The November 30th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Angels interested in Dempster, Marlins covet Bourjos, David Courtney passes away and much more…
The Story: The Angels are amongst a handful of teams showing interest in Ryan Dempster.
The Monkey Says: Yuck. Dempster scares me. He was great with the Cubs before being traded, but was outperforming his peripherals but then he stunk up the joint in Texas, but underperformed his peripherals which were only slightly worse than they were with the Cubs. Basically, you don't know what you are going to get and that is not usually the kind of pitcher you target.
The Story: The Marlins want to add a center fielder and appear to covet Peter Bourjos.
The Monkey Says: That, of course, probably isn't going to happen because the Fish don't really have much that would interest the Angels and the Angels already seem to be set on using Bourjos as a starter now. However, I suppose that they could maybe swap Bourjos for young stud pitcher Jacob Turner and then replace Peter by signing someone like Nick Swisher. That probably isn't really a route they want to go down though.
The Story: Angels PA announcer David Courtney passed away yesterday.
The Monkey Says: So sad. Rest in peace, Mr. Courtney.
The Monkey Says: That may not mean anything though because A) Bowden isn't exactly a newsbreaker and B) both Lohse and Sanchez are both expected to hold off on any talks until after Greinke signs and set the market.
The Story: The Angels are "in play" for reliever Mike Adams.
The Monkey Says: Hard to say if that means the Angels have shown interest or if Adams' agent is trying to drum up the price for Adams by invoking the Angels' name. Frankly, it could be both.
The Monkey Says: Alden Gonzalez wrote almost the exact same thing too, so methinks this is Dipoto sending out signals. Whether they are legit or for the sake of misdirection is unclear. What is clear that having a kick ass bullpen is great but it is a luxury, There is no real point in having an amazing bullpen if the rotation stinks and can never hand the relievers a lead to protect, so I hope that this is just the Angel front office blowing smoke.
The Story: A look at the Angels' payroll constraints.
The Monkey Says: I hate to disagree with an actual reporter, but I have a hard time believing the Angels are going to slash payroll to the $140 million range. If they do that, then there is no way they can afford Greinke and arguably can barely afford to add two solid starting pitchers. $150 million seems more realistic to me and gives them just enough breathing room to land Greinke and have a little bit left over to sign an inning-eating pitcher to round out the rotation. Maybe that is just me having my head in the sand and believing what I choose to believe, but there have been too many seasons under Moreno's reign where the team has said they have a certain budget ceiling and then proceeded to blow right through it.
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