The November 19th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Dodgers frontrunners for Greinke, Angels interested in Howell, the worst anti-Trout MVP column and much more…
The Story: An “industry source” claims the Dodgers are the clear frontrunners for Zack Greinke.
The Monkey Says: Honestly, I wouldn’t put any credence in that stuff until the Winter Meetings starts. I also still don’t believe that the Dodgers are going to spend that much money. They are already over $200 million in payroll and have a full rotation and that’s before factoring in them winning the bidding for Korean pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu.
The Story: The Angels are amongst a handful of teams with interest in southpaw reliever J.P. Howell.
The Monkey Says: With this news, the trade for Sisk and the minor league free agents (Stetter, Reyes) that the team has signed, it appears Jerry Dipoto is turning over all stones to find another lefty for the bullpen, strongly indicating that he intends to return Nick Maronde to the minors to work as a starting pitcher. As for Howell, he had one very good season where he was sharing the closer role in Tampa, but since hurt his shoulder and hasn’t been nearly as dominant. He’d probably still make for a solid LOOGY though and wouldn’t be too expensive.
The Monkey Says: And there were several contenders, but Albom took the prize thanks to his lazy mockery of acronyms and juvenile ad hominem attacks. My favorite parts were where he acknowledged the holes in his arguments and then just dismissed them without actually offering a counter-argument. But, hey, what do I know, I’m just a stat geek and that means I never actually watch the games.
The Story: Jon Morosi thinks the MVP debate got unnecessarily rude.
The Monkey Says: Morosi’s main complaint were the attacks by people via social media. He certainly has a point there, but he also was the ring leader of writers who were peppering Twitter with their lazy arguments, cherry picked data samples and ignorant claims, so he sort of invited whatever he got. What irks me about this otherwise well meaning article is that at no point does Morosi reprimand his journalistic colleagues for being just as rude and dismissive to the sabermetric community. I know I didn’t go to journalism school, but I am pretty sure that there is no class that teaches journalists to only refer to people who work with or consider numbers as “geeks” or “nerds.”
The Story: Joe Posnanski weighs in on the aftermath of the AL MVP race.
The Monkey Says: Nice to see that all national columnists aren’t close-minded buttheads. Well done, Joe.
The Monkey Says: That sounds nice, but that is sort of what everyone thought last off-season and he ended up in New York anway. Speaking of which, Ken Rosenthal writes that most executives believe it is New York or Japan and that is it in 2012, so there’s that too.
The Story: Japanese closer Kyuji Fujikawa has begun meeting with teams, including the Angels.
The Monkey Says: The Angels meeting may not have happened yet, but it reportedly will. It certainly seems that several big spending teams are interesting in Fujikawa, so this one might take awhile to resolve.
The Story: Mike Trout won the Negro Leagues Legacy Awards’ AL MVP.
The Monkey Says: Well, African American people are always ahead of the trends. Clearly they know what’s up.
The Story: When did Mike Trout’s MVP case become about the stats?
The Monkey Says: (standing ovation)
The Story: Jonah Keri points out the flaw in considering the players’ opinions for MVP.
The Monkey Says: This is a great point because several of the writers that voted for Trout cited “talking to players” about who should be MVP as a reason for their vote. Honestly, a lot of players just aren’t that well informed. That’s not a knock on them either. Players are so busy playing and practicing, it is unreasonable to expect them to be totally up to speed on what is going on with every other team and player.
The Story: Trends suggest that the Angels would be taking a risk by relying on Weaver as their staff workhorse.
The Monkey Says: This is why it is even more important that the Angels sign Greinke. They need a rotation leader to fall back on when Weaver reaches a point where he cannot overcome his declining with his deception and guile. That day may be coming sooner than we all think.
The Story: A look at Albert Pujols’ eroding plate discipline.
The Monkey Says: Between that last article and this one, I think I need a Prozac… or a beer… or both. Those are safe to mix, right?
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