The December 28th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including the Vernon Wells dilemma, new batting practice caps and much more…
The Story: The dilemma that is Vernon Wells.
The Monkey Says: It actually is a tough spot for the Angels. They obviously don't want Wells, but they kind of need him too. He is essentially the primary back-up for Hamilton, Trout, Bourjos, Trumbo and Pujols. If any of them get hurt or just flat out tank, they need someone on the bench to step up and replace them. If it isn't going to be Wells, the next best internal option is Kole Calhoun, who could be good, but is totally unproven. Personally, I'd like to see them trade Wells and then use their savings on him to sign Scott Hairston. He isn't a fielder like Wells, but he has a ton of power from the right-side and could form a nice platoon with Calhoun. Unfortunately, there really isn't a lot of options in free agency aside from Hairston, so they might actually have to hold on to Wells.
The Story: The Angels, and every other team, got new batting practice caps.
The Monkey Says: I have never understood the reason for a different cap for BP other than having another hat that teams can sell. The Angels' cap is fine but it does make me wish the Halos had a cool alternate logo like some other clubs. Of course, having no alternate logo is better than having a wildly racist alternate logo like Atlanta does.
The Story: Hamilton reflects on his four-homer performance against the Orioles last season.
The Monkey Says: Between Hamilton bashing four bombs and Trout making an all-time great home run robbery against them, the Orioles are going to have nightmares before the start of the first series where the Halos come to Baltimore.
The Story: Looking at the Angels rotation according to Bill James' projections.
The Monkey Says: If those come true, the Halo rotation will be just fine. However, when I reviewed all the projections for Angel players for the 2011 season (I haven't done it yet for 2012, but will soon) I think the James projections weren't all that accurate compared to ZiPS and PECOTA.
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