The April 10th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Richards to replace Weaver in rotation, Halos not considering trades and much more…
The Monkey Says: Richards is the right choice. 4-to-6 weeks is the perfect little audition for him to show whether or not he can really hack it as a starter. He has been throwing the ball very well this year, so he has a real shot at being a real asset. If he fails, the Angels can shift him back to the bullpen, probably for good. Trading for someone like Harang or Capuano would be questionable since they’d have to be shifted back into the bullpen once Weaver got healthy, thus making them not worth giving up much for.
The Story: Losing Jered Weaver for a month or two isn’t really that big of a deal.
The Monkey Says: The claim is basically that they are forfeiting about one win worth of value with him out. That makes sense mathematically, but it feels like his loss costs the Halos much more since Weaver represented the best of a bad rotation. Aces like Weaver are often counted on to come in and stop losing streaks or prevent them, so they don’t really have that now which may or may not be a big deal depending on how they play without him.
The Story: Was Jered Weaver ailing before he hurt his non-throwing elbow?
The Monkey Says: Normally I don’t like this sort of conjecture, but I think there is actually something to it. Weaver was dealing with bicep tendinitis late last season when his velocity really dropped off and I can’t help but wonder if he is still being bothered by it. If so, then getting a month off might actually do him some good.
The Story: Erick Aybar left last night’s game with a bruised heel.
The Monkey Says: No word on the severity yet, but he seemed to be in a lot of pain. Expect Brendan Harris and Andrew Romine to fill in until he is good to go again.
The Story: C.J. WIlson hasn’t erased his erratic tendencies.
The Monkey Says: This was written before his second start, so the entire premise is based on him having one bad inning. So, yeah. Let’s not forget that much of his inconsistency last year was brought about by his now surgically repaired elbow. The much quoted stat of him struggling the second time through the order in 2012 was not the case in 2011, where his OPS only ticked up slightly or in 2010, where the OPS allowed actually went down a bit. That suggests to me that it is just a combination of his injury and of pure randomness that caused that alarming split, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that recurring this season.
The Story: The Angels trail through one week of the Battle of Los Angeles.
The Monkey Says: Come for the FJMing of a horrible Bill Shaikin article, stay for the SciosciaFace.
The Story: Justo Vazquez is the new general manager of the Orem Owlz.
The Monkey Says: I still don’t know what a minor league GM does, but I do now know thanks to this press release that it can’t be important since the GM that Vazquez is replacing left the position so he could become the Minor League Equipment Manager for the Angels. That’s right, he went from GM to the top uniform washer in the organization. That is considered a move up the corporate ladder. Maybe with a little luck Mr. Vazquez can parlay his new gig into a future promotion to the team’s head dogwalker.
The Story: True Grich considers the start to the Angels’ 2013 season to be totally unacceptable.
The Monkey Says: Relax, people. Yes, the Angels are 2-4, but they went 2-4 against two very good teams. They also lost three of those games by one run and research shows that winning a one-run game is basically like winning a coin flip. Basically, the Angels lost three coin flips. Even without Weaver, they’ll be fine and start seeing a few coin flips come up heads instead of tails before too long.
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