- The Story: The Angels optioned Robb Quinlan to the minors and called up Trevor Bell. The Monkey Says: Bell will slot in as the swingman in the pen in place of Matt Palmer. If he impresses enough, he might even earn himself a bigger role, but for now he will just have to be content with mopping up after Joe Saunders’ mess. As for Quinlan, I’d like to think this is the last we will see of him, and it might be for a while, but he always seems to find a way back.
- The Story: What to do about Brian Stokes? The Monkey Says: Stokes has been god awful for the Halos this season and probably should be DFA’d, but the Halos don’t have many great options to replace him right now, so it might be worth giving him another few weeks to see if he can’t turn it around, though that certainly seems more like wishful thinking than anything else.
- The Story: A look at Kazmir’s lack of velocity and sliders. The Monkey Says: All I can really do at this point is shake my head. I was 100% guilty of drinking the “Butcher can save him” Kool-Aid and that is looking like a pipe dream now. At best, the Angels should just be hoping that he can be a reliable middle of the rotation guy.
- The Story: Which pitcher is king? Jered Weaver or Felix Hernandez. The Monkey Says: Weaver is definitely closer statistically to King Felix than I thought, but I guarantee any GM would take Felix over Jered every single time, especially when you factor in age. There is no doubt though that Weaver has elevated his status around the league and no logical person can call him “middle of the rotation” or “an innings eater.”
- The Story: Jered Weaver versus Felix Hernandez isn’t even close. The Monkey Says: A rebuttal to the last link, this puts things in perspective in what definitely seems to be a more objective view.
- The Story: Angel starting pitchers have faced some of the top competition. The Monkey Says: Not only have they been facing tough teams, but some of the best line-ups as well by OPS. Though it should be worth pointing out that some of those guys probably have high OPS numbers because they were facing Angel pitching.
- The Story: Ervin Santana thinks it is the hitters’ fault? The Monkey Says: In Ervin’s defense, the Angel hitters have not been great in RISP situations, but the Angel pitching staff is really, really, really bad so far and definitely far more culpable in the Angels’ losing record.
- The Story: Mike Scioscia is holding a free youth clinic at Angel Stadium next Saturday. The Monkey Says: Get there early so Mike Scioscia can teach your kid how the basics and if you are really lucky, he might even accidentally get some pasta sauce on you.
- The Story: Bobby Wilson and Victor Rojas will be visiting Horace Mann Elementary in Anaheim today. The Monkey Says: Because isn’t it every kids’ dream come true to meet the player that Mark Teixeira turned into road kill?
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