The October 1st, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Trout makes rookie history, Aybar suffers strained quad, Greinke pitches in a misspelled jersey and much more…
The Monkey Says: Get used to this whole Trout making history thing, it figures to continue for another two decades or so.
The Story: Erick Aybar suffered a strained quadricep in the second game of yesterday's doubleheader.
The Monkey Says: We can assume he is day-to-day, but at this point day-to-day could be a season-ending injury which now comes at a really bad time seeing how the Halos' season is on the brink and he has been one of their best players for the last several weeks.
The Story: Zack Greinke pitched part of his start yesterday with his last name misspelled on his jersey.
The Monkey Says: First the bullpen blows all his well-pitched games, now this. Way to make a guy feel at home. Seriously, this shouldn't make a difference when it comes to him re-signing or not. Turns out that when over $100+ million are involved, silly things like misspelled names suddenly get forgotten about.
The Story: Vernon Wells left the team briefly to tend to his son who was undergoing an emergency appendectomy.
The Monkey Says: A scary moment, hopefully everything worked out just fine.
The Story: Jerry Dipoto plays coy about his plans for the starting rotation in the off-season.
The Monkey Says: Did they really expect him to say anything? He'd be out of his mind to offer any sort of answers this close to the end of the season, especially after Dan Haren's recent comments regarding reports that he would not have his option picked up.
The Story: MLB players largely support Miguel Cabrera as the AL MVP.
The Monkey Says: That isn't really an endorsement though because a lot of players aren't as informed as one would think, which is why they vote for Derek Jeter to win Gold Gloves year after year. Many, but not all, are not as up on advanced metrics as much as segments of baseball fans are. That doesn't mean they are wrong either, they just represent a different culture than you and I.
The Story: SABR geeks are sabotaging the award races.
The Monkey Says: This is the kind of article I hate because it makes no attempt to understand the thing it belittles, in this case WAR. What a lot of these writers don't seem to understand is that these "geeky stats" are the stats that MOST FRONT OFFICES USE TO RUN THEIR TEAMS. Why can sabermetrics be good for the team managers to use but the nerdy crutch of basement-dwelling bloggers at all other times? Oh, and here is another example of such an article, but from a Detroit reporter, so I kind of understand his bias.
The Story: The AL MVP race and the slow death of respectful disagreement.
The Monkey Says: This is a great post on maintaining perspective, but without getting to political here, we just don't live in that kind of society anymore. I've made the analogy in this space before, the AL MVP argument is just as polarizing as the current presidential election. There are two factions and both are thoroughly convinced that they are 100% right and that anyone who isn't on their side is a moron. I have been guilty of it myself, though I try not to, but when you see articles like the ones above that not only show ignorance but almost celebrate it, it is almost impossible to not get worked up.
The Story: Joe Posnanski evaluates Trout, Cabrera, the Triple Crown and the MVP.
The Monkey Says: He sums it up best by stating that both deserve the award but one won't win and it will be a shame. Following on the last post, this is another thing some seem to lose perspective on too, both guys are having tremendous seasons. People get so caught up knocking down the other guy's credentials that they fail to appreciate the great things that they are doing outside the context of what is ultimately a silly race for a trophy that nobody will care that much about in twelve months.
The Monkey Says: Last one, I swear. This caught my eye because of the anti-WAR articles above, in which one specifically says nobody knows how WAR is calculated. Well, the folks at B-R (and many others fine folks at other sites) do know. If you really want to do your job and make an informed decision, shouldn't you find out about this stat that you are so anxious to decry before you write it off as some newfangled hokum?
The Story: Fatigue may be behind Trout's drop off in production over the last several weeks.
The Monkey Says: While he may be a superb athlete and only just turned 21, the 162-game season can be a grind, especially when you don't get a day off ever. That being said, I am not convinced fatigue is the whole story. The league has the book on him now and seems to finally have a plan of attack that can be mildly successful against him. It will be interesting to see if Trout continues to put up more human numbers next season or if he will return to his Superman form and be more ready to handle the marathon that is the MLB season.
The Story: Adrian Beltre could've been the Pujols Arte Moreno was looking for.
The Monkey Says: I've said this same thing for a long time, Reagins' biggest mistake was not closing the deal on Beltre and it quite possibly set the Angels back several years.
The Story: Questioning Mike Scioscia's rotation management.
The Monkey Says: I respectfully disagree. Finishing the season on a four-man rotation with everyone working on three days' rest is a recipe for disaster. There is a fair amount of statistical evidence that pitchers working on short rest perform worse than normal. Maybe you can get lucky with one or two of the pitchers, but you will almost certainly roll snake eyes on the other two. And then what do you do about the playoffs if you make it? The rotation is going to be fried. I get that it is more important to get there, but you do have to try and plan ahead a little bit.
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