The April 27th, 2015 edition of Los Angeles Angels news including almost entirely Josh Hamilton trade reactions…
The Story: The Josh Hamilton trade is expected to be finalized today.
The Monkey Says: There are a lot of moving parts with the various approvals needed from the Angels, Rangers, Hamilton, the MLBPA and Commissioner’s office, but it is going to go through. The Angels will, through various machinations, pay $68 million to have Josh not play for them for the next three years.
The Story: The Angels could regret their decision to dump Josh Hamilton.
The Monkey Says: They should already regret how they handle this divorce, but I don’t actually think they will regret the outcome. Hamilton has been an average at best producer the last two years, but he really showed signs of falling off a cliff late last year. He’s now going to try and comeback from shoulder surgery, and that won’t help matters at all. The biggest and most legitimate concern that I’m surprised the Angels haven’t voiced is that Josh has historically performed quite poorly when his personal life is not in a good place. With him going through a contentious divorce, that is a real threat right now. You can criticize the Angels all you want for getting to this place, but I do believe that this was the best possible outcome for them once they crossed that point of no return in their relationship with Hamilton.
The Story: Josh Hamilton’s best days are behind him.
The Monkey Says: Any Angel fan could’ve told you that. This is a great low-cost/low-risk move for the Rangers, but there is virtually no chance that Hamilton is going to return to MVP form and stick it to the Angels as some have suggested. His bat is slowing and his approach is falling apart. It’d be a miracle if he was even an above average starter.
The Story: The Rangers will benefit from the arrogance of Arte Moreno.
The Monkey Says: Pedro Moura probably isn’t going to be getting a Christmas card from Moreno this year. He isn’t wrong though. Hamilton was signed because Moreno wanted to show the Rangers his big swinging dick and now Arte pushed for this end game when Hamilton’s poor play caused that big swinging dick to get caught in the zipper. There was much more graceful ways to handle all of this, ways that should’ve been left to baseball operations to make in a strictly baseball sense, not the emotional sense that Moreno forced upon the front office.
The Story: Adrian Beltre sent Garrett Richards an invoice for three broken bats.
The Monkey Says: I love this so much, partially because I’m shocked that Adrian Beltre has a sense of humor.
The Story: C.J. Wilson is likely going to change his throwing program.
The Monkey Says: Wilson has always had a pretty unique but strenuous program, but his recent elbow issues have him realizing that maybe he needs to ease up now that he’s a bit older. We’ll see if that pays off though because pitchers are true creatures of habit and this could prove to be an unwelcome disruption.
The Story: Mike Scioscia is going to stick with Matt Joyce.
The Monkey Says: He doesn’t say for how long, but mid-May has generally been the magic time period in which the Halos give up on struggling players, like Raul Ibanez last year. I still like Joyce and think he’ll snap out of it, but this slump is starting to get a bit ridiculous.
The Story: Albert Pujols got pulled into the Royals-Athletics dispute somehow.
The Monkey Says: Brett Lawrie was reported to say that Pujols said the Royals were doing “bush league stuff.” Apparently that was bad reporting though as the paper the first ran the claim walked it back, but not before Albert personally called Ned Yost to deny he said that.
The Story: The Thursday Angels game against the Athletics was the smallest home crowd since the Angels changed their name.
The Monkey Says: The 4 PM start looks to have bit them, as well as the general trend of sluggish April attendance for the team. Hopefully this convinces the team to abandon that weird start time going forward.
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