The August 11th, 2014 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Tyler Skaggs to have Tommy John surgery, Cron demoted to minors and much more…
The Story: Tyler Skaggs will be undergoing Tommy John surgery.
The Monkey Says: He’s out for this year and likely won’t pitch in the majors in 2015 either. This a real gutshot considering that the original diagnosis believed his UCL was fine. It also really puts pressure on Jerry Dipoto to add starting pitching depth since he can’t count on Skaggs coming back at all. They are now one injury away from making a playoff run with Wade LeBlanc or Randy Wolf.
The Story: C.J. Cron and Cam Bedrosian were sent to Triple-A with Vinnie Pestano and Caleb Clay getting called up.
The Monkey Says: Bedrosian was demoted so the Angels could get a fresh arm in Pestano. Cron was demoted for that same reason, but also because he has really looked terrible at the plate for the better part of a month now. Clay got the call simply because he was the starting pitcher with a fresh arm in Salt Lake and the Angels wanted to have a long man in the pen after the marathon game wiped everyone out. He will quite likely be demoted again before the series against Texas.
The Story: Vinnie Pestano became the 30th pitcher used by the Angels this season, a new franchise record.
The Monkey Says: Let it not be said that Jerry Dipoto didn’t turn over every stone in order to find the best pitching staff he could.
The Story: Matt Shoemaker will have his next start pushed back to Saturday.
The Monkey Says: His emergency relief outing scrapped the Angels’ plans to give C.J. Wilson some extra rest and align the rotation to optimize matchups over the rest of the season.
The Story: Mike Scioscia has faith in C.J. Wilson, but is also concerned.
The Monkey Says: You can’t have it both ways, Mike. I suspect he was just being diplomatic and is really leaning more towards being concerned.
The Story: C.J. Wilson believes at least one of his problems is his curveball command.
The Monkey Says: Tune in Wednesday morning to find out what the new excuse of the week will be!
The Story: Mike Scioscia believes the slumping offense is just a cyclical part of the game.
The Monkey Says: He’s probably right. He’s also probably right not to juggle the lineup, despite calls to do so. There is too much talent for the Halos to not figure this out.
The Story: Tommy Field was claimed off waivers by the Pirates.
The Monkey Says: As expected, Field did not make it through waivers after being DFA’d last week. No big loss though.
The Story: The Angels officially won the Jason Grilli-Ernesto Frieri trade with the news that Pittsburgh DFA’d Frieri.
The Monkey Says: Wow, that escalated quickly. Grilli has been rock solid for the Halos, but Frieri somehow got worse in Pittsburgh. I certainly raised an eyebrow at the trade at the time, but clearly the Angels saw something that nobody else saw, especially the Pirates.
The Story: Mike Morin is on track to be activated from the DL on Saturday.
The Monkey Says: It will be good to get his talent and fresh arm back.
The Story: Baseball America rated Austin Adams with the best breaking ball in the California League and Sherman Johnson as the best defensive second baseman.
The Monkey Says: Adams is a nice relief prospect and Johnson profiles as a potential utilityman.
The Story: Baseball America rated Cam Bedrosian as the best reliever in the Texas League.
The Monkey Says: Bedrock is in Triple-A now, but still a nice nod. Also, they rated R.J. Alvarez with the best breaking ball, but he’s a Padres prospect now, so screw him.
The Story: Baseball America rate Efren Navarro as the best defensive first baseman in the Pacific Coast League.
The Monkey Says: Yet he is now in the majors, mostly playing left field.
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