The April 9th, 2015 edition of Los Angeles Angels news including Street hires an agent, MLB won’t investigate Hamilton leaks and much more…
The Story: Huston Street has hired an agent to assist in his extension talks.
The Monkey Says: He wants to keep talks open, but doesn’t want the negotiations to become too distracting, so this is smart. However, I wonder if this impacts his asking price now that he has to give a percentage to an agent.
The Story: Commissioner Rob Manfred says MLB will not investigate leaks of Josh Hamilton’s relapse.
The Monkey Says: Of course he won’t because either the league itself was responsible for the leaks or the Angels were and Manfred works for the team owners, so getting a team owner in trouble is not in his best interests. I’m sure the MLBPA will have a different point of view regarding whether or not they attempt to investigate.
The Story: This is Kole Calhoun’s moment,
The Monkey Says: One of my predictions for the season is that Calhoun would become the official “most underrated player in baseball.” It is happening, people. It is happening.
The Story: The city of Anaheim hired a new lead negotiator for stadium talks with the Angels.
The Monkey Says: This doesn’t mean talks are restarting, but one would think changing out the negotiator would suggest that the city is at least going to try to make things work again.
The Story: Looking back to when the Angels held Mike Trout down in the minors to start his rookie season.
The Monkey Says: The parallel to Kris Bryant just doesn’t work. The Angels, in hindsight, shouldn’t have held him down, but they had reasons that were sensible enough at the time. The Cubs clearly have ulterior motives.
The Story: Mike Scioscia insists that Matt Joyce is not in a strict platoon.
The Monkey Says: Well, he should be. It is worth noting though that Scioscia has a habit of saying things like this but then employing a strict platoon anyway. He’s usually just stroking egos.
The Story: Albert Pujols is now tied for 18th on the all-time home run list.
The Monkey Says: He’s now tied with Frank Thomas, Willie McCovey and Ted Williams.
The Story: A statistical look at how rare an outing C.J. Wilson had, by his standards, on Tuesday.
The Monkey Says: C.J. was pretty great, but it clearly was an outlier performance for him. Still, it is an encouraging sign that he will be back to his prime form this season.
The Story: Don’t count out the Angels in the AL West.
The Monkey Says: I know a lot of people are picking the Mariners to win the division, but there aren’t a lot of people who think the Angels won’t be a contender in the division. The Mariners are the shiny new toy. The Angels are old hat.
The Story: The Angels sell the cheapest beer in baseball.
The Monkey Says: This will be Arte Moreno’s lasting legacy.
The Story: Draft slot values by team.
The Monkey Says: In total they are in the bottom five in overall slot money. Such is the price of finishing with the best record in baseball and not receiving any compensatory picks. At least they didn’t forfeit any picks though.
The Story: The Angels have the lowest international signing bonus pool.
The Monkey Says: And they won’t be able to give more than $300,000 to any one player this year or next thanks to the Baldoquin signing. In other words, it will be a pretty quiet international signing period for the Halos in 2015.
The Story: Vote for the Angels “Franchise Four.”
The Monkey Says: This is so dumb. The whole idea is dumb. The fact that Bobby Grich isn’t a choice is dumb. Punish them for their dumbness and cast write-in votes for Jeff Mathis.
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