The October 2nd, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Angels set ALDS rotation, Scioscia and Yost settle feud and much more…
The Story: The Angels set their rotation for the ALDS.
The Monkey Says: Weaver will pitch Game 1 and go on short-rest in Game 4. I’m not crazy about that idea. I understand the lack of trust in Hector Santiago, but it puts their best pitcher out there at less than 100%. Matt Shoemaker will go in Game 2 and Game 5, which is great given his large home-road splits. C.J. Wilson will pitch Game 3. This frees up Hector Santiago to pitch in relief, making it easier for the Halos to not carry Joe Thatcher on the roster.
The Story: The Royals set their rotation for the ALDS as well.
The Monkey Says: Old friend Jason Vargas will start Game 1, which is good in that the Halos have hit him hard in the past, but bad in that he’s had a lot of success in the Big A. Yordano Ventura will start Game 2 and James Shields will start Game 3. They haven’t yet said if Danny Duffy will start Game 4, but there doesn’t appear to be any reason not to have him pitch that game.
The Story: Mike Scioscia and Ned Yost have apparently settled their personal feud.
The Monkey Says: A feud most people didn’t even know existed. Apparently Yost made amends at some point, so they are all good. I’m sure you were all very concerned.
The Story: Josh Hamilton will start in left field and bat seventh to start the ALDS.
The Monkey Says: And C.J. Cron will start at DH. That really leaves just one open bench spot, which is commonly thought to be going to Efren Navarro.
The Story: Yahoo previews the Angels-Royals series.
The Monkey Says: And so begin the list of previews and “keys” to the series, which seem to diverge quite a bit from site to site. The one I disagree with here is that the Angels’ defense is super important. The Royals actually aren’t that much of a high pressure offense, other than the steals, so while good defense is always nice, I don’t see it as being such a huge factor outside of controlling the stolen bases.
The Story: Sam Miller previews the Angels-Royals series.
The Monkey Says: Lots of good stuff as usual and Sam gets as close to predicting the Angels as victor as he can get without actually predicting it.
The Story: Five questions for the Angels-Royals series.
The Monkey Says: We get it, the Angels rotation is a question mark.
The Story: Five tools to the Angels beating the Royals.
The Monkey Says: Using the bullpen early and often is a terrific point. I talked about it last week, but one way to mitigate the rotation question marks is to use the rotation as little as possible and rely on the bullpen more instead.
The Story: The Angels will only go as far as the rotation takes them.
The Monkey Says: That oversimplifies it. They don’t need the rotation to be great and carry the team, they just need the rotation to be solid enough so that the lineup can carry the team.
The Story: A position-by-position breakdown of the Angels and Royals.
The Monkey Says: The Angels win 7-6, but I’m not actually sure that they deserve to win the starting pitching battle since they have much more meltdown potential than the Royals do.
The Story: The Angels and Jered Weaver share in a season of redemption.
The Monkey Says: Let’s hold off on this redemption talk until the postseason is over lest it end up jinxing Weaver, who didn’t need much redemption to begin with.
The Story: Winning is more important that bullpen role for Jason Grilli.
The Monkey Says: Remember that you read this when Grilli signs lucrative contract to be the closer for the Rockies this offseason.
The Story: October is the stuff of legacies for Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw.
The Monkey Says: Settle down, these two have plenty of postseasons to play in before their careers are done. This one October isn’t going to drastically alter their legacy significantly one way or the other.
The Story: An Angels-Dodgers World Series would be downright neighborly.
The Monkey Says: No, it wouldn’t. These fan bases don’t particularly like each other. It might be “cool” to casual fans, but fans of the teams are going to be at each others’ throats.
The Story: The city of Tustin met to affirm their interest in having the Angels move to their city.
The Monkey Says: But they already sound wary of putting much of their own money on the line or even giving away the land for free. Even with that, Tustin showing public interest gives Arte Moreno some additional leverage.
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