The October 15th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Pujols challenged to lie detector test, Percival wants to coach and much more…
The Monkey Says: Clark's lawyer is clearly loving his shot at the limelight with this document. What he is clearly trying to do is let Pujols he won't back down, which makes sense given how hard it will be to prove that Albert did not use steroids in what is basically a he said-he said case. This is not going to end quietly.
The Story: Troy Percival's agent makes it known that Troy wants a MLB coaching job.
The Monkey Says: This pronouncement coming when the Angels have an opening for assistant pitching coach is probably not a coincidence, but they also had not contacted Troy as of last week. Maybe this will prompt the Angels to give him a call, but Percival has to realize that coaching high school baseball does not guarantee him a prime coaching job just because he wants one. If the Angels think he has the knowledge to do the job and/or that his personality will give the clubhouse a boost, they should hire him. The fact that he was the closer for the 2002 Angels should not play a role in the hiring. Picking coaches for a PR purposes is just about the dumbest thing an organization can do.
The Story: Angel first basemen have power but are still missing something.
The Monkey Says: BABIP is not a get out of suckiness free card. The Angel 1B's didn't have a low BABIP because of bad luck, they had a low BABIP because Pujols and Trumbo struggled to make good contact. Luck may have played a small role, but Trumbo's whiff rate strongly suggests he was struggling to square up the ball while we know Albert was unable to drive the balls due to his lower body issues. The other issues is the 8.7% walk rate. When you don't walk at a high rate and hit for a low average, you are going to need a hell of a lot of power to have a nice looking slash line.
The Story: Mark Trumbo was the most damaging home run hitter of 2013.
The Monkey Says: This was in yesterday's Halo Headlines, but those vanished into the ether. That happens with our site's blog software now and then, so apologies for that. We will be upgrading in the coming months, so hopefully there will be no more posts getting eaten by Joomla.
The Story: Joe Blanton was one of the most "unlucky" pitchers of 2013.
The Monkey Says: This is the problem with xFIP. It isn't really all luck. xFIP assumes a league average BABIP, but not all pitchers have the same normal BABIP. Blanton's career BABIP is over .300 and was around .350 in 2013. That could be a little bit of bad luck, but watching him it seems that he is just plain hittable. That is what happens when you throw the ball down the middle in order to keep your walk rate artificially low.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
