The July 13th, 2015 edition of Los Angeles Angels news including Santiago added to All-Star team, Stoneman talks trades and much more…
The Story: Hector Santiago was added to the AL All-Star team.
The Monkey Says: He replaces Sonny Gray, who pitched on Sunday and is thus ineligible to pitch. Honestly, Santiago probably wasn’t super-deserving. He’s been very good this season, but he’s wildly outperforming his peripherals. He’s also not got much track record of success. Meanwhile, defending Cy Young winner Corey Kluber is third in the league in strikeouts and will not make the roster, just like last year when he was snubbed. Sorry, Hector, you are good, but you are no Corey Kluber.
The Story: Bill Stoneman talks about what to expect at the trade deadline.
The Monkey Says: It is all non-committal and cliche. The only real thing of substance to emerge from his chat is that he admits that he’s going to share responsibility for trade negotiations with AGM Matt Klentak. This lends credence to the theory that Klentak is really the acting interim GM and Stoneman is just around to act as a figurehead and give Klentak guidance.
The Story: Sean Newcomb looked great in his one inning of work in the Futures Game.
The Monkey Says: DAT CURVEBALL.
The Story: Jered Weaver isn’t expecting to go on a rehab assignment before rejoining the team.
The Monkey Says: He should be back for the first turn through the rotation after the All-Star break and it looks increasingly likely that he’ll be displacing Matt Shoemaker.
The Story: The Angels called up Vinnie Pestano and sent down Efren Navarro.
The Monkey Says: But you knew that already. Pestano, or maybe Morin, will likely get demoted when the Angels come back from the break, but Navarro won’t be eligible for recall yet. It will be interesting to see who gets to keep the bench warm instead.
The Story: Fernando Salas is impressing Mike Scioscia again.
The Monkey Says: Salas is very streaky and is currently on a good streak. This is why we see this story about him twice per season. A month from now we’ll probably be reading a story about how he’s falling down Scioscia’s depth chart again.
The Story: Erick Aybar is thriving behind Albert Pujols.
The Monkey Says: As long as he isn’t batting leadoff, I’m cool. I’d probably be cooler if the Angels had a bigger bat behind Pujols though.
The Story: The wishlists for all the potential trade deadline buyers.
The Monkey Says: In which Carlos Gonzalez is evoked again. That trade terrifies me, though not as much as it did six weeks ago. Alas, I have a hunch that a CarGo trade is exactly what the Angels are going to pull off.
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