Halo Headlines: Aybar makes his extension official, Analyzing Colon’s 38 straight strikes, Angels had closed door meeting

The April 20th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Erick Aybar officially signs his extension, analyzing Colon’s 38 straight strikes against the Angels, Halos held a closed door meeting after Wednesday’s loss and much more…

The Story: Erick Aybar made his four-year, $35 million extension official.

The Monkey Says: One thing worth noting, his deal has no no-trade clause and no options, so it is pretty simple.  It also means that if in two years they feel they are better off with Jean Segura (who will be ready by then), they can likely easily deal Aybar.  The odds are still greater that Segura gets dealt before then, but it is a possibility.

The Story: Analyzing Bartolo Colon’s improbable run fo 38 consecutive strikes thrown against the Angels.

The Monkey Says: I have no idea what a binomial distribution is, but I’m sure it means that what Colon did was nearly impossible.  One thing his feat has spurred is newfound calls for Mickey Hatcher to get fired.  Frankly, I’m not sure that is the right reaction.  If you look at the PitchF/X chart for Colon’s pitches, he threw a lot of fastballs right down the middle, yet Angel batters did nothing with those pitches.  I guess you could argue that Hatcher failed to come up with a plan to get the hitters to adjust, but really, what can he do about guys not hitting fastballs down the middle?  Besides, in my opinion, Colon’s heater had a lot of late action on it last night, which is why the batters had a hard time squaring it up.  And with him pounding the strike zone so fiercely, they had no choice but to swing.

The Story: The Angels held a closed door meeting after their loss on Wednesday.

The Monkey Says: “Grind it out” might well become the unofficial slogan for this season, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

The Story: Torii Hunter met with Mike Scioscia to offer up some of his playing time in right field to Mark Trumbo.

The Monkey Says: With the caveat being that Hunter would DH instead, which makes no sense to me since Trumbo could just DH himself then.  Aside from that, I don’t like the idea of Trumbo playing the outfield too.  He needs to spend as much time as possible getting used to playing third and I fear that logging time in right field will put too much on his plate as he isn’t terribly experienced at that defensive position either.

The Story: Jerry Dipoto is more worried about developing players now that he has locked up so many players to long-term deals.

The Monkey Says: Good, he should.  If the Angels pick up the 2013 options on Haren, Santana and Iannetta (which is very likely), they will already be committed to over $120 in payroll before taking into consideration the young arbirtation and pre-arbitration players.  That is actually the one reason I don’t like the Aybar deal that much, but at least Dipoto is aware of the constraints he is placing on himself.

The Story: Mark Trumbo was listed as the Angels third baseman on the newly released All-Star ballot.

The Monkey Says: This means nothing other than the Angel PR people know Trumbo is popular and will get a lot more votes than Alberto Callaspo, even if Mark never actually plays third base ever again.

The Story: The Angels’ lack of plate discipline is one of the biggest concerns in the majors.

The Monkey Says: Funnily enough, before the season the thought was that Albert Pujols’ excellent discipline would rub off on the rest of the team only to have it work out to be the exact opposite as even Pujols is barely drawing any walks thus far.  I don’t know how concerned to be about this trend as the Halos have always been aggressive at the plate, however, they are stupid aggressive right now.  My gut, or perhaps ignorant optimism, makes me think they will settle down before long and start putting runs on the board.