The May 20th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Burnett on the verge of returning, Nelson claimed, Weaver progressing and much more...

The Story: Sean Burnett could be activated as soon as Tuesday.

The Monkey Says: The sooner the better as the bullpen seems like it is on the verge of just completely imploding.

The Story: The Angels claimed infielder Chris Nelson on waivers and Luis Jimenez was optioned to Triple-A.

The Monkey Says: Nelson isn't any good, but he can play multiple positions and is a better option to have sitting on the bench gathering rust than Luis Jimenez who could benefit from getting some regular playing time. Scott Cousins was DFA'd to make room on the 40-man roster for Nelson.

After a rather tumultuous series against the White Sox the Angels managed to keep the final game of the series under their control the entire 9 innings to record a much needed win. New ace of the staff Jason Vargas put up another 0'fer in 7 IP, though he lost his command at times leading to 3 walks in a 114 pitch out, although he did strike out 6. The Angels offense has settled nicely even if Hamilton is still struggling, though he's showing signs of being able to make consistent contact instead of K'ing on 3 pitches every AB. The pitching probably won't settle as nicely as the offense has in the past week, but if Vargas can keep putting up these ridiculously high quality starts the Angels will be in an improved position from a month ago.Once Weaver comes up you can chalk the Angels pitching staff up to being actually serviceable, with ace Weaver leading the charge and the refreshed C.J Wilson manning the #2 spot in the rotation.

Any good pitching staff builds itself off of 3 quality starters and having the off-and-on Hanson at 4 is something the team can work with, though Blanton is just something we'll have to deal with for now. Still think Garrett Richards should be pitching 5th since that spot is best used for developing young starters.The Angels are actually a couple steps away from solidifying their rotation, though it's still left to be seen whether or not they can get it together in time. 

We can be thankful the Angels pulled together a nice win on a Sunday, something we haven't seen in a good while. Let us rejoice and be glad.

Angels 6 White Sox 2

This is the kind of game that drives Angels fans crazy. The start of the game brought with all the usual heartbreak of a Joe Blanton start. Then all of a sudden an unknown reliever bails them out and the offense starts hitting the cover off the ball. Just when it looks like a laugher, the bullpen comes in and mucks it all up as the opposing team storms back. Finally, the Halos add on a couple of late runs to take a very much needed victory. A wild, weird way to win a ballgame.

Angels 12 White Sox 9

Confession time. I didn't actually watch this game. (full disclosure; I was chaperoning a high school prom...I know fun right?) The truth is I didn't really need to watch this game since I think we all could have guessed the outcome. The only questions we had were in the detail of the Angels losing, not the actual result. Would it be a blowout or a low scoring affair? Would the bullpen cause the loss or the inept Angel's offense? Would CJ Wilson try to break the scoreboard pitch counter by throwing 425 pitches in 4 innings? These days, it's all in the way the team sucks, not the actual losses that are piling up.

Angels 0 White Sox 3

Wow. Who would have thought we'd be seeing headlines like that only two years into the Pujols contract. Most people speculated we wouldn't be seeing any significant problems with him until about 5-6 years into the contract. It seems now that the Angels have some serious deliberating to do on the topic of what is going to happen with Pujols. I don't want to come off as sensationalist or anything, but Pujols has been facing some problems that have caused his on-field play to suffer in a big way. Fortunately these are problems that can be easily overcome, we can see Pujols get back to form, but it's going to take proactive measurements on the part of the Angels brass. Letting Pujols stick in the 3-hole indefinitely where he can rot away due to his foot and knee problems have already proven to do farm more harm to this team than good. On ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball this past weekend the announcers working over the Angels/White Sox game were in marvel at the fact that Pujols was playing through serious pain. They used words like "grinding" to describe his incredible fortitude to stay on the field every day and help his team win. They made it sound like a positive he's working through pain to play right now, but the fact is it's not even close to a positive.

Pujols' plantar fasciitis and weakened knee from offseason surgery are sapping his ability to drive the ball on consistent basis. No major league hitter can be expected to drive a ball on a consistent basis when they're losing a serious amount of drive from the lower body. No torque and no momentum to carry the upper body can do damage to a hitters power stroke, which has been made clear by Pujols dipping SLG%. From April 20th to May 14th Pujols SLG% had dropped nearly 100 points, from 508. to 416., marking a drop in his ability to drive a ball. We all know how much pride Pujols has, and as a veteran he wants to be able to inject leadership into the club and by that he wants to be on the field every day. However, should he be hitting in the lineup every day when his problems are costing this team?

As much as Pujols doesn't like it he needs to spend some time on the DL; not a lot of time, but enough to rest his feet and legs. It might seem daunting to lose Pujols to the 15 day DL when the Angels are strapped for depth and serious power hitters, but in all truthfulness are they really that strapped? If Pujols were to hit the DL Trumbo could easily man 1B every day, and while nobody wants to see J.B Shuck playing every single day he can hold down LF without serious problems. Even if the Angels don't want to see Shuck out there every day they could shift Trumbo to the OF and have Luis Jimenez play 1B every now and again, as he's proved to be able to do so. We all know how big the Angels fetish is for turning everyone on the roster into super-utility players; with Jimenez, Trumbo, Harris, Shuck and eventually Kole Calhoun, the Angels have enough depth to cover the field in Pujols absence.

The May 17th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Enright DFA'd. Coello's ancient but new pitch, wondering how much would Hamilton make in free agency and much more...

The Story: The Angels designated Barry Enright for assignment, demoted Michael Roth, recalled Ryan Braiser and added Billy Buckner to the active roster.

The Monkey Says: Dipoto was busy yesterday. Enright clearly just didn't belong in the majors so seeing him DFA'd is now surprise. Roth was just a victim of circumstance as he was going to be burnt for a few days, so the Angels demoted him in favor of someone who could pitch right away. Brasier obviously won't be much help and Buckner (no relation) is probably just around as a long man but he could be called upon to start if Tommy Hanson needs to miss another start. The fact that the called him up now suggests that they don't think that will be necessary. Oh, and Buckner makes it 21 different pitchers to grace the Angels' active roster.

The Story: Robert Coello is apparently throwing an old school forkball that hasn't been seen in the majors in quite some time.

The Monkey Says: Coello just became very interesting to me. I can't say I've paid much attention in his appearances since they have largely been in garbage time, so I thought he threw a normal splitfinger. This through is pretty damn cool and might actually be something that allows him to have some success as probably nobody in the league has seen that pitch before.

Games like this, I just can’t help but reminisce.  It’s just hitting me how spoiled we were back in the mid -2000s.  Pitchers like Scott Shields and K-Rod really don’t come around too often, and when they do it’s not long enough. Those were days, when the 8^th and 9^th innings were locked down by veterans, now we count on players you’ve never heard of (before this year) to hold our leads.

De la Blosa and Kohn combined to make the 8^th inning a total mess. A missed relay man added to it, but blame it on the walks, wild pitches, and singles.

White Sox 5, Angels 4