The May 28th, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Trout leads AL All-Star voting, wondering who will be demoted to make room for Hamilton and much more…
The Story: Mike Trout has the early lead in AL All-Star voting.
The Monkey Says: Impressive since the Angels aren’t experts at stuffing the ballot box like the Tigers and Rangers. Albert Pujols is second in first place voting and Howie Kendrick makes a cameo as fifth in the second base voting. This will change over the next several weeks. My level of disinterest will not.
The Story: Will C.J. Cron, Grant Green or Ian Stewart get the final bench spot once Josh Hamilton returns.
The Monkey Says: Even though he isn’t walking, Cron has hit too well to be sent down. Green has hit well too, but his ceiling isn’t nearly as high. Whoever stays will likely platoon at DH with Raul Ibanez, so I don’t share the concern that a lack of playing time will stunt Cron’s growth. As for Ian Stewart, yeah, no. No way. I don’t care if he’s left-handed, he can’t hit. If they wanted a lefty, they could’ve kept Efren Navarro. The hidden option is that they could keep both Green and Cron and cut John McDonald loose, but I don’t think they’d want to lose his clubhouse presence, even if he is sort of useless on the field.
The Story: Why isn’t Mike Trout stealing more bases?
The Monkey Says: Scioscia hasn’t said it outright, but he has suggested many times in the past that he doesn’t want Trout running with Pujols at the plate, despite his GIDP tendencies.
The Story: Interesting stats through the first 50 games of the Angels season.
The Monkey Says: Nothing suggesting that Kevin Jepsen might be good is interesting or cool. It’s dangerous. It might give Mike Scioscia ideas, and we just can’t have that.
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