The April 29th, 2015 edition of Los Angeles Angels news including Angels blogger criticized for anti-Hamilton rant, Scioscia slams Hamilton and much more…
The Story: Angry Angels blogger draws intense criticism for a rant on Josh Hamilton.
The Monkey Says: Not me! My worst nightmare would be to see one of my posts picked up by Deadspin. Instead, it was noted crank Rev Halofan of Halos Heaven. Or should I say formerly of Halos Heaven. Rev is basically the OG of Angels bloggers, but his, um, unique brand of insensitivity was finally picked up on by the rest of the internet when he basically wished for Josh Hamilton to die. That didn’t go over too well. In fact, Keith Olbermann singled him out as his “Worst Person in the Sports World” last night.
Rev is more than welcome to call out Hamilton for his lack of accountability and others he sees as enablers, but he went miles past the line with the commentary on Josh dying and the “Happy Snorting” comment. He only doubled down on the gross behavior with his quickly-deleted farewell post in which he showed zero remorse and all the hubris. Rev likes to think of himself “punk rock.” In certain ways he was. He was never afraid to call out the organization or a player for wrong-headed behavior, but you can only refer to every poor performance as gutless and resort to so many ad hominem attacks before you stop being punk rock and crossover to being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk.
It is sad that he has to depart from the blog he founded, but it was long overdue. Halos Heaven is a troll den. Rev’s absurd levels of vitriol and the community he fostered around it are some of the reasons that MWAH even exists. I wanted to have a blog that can celebrate and criticize the Angels, just like Rev, but do so without having to resort to calling someone a “Pig Millionaire” in lieu of actually making a reasoned point. I like to think that I’ve succeeded in that, even if it is just in the small part of the Angels blogosphere that MWAH occupies. I know that Rev thinks there is no David to throw stones at his Goliath, but maybe now that Goliath had his head chopped off, Goliath will die and something that all Angels fans can be proud of will take his place. For that to happen, SB Nation needs to step up and exercise some control rather than just kicking Gleason to the curb and hoping everyone forgets about what happened while the inmates continue to run that particular asylum.
I don’t want to seem as if I am on a high horse here, though I probably am. All I know is I am glad that the level of discourse for all Angels fans has a chance to be raised now. I know that just being associated by proxy to Halos Heaven has me reflecting on the manner in which I go about what I do and I will certainly be more mindful of how and what I critique. I try to do that anyway, but I think Rev’s actions go to show that sometimes we lose sight of ourselves. I don’t want to do that. That doesn’t mean censoring myself, but rather just taking a few extra beats to think before I type and not worrying about making sure that I have an immediate take on everything.
The Story: Mike Scioscia slammed Josh Hamilton for his failure to express remorse or accountability to his teammates.
The Monkey Says: This story is never going to die. Scioscia isn’t entirely wrong here. I wish the team would just let it go, but there were several Angels that stepped up and had Josh’s back during his exile, but he (to my recollection) made no mention of them during his press conference on Monday. Ironically, he spent all his time throwing shade at the Angels for claiming he had lacked accountability. The real story though is that Scioscia came out and said this, seemingly on his own. He’s remained mostly neutral in this and he seldom ever runs a guy down in public, so this seems like pretty genuine hurt on his part.
The Story: Matt Shoemaker will return to the rotation on Wednesday.
The Monkey Says: As was expected.
The Story: Josh Hamilton sent video of himself taking batting practice in early March.
The Monkey Says: And here comes all of the sordid details that we didn’t already know. I’d expect more of this finger-pointing through back channels to last for a little while. There’s nothing against the rules about what Josh did. It shows though that he was just as eager to exit Anaheim as the Angels were to see him exit. Hamilton claims he only sent the video to his buddy Michael Young, you know, as friends. It is just a happy coincidence that his buddy happens to work in the Rangers front office. THIS STORY WILL NEVER DIE.
The Story: The best case scenarios for the Josh Hamilton trade.
The Monkey Says: The best case scenario for the Angels hardly seems like a best case. It just goes to show how little the Halos had to gain by moving Josh other than ridding Arte Moreno of a constant reminder of his poor decision making.
The Story: With Josh Hamilton gone, the Angels need help in left field.
The Monkey Says: Oh, sweet irony! Don’t worry though, I’m sure they’ll make a regrettable trade for Carlos Gonzalez soon enough.
The Story: The Josh Hamilton trade is an anomaly.
The Monkey Says: This talks mostly about it being an intradivision trade, but this was an anomaly for so many other reasons: the money involved, the substance abuse issue, the behavior of the ownership, the legal issues around it. This whole situation was nuts and we will never see anything like it again… hopefully.
The Story: The Angels dropped the ball in dumping Hamilton.
The Monkey Says: I don’t think they did. They dropped the ball in signing him. They dropped the ball in actively participating in creating a toxic relationship. Letting him go, however, was the right move. It is now clear that both parties wanted a divorce and there was nothing that was going to save the marriage. I’m just glad that Arte and Josh didn’t have kids together.
The Story: Was Josh Hamilton the worst free agent signing of all time?
The Monkey Says: As I said yesterday, Barry Zito might edge him out from a strictly financial and baseball value standpoint as Hamilton to provide utility in his two years while Zito was nothing but a production drain. It helps that the Angels got some money back too. However, once you factor in all the lost goodwill due to how the Halos handled the situation, I can see Hamilton being the worst.
The Story: Albert Pujols’ hitting is picking up.
The Monkey Says: Is it? Are you sure? I’m not so sure. Pujols has had his moments, but the results just aren’t there. His struggles have been more damning to the lineup than anything Joyce and Iannetta are doing because of where Pujols hits in the lineup. He has to get better than this, but it is concerning that the his numbers haven’t, for lack of a better term, picked up.
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