The October 29th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Tom Kotchman resigns, IF Angel Sanchez signed, Cabrera beats Trout for Aaron Award and Player of the Year and much more…
The Story: Long-time scout and minor league manager Tom Kotchman resigned from the Angels organization.
The Monkey Says: Simply stunning. Kotch was an institution in Anaheim. The list of star players he signed for the Angels speaks for itself, but now he won't be doing that anymore, apparently because the team asked him to stop managing. That certainly sounds like the sort of move you make to force a man's hand to resign so you don't have to fire him because he no longer fits in the organization's philosophy. There is no doubt Kotchman will find another job if he wants it, possibly with Eddie Bane in Detroit. There is also no doubt that he will be missed.
The Story: The Angels signed infielder Angel Sanchez to a minor league deal with a spring training invite.
The Monkey Says: There is your token "veteran infielder for camp" that I expected Dipoto to bring in. Sanchez has a nice glove but not much of a bat. While he does have experience, he shouldn't be too much of a threat to Andrew Romine for the utility infielder bench spot. Let me just put it this way, Sanchez wasn't even good enough to get promoted to the bigs for the Houston Astros last season. However, if he ever does suit up for the Angels, he will be the first player ever named Angel to do so. And you can shorten his name to Angel S. too, to it works on multiple levels!
The Story: Miguel Cabrera won MLB's 2012 AL Hank Aaron Award.
The Monkey Says: This is a relatively new award for the best offensive player and Miggy absolutely deserved it. I still say Mike Trout is the MVP but that is because his baserunning and defense give him the edge over Cabrera's bat. But since we are just talking about the bat, I raise no objection.
The Story: Miguel Cabrera beat out Mike Trout for the Sporting News AL Player of the Year.
The Monkey Says: This is the Sporting News version of MVP and it is voted on by actual players, so it carries a lot of weight. I actually find it very encouraging that Trout showed so well in the voting as most players tend to shun advanced statistics.
The Story: Jerry Dipoto addresses Tom Kotchman's resignation.
The Monkey Says: Diplomatic, but I still just don't understand why they couldn't let him pull double duty if he is such a fine baseball man.
The Story: The 2002 Angels were on of the best teams ever to have just one All-Star.
The Monkey Says: They actually had the best regular season record amongst teams on that list that went on to win the World Series.
The Story: Teams are waiting to see if the Angels will make a qualifying offer to Torii Hunter.
The Monkey Says: I can't imagine them making such an offer to Hunter, because he might well take it. If the team is supposedly now thinking he is too expensive or wants two years, it might be worth a shot, but I have a hard time seeing him turning down that much money ($13+ million) to return to a team that he wants to return to.
The Story: Albert Pujols was the Angels' most important player in 2012.
The Monkey Says: Or maybe most symbolic, or something like that. Whatever adjective you want to use, I agree.
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