The March 5th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Trout's inevitable big payday, Madson might not play in Cactus League games and much more…
The Monkey Says: That's a great point. I hadn't looked at it from the other side. What would paying Mike a few extra hundred thousand have really accomplished? Would it have earned them good faith with his agent to the point that it would have to a discount? Definitely not. The only thing I can see it doing is ever so slightly helping contract extension talks get started sooner. Other than that, all it would've done is give Trout more money, Arte Moreno less money and agent Craig Landis some warm-and-fuzzies that he did right by his client somehow.
The Story: Ryan Madson might miss all of Cactus League play.
The Monkey Says: He'll be able to go on the DL and hang out in Tempe for extended spring training, but it will be against inferior competition. So even if he is ready to roll as soon as he can come off the DL, the odds are that he will need some time before he is pitching at a high enough level to actually handle late-game duties.
The Monkey Says: I agree with that point as well, but I also think a nine-figure check with your name on it causes most people to forgive any minor transgressions that someone have made against them.
The Story: Hiroyuki Kobayashi was released after he failed to show the velocity the club expected.
The Monkey Says: This is why I said the story about the team being impressed with his slider at the start of camp was nothing worth getting excited about. Steven Geltz was also sent down to the minors yesterday, so the competition for the final spots in the bullpen is pretty much down to Richards, Kohn, Carpenter, Brasier and maybe Cordero.
The Story: Projecting 2013 attendance for all 30 MLB clubs.
The Monkey Says: I wouldn't be money on the Halos seeing an increase in attendance. Fans seem to be a bit frustrated by the lack of playoffs the last few seasons and now the Dodgers are once again the monolith of Southern California baseball. I doubt attendance goes down much, but I have a hard time imagining a real improvement in attendance either.
The Story: C.J. Wilson's racing team won its first race.
The Monkey Says: Good for him, now focus on baseball and don't let me hear about this racing BS again until December.
The Monkey Says: Another good point. Can we now declare this horse sufficiently dead now?
The Story: Revisiting the Trout-Cabrera MVP debate and how baseball people have differing valuation models.
The Monkey Says: Essentially, the A's have their own WAR calculation and have them dead even, which is interesting to say the least but also not really pertinent to the discussion since teams don't vote, writers do. The problem that made this whole thing a debate in the first place isn't folks quibbling over the proper way to calculate WAR but rather that a large segment of the mainstream media used this race as a way to denounce sabermetrics as a whole without ever really doing any real research into it.
The Monkey Says: Check it out if that's something you are into.
The Story: Team slogans as informed by the advertising on the walls of the Spring Training stadiums.
The Monkey Says: Note to self, do not eat at Rustler's Rooste Steakhouse next time I visit Arizona.
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