The October 24th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including predicting Angels arbitration figures, how not to fix the Halo bullpen, Conger's time could be now and much more…
The Story: Predicting the arbitration values for the Angel players.
The Monkey Says: The Angels have four eligibles that will come to roughly $12 million total (and MLBTR is very good at predicting the values). The catch is that I don't expect them to tender Jerome Williams. Nearly $2 million is a lot to pay a guy who is not likely to earn a rotation spot and not that useful as a long reliever. Some will question keeping Callaspo, but seeing how he isn't in line for a big raise, he seems like he is worth holding onto given the dearth of third base upgrades available.
The Story: How not to fix the Angels bullpen.
The Monkey Says: Jerry Dipoto's comments earlier this month seem to be in line with the notion that they will try and rebuild the bullpen on the cheap. However, I think there is some wisdom in bringing in at least one "proven veteran" like Matt Lindstrom on a one-year deal for about $3 million since the Angels have very few internal options to promote to the big league bullpen. Honestly, Steve Geltz might be the only reliever in the system even close to being ready for the big leagues.
The Story: Is the door now open for Hank Conger to earn a spot on the roster?
The Monkey Says: I would have no problem with this, but I just don't see it happening. Scioscia already seems to have mentally brutalized Conger over his defense and the team went out of their way to not have him on the big league roster during Iannetta's absence, even after Conger got healthy himself.
The Story: Kendrys Morales finished a close second in The Sporting News AL Comeback Player of the Year voting.
The Monkey Says: Instead, Adam Dunn won, even though he came back from just being bad at baseball for a year. At least Morales had a strong showing in this award which is voted on by actual MLB players.
The Story: The Angels outrighted OF Jeremy Moore to the minors.
The Monkey Says: Moore missed all of last season due to hip surgery. He is an excellent athlete, but has yet to actually prove that he is anything more than an athlete. He's put up some very nice numbers in the minors the last few seasons, but it is pretty damning that he went unclaimed on waiver at a time of year where teams have no problem temporarily using up a 40-man roster spot to see if a player is worth keeping around.
The Story: Ernesto Frieri discusses how he made it from Colombia to the majors.
The Monkey Says: Tamale-grinding tales included!
The Story: A look at the warning signs associated with velocity loss in starting pitchers.
The Monkey Says: Jered Weaver is included in the list, which shouldn't be too surprising. We can blame much of that on his back problems… hopefully, but his velocity dipped from 2010 to 2011 as well. Expect a whole lot of radar gun watching with Weaver in 2013.
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