The October 7th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Pujols sues Jack Clark, trade interest in Trumbo and Kendrick and much more…
The Story: Albert Pujols officially filed a suit against Jack Clark due to Clark's steroid allegations.
The Monkey Says: Unsurprisingly, Pujols is good to his word. My understanding is that these sort of cases are hard to prove, but there is also a chance that Clark, who is known to have financial issues in the past, may not have the money to fight the suit. If this does somehow go to trial, one aspect of it that I look forward to is what I can only assume is Clark's lawyer trying to unearth Pujols' true age as proof of Albert's past dishonest behavior, assuming that the rumors of him being older than he claims are actually true.
The Story: The Angels have several teams interested in trading for Mark Trumbo.
The Monkey Says: His power has a lot of team interested, even if his OBP is an issue. There just isn't 30+ guaranteed homer guys sitting on the market right now and it could allow the Angels to turn Mark into a young starting pitcher, a starting third baseman or relief help. It also might factor in that Trumbo's arbitration price is going to be kind of expensive. With their luxury tax concerns, the Halos are going to have to unload at least one semi-large contract if they intend to spend any money this winter. There should be quite a few teams interested, so it is just a matter of finding the right GM who is wowed by his power and willing to overlook his OBP and overpay for those 30+ homers (hi, Dayton Moore).
The Story: The Angels are expected to revisit trading Howie Kendrick this off-season.
The Monkey Says: This has been re-reported several times the last few weeks which serves to underscore how likely a Kendrick trade is. That aforementioned luxury tax concern is one major reason Howie is being shopped. The question is whether the Halos need/want to trade both Howie and Trumbo or just one of them. I suspect that answer is highly contingent on their pursuit of Masahiro Tanaka.
The Monkey Says: I tossed out the idea that maybe the delay in an announcement stems from the Halos pursuing a trade of Scioscia. That might still be the case, but as this article details, it could also be that Arte Moreno has been out of town and wants to make that decision with the affected parties in person. That seems like a flimsy excuse though as Arte surely could've found a way to be in town. The scenario that concerns me most is that he somehow hasn't reached a decision yet. Indecision like that is never leads to good things.
The Story: The Angels claimed reliever Josh Wall off of waivers from the Marlins.
The Monkey Says: You're not going to believe this, but the Angels scooped up a hard-throwing fastball-slider reliever with command issues. Hey, it could work out, you never know, but don't expect a whole lot either.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
