The August 31st, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Kendrick dealing with a sore knee, Iannetta's hot bat means more playing time, Mike Trout's WARP is already impressive and much more…
The Story: Howie Kendrick left last night's game with a sore right knee.
The Monkey Says: It doesn't sound like anything in particular caused the injury, which is weird, but it also doesn't sound like he will miss much time, if any. Stranger things have happened though.
The Story: Chris Iannetta's hot bat is going to keep him in the lineup as much as possible until he cools off.
The Monkey Says: We will see how long his heavy playing time lasts once his bat goes cold, which it will since he has always been a very streaky hitter, as his recent spate of passed balls likely isn't endearing himself to Mike Scioscia. However, Iannetta is probably also making himself a few extra million dollars with his recent play as he does have a chance to hit free agency after the season.
The Monkey Says: Which suggests to me that this is both a showing of how great Trout is and of how bad the RoY award correlates with long-term success. For an example of this, I refer you to #17 on that list, Angel Berroa.
The Story: Signing Aybar and Kendrick to contract extensions is looking increasingly wiser.
The Monkey Says: The flaw in that logic is that the extensions look better now because both players, who have been inconsistent producers in their career, started so poorly. The contracts always looked good in terms of value, but we wouldn't be talking about this at this point of the season if there hadn't been reason to question the wisdom of the deals back in April and May.
The Story: One prediction that the Angels will find a way to sneak into the post-season.
The Monkey Says: I, of course, agree wholeheartedly. However, it won't be easy. All along I assumed the Angels would have to chase down the Rays and Tigers, bot those two clubs are fading while Oakland and Baltimore can't stop winning, which is the exact opposite of what I anticipated from both of them. The Halos still have a legit shot, but it is clear they are going to need a lot of help.
The Story: Many Angel players are enjoying some newly available Caribbean fruit.
The Monkey Says: I've never heard of this fruit and I fail to see why this is newsworthy other than it being an exotic food and the newspaper article possibly being a thinly veiled product placement ad for Trader Joe's.
The Monkey Says: I talked a lot about the bold move to promote Maronde yesterday, but Taylor might prove to be the more useful LOOGY in the pen at this point. We will have to wait and see who Scioscia puts his trust in. I'll also be curious to see who Scioscia picks to spell Iannetta the next time he needs a day off now that he has three distinctly different back-up catchers to choose from.
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