Story: Rich Thompson hopes to finally stick with the Angels.
The Monkey Says: I covered this a bit yesterday, but Thompson is in a make or break situation being out of options, but the decision to carry 12 pitchers bodes well for Chopper. Personally, I am rooting for him if only because he has been so persistent. I also think he could find a nice role for himself since he would profile as one of the few guys in the bullpen that could regularly pitch more than one inning in an appearance, an option Scioscia always likes having at his disposal.
The Monkey Says: Why? Is college expensive or something? Oh, by the way, you need to live in Cedar Rapids to qualify for the scholarship, meaning there is possibly one person reading this (according to my Google Analytics report) that might care about this news.
The Story: The OC Register continues to countdown the top 50 Angels ever, today, it is numbers 20 thru 11.
The Monkey Says: My boy Ersty is #12!!!! I’m sure some people think that is too high, but if anyone tries to argue it with me, they are going to get themselves punched right in the junk. Nobody talks bad about Erstad on this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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