Halo Headlines: the Angels budget crunch, Pujols calls out critics

The August 29th, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including the Angels budget crunch, Pujols calls out critics and much more…

The Story: A look at the Angels budget crunch.
The Monkey Says: I wrote about this the other day, you can find it in the featured posts up above. This should give you some insight into the math behind it.

The Story: Albert Pujols calls out his critics.
The Monkey Says: Ol’ grumpy Albert is at it again. He can throw down the “never played the game” card all he wants, but nothing changes the fact that his numbers are very clearly down. His hitting profile is very different from his time in St. Louis. You don’t need to play the game to see that. It is pretty obvious. In fact, I think it is obvious to everyone but Albert. Confidence is great and all, but if he can’t get it through his head that his true talent level has dropped, then how is he ever going to make the adjustments that are needed for him to boost his production again and prolong his career?

The Story: Wade LeBlanc cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A.
The Monkey Says: He could well be back with the Angels in September if only has long relief depth. The Angels still need to figure out their starting pitcher situation for Saturday though.

The Story: Mike Scioscia appears to be content limiting Hector Santiago to under 100 pitches.
The Monkey Says: I don’t even know that it is really a pitch count issue so much as that the situation has generally called for Santiago to leave the game. If there is one thing we’ve seen with Santiago is that when he starts going off the rails, it happens very fast. The Angels have a great bullpen, there is nothing wrong with wanting to use it.

The Story: Alex Yarbrough was named the Texas League Player of the Year.
The Monkey Says: Worth noting just because Angels prospects don’t usually earn these kind of accolades. What’s weird is that Yarbrough didn’t have all that amazing of a year. He hit a ton of double and had a very nice line, especially considering the environment, but don’t go thinking he had some massive breakout season.

The Story: A look at Sean Newcomb now that he has made his pro debut.
The Monkey Says: People were probably expecting Newcomb to just come in and immediately dominate, but sometimes guys just need to adjust to level of competition. Or maybe Newcomb is just fatigued after the college season. He showed plenty of flashes in his debut, so there is no reason for panic, though there is a chance that he may not be quite as close to big league ready as everyone first hoped.