The April 14th, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Angels to attend Joel Hanrahan workout, Yankees possibly fined for Trout comments and much more…
The Story: The Angels will be one of several teams watching former Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan work out.
The Monkey Says: Why? Has the bullpen been a problem? I hadn’t noticed.
The Story: The Yankees will possibly be given an unspecified tampering fine for comments from team president Randy Levine over the winter.
The Monkey Says: The original report said they had been fined, but Shaikin walked it back. It seems pretty cut and dry that they should be fined for those comments, but you never know when it comes to Bud Selig.
The Story: Jose Alvarez and Yoslan Herrera were called up with Matt Shoemaker and Dane De La Rosa sent down.
The Monkey Says: These were transactions of necessity after two straight extra inning games. Alvarez might stick as a long man and situational lefty while Herrera is a bit of an unknown. He is a Cuban defector who never panned out. In fact, he was out of organized baseball in 2011 and 2012. From what I can tell, he is a groundball specialist, but his minor league stats were pretty ugly. He did seem to figure out how to strike people out playing in an independent league last season though. As for Shoemaker, he was more a victim of circumstance, so he might be back before long. Then there is De La Rosa, who only just came back from the DL, but left his fastball on it, apparently. He’ll head to the minors to try and figure out what happened, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he wound up on the DL again.
The Story: Curtis Granderson confronted a fan that touched him during a play on Friday.
The Monkey Says: It was a harmless grab of the back, but Granderson had his back to the fan, so he was right to react the way he did. Seriously, people, don’t touch the players.
The Story: Josh Hamilton’s thumb surgery was successful.
The Monkey Says: Maybe I am being insensitive or ignorant here (which probably means I should stop typing), but I can’t help but wonder what they do for Hamilton to recover from the surgery. As an ex-addict, I assume there are issues with giving him the standard post-surgery pain medication. I’m sure he’ll deal with it just fine, but I am just curious how doctors handle those situations.
The Story: John McDonald and Dave Hansen talk about the mentality of a bench player.
The Monkey Says: If anyone would know, it would be those two. Yet another reason I think the Angels signed McDonald.
The Story: Tyler Skaggs is one of the pitchers who has gained the most velocity in 2014.
The Monkey Says: He had to lose the velocity first, for that he can blame the D’Backs. The Angels set him up straight and now look like they have a real gem on their hands.
The Story: Tyler Skaggs is using an “unconventional” grip on his new two-seamer.
The Monkey Says: He won’t reveal his secret, but it is working.
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