The January 10th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Salmon gets just five Hall of Fame votes, Angels showing interest in Brad Lidge, assessing the value of Kendrick's extension and much more...

The Story: Tim Salmon got only five votes in the Hall of Fame voting.

The Monkey Says: You know my thoughts about this already, but others are mildly outraged that he got any votes at all.  However you feel about it, you won't have to feel that way again because Salmon is no longer on future Hall of Fame ballots since he did not get the necessary 5% of the votes.

The Story: The Angels have shown interest in former Phillies closer Brad Lidge.

The Monkey Says: Lidge isn't nearly the pitcher that he used to be having lost a lot of velocity, but he was still very effective last year since his killer slider is still very effective.  In fact, he throws the slider almost three-quarters of the time, which is kind of ridiculous.  He is a big health risk, but out of all the veteran free agent relief arms not named Ryan Madson, Lidge is probably the best available.  Don't expect any imminent signing here though.  Dipoto has kicked the tires on almost every single free agent reliever at some point, so this could easily be Jerry doing his normal due diligence or simply Lidge's agent trying to drum up a bidding war (as Lidge has widely been thought to want to sign in his native Colorado).

Later today, Major League Baseball will announce the 2012 class of entrants into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  Barry Larkin's name almost defintely will be announced as being selected for enshrinement.  Jeff Bagwell, Jack Morris and Tim Raines all could as well, but probably won't.  One name that definitely won't be called is that of Angel great Tim Salmon.

As of this writing, 134 of the over 500 Hall of Fame ballots have been revealed, a grand total of one vote has been cast in favor of the Kingfish entering the Hall.  That is a damned shame.

No, it is not a shame that Salmon won't be getting the call for Cooperstown.  Even the most biased of Angels fans has to admit that while he might be the finest player in the history of the franchise, he just isn't Hall of Fame material.  Aside from a Rookie of the Year award and one Silver Slugger, Salmon has no big shiny hardware to show off to the voters.  He never led the league in any category ever.  His career OPS+ is good, but not great.  He finished his career with 299 homers, a number that in and of itself is disappointing because he couldn't even muster one more big blast to make his total a nice, round, spiffy 300.

The shame is that after a career of being under-appreciated outside of Anaheim, the greater baseball community is going to botch its one last opportunity to give Salmon that modicum of respect he deserves.

The January 9th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Kendrick signs four-year extension, Morales cleared for more activity, Jorge Cantu signed to minor-league deal and Kendrick and much more...

The Story: Howie Kendrick has avoided arbitration and agreed to a four-year, $33.5 million contract.

The Monkey Says: The money wasn't initially reported, but we have the figure now and it seems reasonable.  Keep in mind though that Howie was slated to get an estimated $5+ million in arbitration anyway in 2012, so it really is a three-year extension worth about $28 million.  Looking at it that way, I think it might be a slight overpay, but not enough to be worth crying about.  Just look at it this way, he is making less annually than the likes of Pedroia, Phillips, Uggla and Cano, so he isn't being paid like he is elite.  He is also making a bit more than less consistent guys who flashed All-Star potential, like Kelly Johnson and Aaron Hill.  Just over $9 million per year seems just about right.

The Story: Kendrys Morales has been cleared to begin running and increase baseball activity.

The Monkey Says: You may now breath a small sigh of relief.  Morales still has a way to go, but he looks to be slightly ahead of schedule compared to last season though.  The next big hurdle for him is getting clearance to run the bases, which is the step where got shutdown on back in 2011.

UPDATE: The deal is said to be for $33.5 million, which is definitely a very nice price for the Angels.

It is official, Jerry Dipoto don't mess around.  In an off-season highlighted by the acquisitions of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, the Angels new general manager has moved on to now locking up the young core of the team by inking Howie Kendrick to a reportedly four-year contract.  Financial details are not yet available.

This new deal buys out Howie's final year of arbitration plus three years of free agency.  More importantly, it locks up the 28-year old Kendrick for the entirety of his physical prime, which is looking like it is going to be pretty good.  Kendrick is coming off a career season in which he was selected to the All-Star team for the first time while setting career-highs in WAR (5.8), home runs (18), walk rate (5.7%) and slugging percentage (.464) all while playing what many thought was Gold Glove caliber defense at second base.  It is probably safe to say that the Angels are locking up Howie while his value is peaking, but how much they are paying for that peak remains to be seen.

This extension might end up being well-timed though.  While Howie's 2011 is far and away his best ever, he is in position to see his value get boosted even more in 2012 as he is widely expected to bat in front of Albert Pujols most of the time, a scenario which could very well lead to Kendrick posting career numbers yet again as opponents should be giving him better pitches to hit now.  That could have meant Howie hitting the free agent market in 2012 looking for a big money deal.

For the Angels, this is a relatively low-risk deal.  Kendrick seems to have settled in to being a consistently productive hitter at the big league level, though it seems he will never live up to his billing as a future star and batting champion.  The lowest OPS he has ever posted is .721, and that includes a 2009 season in which he was briefly demoted to the minors.  Howie has also developed into a very good fielder at second, so even if his bat does slip, the Halos still have a very nice defender at a key infield position.  If there is a concern, it is that Kendrick has dealt with nagging injuries on an almost annual basis.  He has played 140 or more games each of the last two seasons and has never really suffered a serious injury though, so this is not a major concern.

All in all, this is deal that seems smart because Kendrick is one of the better offensive producers in a lineup that can ill afford to lose quality bats.  Full judgment needs to be reserved though until the money involved is revealed.  Many have pegged Kendrick value as somewhere between $8 and $10 million annually, so it will be interesting to see where in the middle he meets.  It will also be interesting to see how the deal is structured given the Angels' penchant for backloading contracts under Dipoto.

Stay tuned to the Angels news wire, they were rumored to be talking to Kendrick about a new contract earlier this week and the same rumor applied to Erick Aybar as well.  Could he be next?

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Tweeted by an Angel is back!  Yay for me, I finally came through on a New Year's resolution!!!

OK, enough stroking of my own ego.  Let's get to taking a fond look back at the mountains of wisdom that your belove Angels have dropped on us in the last week.

I see no better way to re-introduce this segment than the following tweet from Trevor Bell:

Just ate 7 pickels, does that mean I'm pregnant?

— Trevor Bell (@TrevBe22) January 5, 2012

And now we know why Bell opted for baseball instead of medical school.

Up next is LaTroy Hawkins.  I have to admit, I thought C.J. Wilson was the big addition to the Angels Twitter contributors, but Hawk is already proving to be a hidden gem.  Take this for example:

This is how we Roll. @veteranoutdoors @dmcroof twitter.com/Adidas219/stat…

— LaTroy Hawkins (@Adidas219) December 30, 2011

Note to self: only say nice things about LaTroy Hawkins.

Just to prove that not all of our tweets are meant to mock the Angels, we have this entry from Rich Thompson that proves that he is not only an underrated reliever but also an underrated humanitarian:

Would it be wrong to approach a 16 year old pregnant girl who was smoking?

— Rich Thompson (@chopper63) January 5, 2012

My only question is if Rich gets the teen to quit smoking, will he get credited with a save?  I'm guessing it would only be a save if the girl is in her final month of pregnancy.

And finally, no Tweeted by an Angel is complete without a contribution from minor leaguer and Twitter (idiot) savant Chevy Clarke.  This week, Chevy gives us all some words to live by in the new year:

Keep it sexy or just don't try at all

— Chevez Chevy Clarke (@OfficialChevy) January 6, 2012

Thanks, Chevy.  This weekly feature would be lost without your sage wisdom.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies if the tweets don't display, I'm trying out Twitter's new embed functionality and have no idea if it is going to play nicely with Joomla (SPOILER ALERT: it probably won't).

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The January 6th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Morales undergoing medical tests, Dipoto says signing Madson is "very unlikely," Angels open extension talks with Aybar and Kendrick and much more...

The Story: Kendrys Morales is off to undergo tests on his leg with a specialist in Colorado.

The Monkey Says: This sounds scary, but it really shouldn't be.  Given how long this whole process has taken for Morales, it is silly to think that he wasn't ever going to see a doctor again and that it is a specialist shouldn't be cause for alarm, just a sign that the Angels are making sure Morales gets the best care.  Actually, the tone of the organization sounds pretty optimistic for Kendrys right now.  However, if these tests don't go well, at least it is early enough for them to make other plans to replace his potential production unlike last year when Morales wasn't shutdown until mid-March.  Also, a very special note, there is a guy on Twitter that I won't name because I don't want him getting any more publicity, but he is COMPLETELY FULL OF CRAP, but he is getting some run around the rumor mill right now because he tweeted that Morales might retire if these tests don't go well.  Do not believe these reports.

The Story: Jerry Dipoto says it is "very unlikely" that the Angels will sign Ryan Madson.

The Monkey Says: This is the same GM that also repeatedly called the chances of the Angels pursuing Albert Pujols not very good, so, take this statement as seriously as you want.

The next Angel up in our 2012 player previews is the one acquisition from last off-season that actually worked better than expected, setup man Scott Downs.  The veteran southpaw almost single-handedly kept the Angel bullpen from imploding, but can he be as excellent in 2012 as he was in 2011?

2011 Stats: 6-3, 53.2 IP, 1.34 ERA, 39 H, 15 BB, 3 HR, 35 K, 1 SV

2012 ZiPS Projections: 5-3, 48.0 IP, 3.56 ERA, 46 H, 14 BB, 4 HR, 36 K

2012 Bill James Projections: 4-2, 53.0 IP, 2.72 ERA, 46 H, 14 BB, 4 HR, 42 K, 5 SV

2012 CAIRO Projections: 3-2, 45.2 IP, 2.32 ERA, 38 H, 13 BB, 3 HR, 34 K, 2 SV

2012 PECOTA Projections: 3-2, 52.1 IP, 3.06 ERA, 47 H, 16 BB, 4 HR, 42 K, 4 SV

2012 MWaH Projections*: 4-2, 62.0 IP, 2.48 ERA, 55 H, 16 BB, 4 HR, 43 K, 2 SV

*The MWaH projections are simply my best guess based off my own personal opinion and research