Halo Headlines: the struggling Angels offense, players insist Hamilton not a distraction

The April 20th, 2015 edition of Los Angeles Angels news including the struggling Angels offense, players insist Hamilton not a distraction and much more…

The Story: The Angels offense is struggling to live up to its promise.
The Monkey Says: Yeah, things aren’t so great right now. The lineup has just been abysmal, but it has to get better as they have several players who are well below expectations. Even when those players bounceback, this early slump at least has to call into question what the lineup’s ceiling actually is.

The Story: Angel players insist that Josh Hamilton is not a distraction.
The Monkey Says: Except when the media asks about it… which is exactly what a distraction is, but let’s not nitpick. There really is not much reason for the media to talk to players about him since he isn’t even around them right now, but they are going to keep doing so until the situation resolved, which it might actually be soon.

The Story: Searching for Jered Weaver’s missing fastball.
The Monkey Says: I think I saw it on the side of my milk carton this morning. If he comes out throwing 84 MPH in his next start, I suspect it might be time to issue an Amber Alert.

The Story: Can Jered Weaver reverse his current trend?
The Monkey Says: Changing his pitch mix is an interesting idea, but at what point can an old dog no longer learn new tricks?

The Story: Matt Shoemaker is searching for more velocity.
The Monkey Says: OH GOD! WEAVER IS CONTAGIOUS!!! CALL THE CDC! QUARANTINE HIM BEFORE HE SNEEZES ON RICHARDS!!!!!!!

The Story: Mike Trout is cutting down significantly on strikeouts early on.
The Monkey Says: Hey, at least something is going right for the Halos offense, right?

The Story: The Angels settled their national anthem dispute with the ticket takers.
The Monkey Says: And by settled, they mean completely backed off their request for them to keep working during the anthem. Angels management continues to do a bang up job of making the team look good in public.

The Story: Mike Morin is still carving out his role in the bullpen.
The Monkey Says: Maybe let’s not encourage everyone to think about proving “worthy of his own inning.” Managing a bullpen according to the inning number is stupid, dumb and absurd.