Halo Headlines: Dipoto’s Awkward Dinner With Wilson’s Agent, Preaching Patience with Trumbo and Morales, Breaking Down the Angels DH Logjam

The February 2nd, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Dipoto’s awkward dinner with C.J. Wilson’s agent, preaching patience with Trumbo and Morales, looking at the DH logjam and much more…

The Story: Jerry Dipoto was dining with C.J. Wilson’s agent when they ran into Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, who was also pursuing C.J. Wilson.

The Monkey Says: Awkward!  This story is so great that I almost feel like it is made up, but I don’t know why anyone would.

The Story: Preaching patience with Trumbo and Morales.

The Monkey Says: Stop making so much sense, Alden Gonzalez.

The Story: Breaking down the position battle for DH and outfield at-bats in Angels training camp.

The Monkey Says: I really don’t think this that big of a battle.  Abreu is pretty much just bench player or maybe part of a platoon with Trumbo if Morales can’t get healthy.  If Morales will play as much as his recovery allows with Trumbo picking up most of the leftover DH starts.  Wells will get his shot at left field, but if he falters, Trout will be called up and Wells will be begging on the corner for at-bats.  This really isn’t that complicated.

The Story: How C.J. Wilson got a $77.5 million contract instead of $75 million.

The Monkey Says: “That small amount was the difference.”  Professional baseball, where $2.5 million is considered a “small amount.”

The Story: Comparing the Angels and Rangers bullpens, with the Angels potentially having a “majo”r edge.

The Monkey Says: Wait, what?!?!?!  The Ranger bullpen is potentially stellar while the Halo bullpen was so bad last year that fans started calling it the Blowpen.  Bullpen ERAs are very misleading things.  Texas’ relief corps is weaker than it was last season since they are replacing Feliz with Nathan and no longer have a lefty in the pen, but Mike Adamas is fantastic and Alexi Ogando has the potential to be just as good as a reliever.  Meanwhile, in Anaheim, the list of trusted Angel relievers is Downs… and that’s about it.

The Story: A fan sent an idea for a trade to Jerry Dipoto and got a hand-written letter from the GM in response.

The Monkey Says: That’s just incredibly nice that he would take the time to do that.  It is also incredibly stupid because he is now inviting a flood of stupid trade ideas to be mailed to him.  Don’t people know that blog comment sections are where bad trade ideas belong?

The Story: The young Angel players talk about their reactions to the big roster moves the Angels made this off-season.

The Monkey Says: Walden definitely sounds like he is relieved that the Angels didn’t bring in anyone to pressure him for the closer gig, but maybe I am just reading too much into a hand-picked quote.

The Story: Dreaming about how the LA Angels can win the World Series.

The Monkey Says: I made this!