The September 18th, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Angels win the AL West, Scioscia explains giving Rasmus a quick hook and much more…
The Story: The Angels are the 2014 AL West Champions.
The Monkey Says: You know that already, but it is really fun to type.
The Story: Mike Scioscia explains why he didn’t let Cory Rasmus pitch another inning in Tuesday’s game.
The Monkey Says: Rasmus wanted to go out again, but Scioscia said he looked tired and thought the heat might have been too much for him. I guess Scioscia is just protecting Rasmus, but this seemed like an ideal opportunity to get Rasmus stretched out to something like 60 pitches, making him a somewhat viable starting pitcher in the postseason.
The Story: Matt Shoemaker made some progress in his recovery yesterday.
The Monkey Says: Reason for optimism, but the team is going to be exceptionally careful with him, as they should.
The Story: The Angels have become an elite offense despite often needing to get creative with their lineup.
The Monkey Says: Which really goes to show that you don’t necessarily need an offensive identity so much as just a bunch of good hitters. Every single Angel regular has a wRC+ of 105 or better. Some of them do it with power. Some of them do it with average. Some of them do it with OBP. It doesn’t matter, they are just all getting the job done. I suppose having the best player in the world helps some too.
The Story: Erick Aybar and Albert Pujols have developed a special bond.
The Monkey Says: They’ve really come a long way from that one time when Pujols first signed and Aybar slapped him in the elbow and nearly got pounded into the dirt by Albert.
The Story: A scouting report of Angels relief prospect Mark Sappington.
The Monkey Says: He is throwing harder now and looks like he could have a mid-inning future, but he still needs to fix the command issues that plagued him as a starter.
The Story: An interview with Jerry Dipoto.
The Monkey Says: The two takeaways here is that Dipoto makes it clear that he was, in fact, targeting character in his acquisitions this offseason and that he and Scioscia get along just swell now.
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