The May 14th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Angels deny shopping Peter Bourjos, Mark Trumbo wants the Angels to play with attitude, Chris Iannetta had successful wrist surgery and much more...

The Story: Jerry Dipoto says that the Angels are not actively shopping Peter Bourjos.

The Monkey Says: Dipoto wouldn't admit it if he was, but I believe him.  Jerry is too smart to be looking to trade Bourjos, especially since it would only be to create more playing time for Vernon Wells, which nobody wants.  He also isn't about to trade a valuable asset while its value is at an all-time low.  That being said, there is nothing he can do to prevent other teams from calling on Bourjos and letting word of it get to the press.

The Story: Mark Trumbo thinks the Angels need to play with attitude and a chip on their shoulder.

The Monkey Says: I'll be damned if Trumbo didn't hit the nail on the head.  For the last few seasons, this team has been playing tight and even afraid at times.  They have no swagger whatsoever.  Getting swagger and attitude isn't that easy though because you usually acquire it by winning lots and lots of games.  Still, the first step in solving a problem is identifying the cause of it.

Dream Weaver could've been the key to the Angels getting a big series win and turning the season around, but instead, he ended up giving us all weeks worth of bad dreams.

Rangers 13, Angels 6

Nobody wants me to sit here and recap this disaster of a game.  Even if you didn't watch it, the final score tells you everything you need to know.  Once again, Texas took Weaver to the woodshed in a game that the Angels absolutely had to have.  I'm not even going to pretend that this is just a poorly timed horrible performance for Weaver, he crapped the bed and the Rangers own him in Arlington.  It is just that simple.

However, I'm also not about to start writing a eulogy for the Angels' season.  It may not feel like it right now, but this team has been showing signs of life.  They just ran into a buzzsaw in the Rangers.  They are the best team in baseball.  They are going to walk away with the AL West.  But the Halos still have life beyond that.  As I mentioned before the series started, the Angels have a slate of pretty soft opponents coming up over the next two weeks.  If they take advantage, they can put themselves over .500 by the end of the month and right back into the Wild Card hunt.

Now, it would've been nice to come out of this series with the Halos feeling good about themselves instead of feeling like a red-headed stepchild, but there's nothing they can do about it now.  Still, there is reason to dream of the Angels reaching the post-season.  And really, dreaming is all we have after living through a nightmare game like tonight.

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (15-19) @ Texas Rangers (22-12)

Pitching Probables: LAA – Jered Weaver (5-0, 1.60 ERA)  TEX – Neftali Feliz (2-1, 3.38 ERA)

Game Info: 5:05 PM PT; TV - ESPN; Radio - KLAA 830

Do you really need me to tell you how huge this game is for the Halos?  Do you?  If you answered yes, kindly close your browser.  You are no longer welcome here.  Go on!  Do it!  Scram!!!

Ugh, always gotta be clearing out the riff-raff.  For those of you with an actual brain that realize this game's importance, I will spare you a rehash of anything about the Angels needing to turn the season around and simply implore you to join your fellow Angel fans tonight at Throwbacks Sports Bar for the Angels Watch Party!  (which thankfully won't be a suicide watch party since the Angels getting swept is now out of the question)

Join us, you won't regret since if the Halos do lose, you at least helped a good cause... and can get easily trashed.  Everybody wins!

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It was nice to see the old Angel baseball philosophy rear it's head today. Sure, you had a two run blast by Mark Trumbo to get things started, but it was the old formula of timely hitting and good pitching that brought home the victory. So many things to like about this win and yet all people will talk about is Josh Freakin' Hamilton...

Angels 4 Rangers 2

Game Notes

-- CJ Wilson was really, really good today. Bouncing back after no rest the day before, Wilson threw 5 2/3 of gritty, gutsy baseball. Yes, he gave up another Hamilton homer, but other than that he was just what the Angels needed.
-- Who knew the bullpen could get the job done? David Caprenter did walk a guy but got the out he needed. Jordan Walden was really solid in his inning of work. Ernesto Frieri probably deserved the save but got the ball to Scott Downs who sealed the deal. Wouldn't it be nice if this turned into a reliable relief corp after all?
-- Albert Pujols got a walk and a knock. Baby steps...
-- That seventh inning was a thing of beauty. Trumbo's Walk (more on that in a minute), then a couple of awesome bunts to set up the two sac flies. It might not be terribly sexy baseball, but those two runs was music to an Angels fan's heart.

Halo Hero


That 420 ft blast by Mark Trumbo would be reason enough to give him the hero treatment, but I was more impressed with the walk in the seventh that started the two run rally for the win. Trumbo has started to show some real patience at the plate to go with all that power. If he starts doing that ona  regular basis, look out!!

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (14-19) @ Texas Rangers (22-11)

Pitching Probables: LAA – CJ Wilson (4-3, 3.46 ERA)  MIN – Matt Harrison (4-2, 5.11 ERA)

Game Info: 10:05 AM PT; TV - Fox ; Radio - KLAA 830

  You have to feel kind of bad for CJ Wilson. Not often does a pitcher's ERA jump almost 1 whole run overnight and then he has to go out and pitch again the next day. The whole thing is very odd. Given the rain delay last night, Wilson only threw 22 pitches so Scioscia decided to run him out there again today against his old mates. The Rangers fans gave him a real unpleasant welcome and there is no reason to think we won't see a repeat performance by the good folks of Arlington this afternoon.

Hopefully that is where the comparisons to last night's affair end. The upside is that Matt Harrison has been awful the last few starts so maybe the Angels will get one back today. There is also hope that Peter Boujos will get a start today. Bourjos' speed would be a welcome addition to the offense (if he can get his bat going) and his defense is critical to any Angel plans for success.

I would love to see the run game get moving as a way to trigger the offense. It seems that Scioscia has gone against his DNA this year by playing more station to station baseball and not challening the other team and playing the aggressive style they used to. A lot of that is the personnel the Angel's have is not as condusive to that style but I still think they are capable to at least stealing a few bags and going first to third occassionally. It has to be a better alternative to what we saw last night, right?

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Maybe you do hate losing to the Rangers just as much if not more so than myself and Garrett.  But here's the real measure of an irate fan, do you vent your frustrations over twitter?  If not, sit back and learn how to get it all out in cyber space for God and everyone (including the players) to see.

I'm going to give it to you Quentin Tarentino style, which is to say I'm going to start at the end and then work my way through the story back up to that point in time.  

This story ends with Joe Lucia, the editor at theoutsidecorner.com (a site both Garrett and I work for) commenting: "The unmitigated rage I see in my TL from @MonkeyWIthAHalo and@ScottyA_LAAI makes me glad I'm not an Angels fans...them boys are PISSED".

Now let's rewind and see how we reached this plateau.

Here are some highlights from Garrett's timeline between the hours of 7:30 and 9:30 PM.

- "Oh boy, this is gonna be a long game."

- "Here's an idea #Angels, why don't you just all drop trow, defecate on the field and head home for the night, save us all 3 hours"

- "great, two hours off and the #Angels still can't make a basic play, awesome"

-  "If this keeps up, the #Angels Watch Party at Throwbacks this Sunday is going to more of a group therapy session".

-"So can Pujols just come out now and admit his elbow is messed up, or is he really going to make us wait until August?" 

- "Has a player ever been released in the middle of a game? Vernon Wells has got to go. Inexcusable that he is in a big league lineup anymore."

- "Not even trying to be funny about Wells. Nobody thought he could be worse than he was last season,
but his OBP and SLG both below 2011 mark"

- "He is done, washed up, toast. There is no salvaging him. I get wanting to not burn the money, but he is a sunk cost and hurting the team."

- "Bourjos has been bad this season too, but why does he not at least get a chance to improve?"

- "Wells has been given insane amounts of rope and he has hung himself with it two seasons in a row."

- "this team can't even hit a god damn cutoff man"

As you can see, this night spiraled out of control for the beloved MWAH overlord.  I censored this article from the low point in which Garrett began hypothetically calling for Mike Scioscia's head.

And it didn't look better on my side of the twitterverse.....
-  "Jerome Williams thinks to himself 1 out, bases loaded, down by 1, facing Texas lineup in Texas......F this."

- "OMG Angels, stop playing like a little league team. This is the worst defensive game I've ever seen!"

-  "If I'm Scioscia, right now I'm taking team back into clubhouse, throwing a fit, returning, kicking over the gatorade & then getting tossed."

-  "Really Howie? 3-1 count, you know a fastball is coming, the fastball comes, it's right down the middle and you hit a routine pop-up. WTF"

- "Ok Trout, we could use a 7-run homer here" (Trout resounded with a two-run shot)

- "Hunter, you're fired, Wells fired, Kendrick you're double fired, Izturis fired. The only one that's playing this game is Mike Trout."

- "DO YOU SEE THAT ANGELS? DO YOU SEE MIKE TROUT STEALING SECOND BASE? THAT'S WHAT HUSTLE LOOKS LIKE, THAT'S WHAT HEART LOOKS LIKE!"

- "Three pitches albert, three effing pitches. I swear Mike Trout is the only player on this team worth watching."

- "Things are gonna get real if the Angels get revenge for Darvish plunking Trumbo."

Clearly, I masked my build up of grief behind my prospect man-crush on Mike Trout.  I hope you've all learned a little about what it takes to be an irate, uncontrollably sad/angry fan.  I'd recommend some alcohol to take the edge off, but I'm afraid your tweets would suffer adversely.  No, ther's only one way to work through this pain.  Just keep watching.  And tweeting.

Ugh! That's about the best way I can describe tonight's bloodbath of a ball game. Was I the only one that was praying for the rain to continue so the game would be postponed? I was all set to do a raindance in my living room once Hamilton hit the first of his two homers. The Angels were never really in this one as the Rangers jumped on CJ Wilson and Jerome Williams early on their way to a comfortable win. What was supposed to be the first of a season long clash of Titans may be the beginning of a year long beatdown of the Halos by the boys from the Lone Star state. 

Angels 3 Rangers 10

Game Notes
-- This wasn't CJ Wilson's fault. The 2 hour rain delay basically made him a non-factor in this one. Still, he did pile the bases loaded before the rain came so I wonder what he had if anything in store that was going to be different than the eventual outcome.
-- Vernon Wells has to go. This was the collective conclusion of the Monkey with a Halo calvacade of Twitter Stars (@rmfalla, @ScottyLAAI, @monkeywithahalo, and @lyonszen (me)) after his abismal performance at the plate and in the field. Why Peter Bourjos can't get a whiff of outfield grass is beyond me.
-- On the other end of the spectrum is Mike Trout. Trout was the only Angel to accomplish anything tonight (2-3 with a Home Run, 2 RBI's, 2 walks and a stolen base). Too bad it was wasted.

Halo A Hole

This seems to be the only pose Albert Pujols has struck with any consistency all year. There is growing speculation that he is hurt, which would certainly explain some of the epci struggle he faces. However, he also doesn't look comfortable in the box at all and is flailing at pitches that are not even close to being strikes. The facts are these, Pujols is now hitting .194 with a single HR and failed to get the ball out of the infield tonight. This is more than serious, this is potentially catastrphic given what the Angels have invested in him.