The July 19th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Angels make Bourjos and Morales available via trade, Hunter willing to take a major pay cut to return to Anaheim in 2013, the Halos played through a bomb threat at Comerica Park on Tuesday and much more…
The Monkey Says: This comes on the heels of an earlier report from Jon Heyman that the Halos were actively shopping Peter Bourjos. The goal, according to both reporters, is landing rotation and bullpen help. Basically, Jerry Dipoto is willing to consider anything. He’d probably get a lot more in return for Bourjos, but would also probably be more reluctant to let him go. At this point I am not even sure there is a market for Morales since teams are already going to be concerned about his leg, not to mention that he has shown only passing glimpses of his former power. There is a lot of smoke here around Bourjos though and one has to think that with his name constantly coming up in rumors that it has gone from “if” Bourjos gets traded to “when.”
The Story: Torii Hunter is willing to take a major cut in pay to return to the Angels next season.
The Monkey Says: I love Torii, but this rings a bit hollow. First off, he makes $18 million this season, so he is going to have to take a major pay cut if he wants to play anywhere next season. The question is will he play for say $3 million if someone else is offering $6 million? He also says he only wants to play for the Angels, but then goes on to say he’d consider the Twins, Yankees and Rangers. I’m not saying that he is a liar, I’m just saying that he is making overly broad declarations and then backtracking on them. Perhaps he should consider a career in politics once he retires?
The Story: There was a bomb threat made at Comerica Park during Tuesday’s Angels-Tigers game.
The Monkey Says: Not that the police bothered to tell anyone at the game. Apparently there is a string of bomb threat hoaxes going on in the Detroit area, so the authorities sniffed out the hoax quickly, though that seems like a pretty big risk to take when there are 40,000 lives on the line.
The Story: Jerry Dipoto denies that he is shopping Peter Bourjos or that any trades are imminent.
The Monkey Says: What else is he going to say? He even dropped the “due diligence” phrase too, which might just be the official phrase of the Dipoto regime.
The Story: What will Jerry Dipoto do at the trade deadline?
The Monkey Says: I think that is the fun of this deadline, we just don’t know. Not that we ever really know with any GM, but with JeDi being short on experience, we don’t know what his MO is. Based on the off-season, he figures to be aggressive and at least curious about just about every player, but we aren’t sure how willing he is to part with prospects or take on rental players.
The Story: Ervin Santana has changed agents.
The Monkey Says: This is actually kind of major as it suggests that Ervin is preparing himself to hit the open market this off-season, meaning the Angels won’t pick up his option for 2013. It is possible that he got some kind of indication from the team, but it is more likely that he is not a moron and realizes that his poor performance this season has made him expendable.
The Monkey Says: This is a very loaded statement, because on one hand, he fails to say that Hunter and Morales will continue playing everyday but he also speficially avoid suggesting any role whatsoever for Wells. I tend to believe he meant the latter, but that might just be wishful thinking on my part.
The Story: The Angels are on pace to break the post-DH era record of team shutouts in a single season.
The Monkey Says: The record is 20 and the Halos already have 14. I like their odds. I’d like them better if Dan Haren comes back healthy and Ervin Santana pulled his head out of his butt and if Jerome Williams magically turned into Cole Hamels.
The Story: The Angels signed recently released outfielder Trevor Crowe to a minor league contract.
The Monkey Says: This is the guy the Halos almost got from Cleveland before the Abreu trade fell through. He is a former first rounder, but obviously a total bust. Still, there must be something Dipoto sees in him given that he scooped him up so quickly.
The Story: C.J. Cron is a prospect that the Angels might want to trade now before his stock crashes.
The Monkey Says: The theory is that Cron is playing well enough but also not showing some of the tools he was believed to have when drafted last year. Ideally, the Angels would sell high on him now before it becomes more obvious that his much-lauded plate discipline is nowhere to be found.
The Story: Dan Haren believes he developed some bad mechanical habits as a result of his back problems.
The Monkey Says: That makes a lot of sense because a bad back will screw just about anything you do up once you start trying to compensate for it. Dan says he has corrected those problems, but we won’t know for sure until he takes the mound in a real game.
The Story: Finding the right comparison for Mike Trout is difficult.
The Monkey Says: Making player comps for Trout is almost a pasttime in its own right at this point. None are perfect though which probably means that we should just stop it and settle on him being “the first Mike Trout” instead of the second Mantle/Henderson/Jackson/Clemente.
The Story: Comparing the other eras of two or more great rookies coming up at the same time.
The Monkey Says: Even more comps! But seriously, read this. Jonah Keri is good at writing about baseball or some junk.
The Monkey Says: He’s still swinging more than one would like, but the walk rate and everything else is returning to more normal and encouraging levels. Also, Sam makes me feel better about myself because he cops to being wrong about Mark Trumbo, something I am also guilty of, but not nearly as willing to admit to. So I’m just going to co-opt Sam’s mea culpa instead.
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