The February 28th, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including more estimates of a Trout extension, Blanton unlikely to be kept in bullpen and much more…
The Story: Jim Bowden attempts to estimate potential Mike Trout contract options.
The Monkey Says: He offers no evidence to support his numbers, it is just what his good ol' gut tells him!
The Story: Mike Trout would continue the trend of eroding free agent classes.
The Monkey Says: And a prediction of a seven-year, $204 million deal. Of course the real meat is Verducci talking about how not only do no quality free agents under 30 ever hit the market anymore, but that teams aren't getting big discounts on the young players they lock up like they used to. It is an interesting point that maybe Trout should let the Angels buy more seasons since they are likely to pay him market rate for those years anyway.
The Story: How Trout's youth justifies his $50 million per year WAR valuation.
The Monkey Says: STOP GIVING HIS AGENT IDEAS!!!
The Story: The Angels are still likely to trade or release Joe Blanton if he doesn't earn a rotation spot.
The Monkey Says: That would be ballsy. As bad as Blanton was, at least he has a pulse. The Angels have almost nothing to offer in terms of starting pitching depth behind Blanton, so they would need to come up with other contingencies if they decide to dump Blanton.
The Story: Josh Hamilton says he is feeling better and expects to be play some in spring training.
The Monkey Says: Hamilton is terrible at assessing his own prognosis, so let's just see what the doctors say.
The Monkey Says: Pitchers are going to throw more early in spring training and batters are going to take more BP. I don't know if that will work, but it is worth a shot, so long as it doesn't cause them to burn out late in the season.
The Story: Michael Kohn is trying to develop his breaking ball.
The Monkey Says: He has a slider, but it doesn't generate a lot of whiffs and he throws it almost exclusively low and away, out of the zone to righties. So, yeah, he needs to work that out because he uses it a fair amount.
The Story: The Angels lineup is subjectively ranked as the fourth-best in the majors.
The Monkey Says: I think that is fair, but realize that there are a lot of "ifs" involved in justifying that ranking.
The Story: The schedule for MLB on FOX has been released.
The Monkey Says: This includes games on Fox and Fox Sports 1. The Angels are on the schedule six times, three times on each channel. They aren't scheduled to appear at all though after July 12th.
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