The October 27th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Angels begin to narrow the GM search, Friedman still hasn't ruled himself out, Oppenheimer no longer a candidate and much more...

The Story: The Angels have started to trim the list of GM candidates by ruling out Damon Oppenheimer, but they will bring Billy Eppler back for a second interview.

The Monkey Says: This is a bit surprising because Oppenheimer had been gaining steam in the media and was generally considered a more viable option than Eppler.  At least the Angels are starting to cull the candidates now which should put them on track to make a hire in time for the start of free agency.

The Story: Andrew Friedman has not yet removed himself from consideration for the Angels GM job.

The Monkey Says: This is actually fairly important.  There is no real reason for him to keep his name in the mix if he is just going to turn them down.  The longer he delays an official decision, the more likely it becomes that he will jump ship to the Halos.  Combine this story with the one about Eppler and it makes me wonder if maybe these are related developments.  I'm sure this is just a wild conspiracy theory, but perhaps Friedman has already quietly decided to take the Angels' president job and the remaining interviews are for a GM that will work under Friedman.  I mean, they haven't even interviewed all their candidates yet and still think they are going to make a hire in the next week.  It just doesn't add up.  Of course, this theory kind of falls apart because one would think Friedman would want to hand pick his GM and he can't really do that without being involved in the interviews.

The Angels may not have a GM (yet) but that doesn't mean we can't get ready for the start of the off-season which is coming up fast.  In order to help the new guy (or gal) out, the least I could do is come up with a bit of a primer on the viable free agent and trade targets that the future general manager might want to consider to plug in the many holes the Angel roster has.  To start things off, let's take a look at the catching market so that we can be done with this Jeff Mathis nonsense once and for all.

Yell all you want, Jeff, it isn't going to help you keep your job.

The October 26th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Halos hope to hire a GM by early next week, Friedman would be Angels GM but he probably won't leave Tampa, Minaya joins the GM contenders and much more...

(Editor's Note: Sorry for the lack of updates the last few days, been dealing with a sick kid and trying to talk myself into not killing myself now that the Rangers are one win away from a championship.)

The Story: The Angels hope to hire a GM by early next week.

The Monkey Says: The story suggests that they aren't done with interviews yet though which leads me to believe that they already have a favorite in mind, assuming they don't land Friedman.  Stay tuned.

The Story:The Angels have added White Sox AGM Rick Hahn and former Dodgers GM Dan Evans to their potential general manager list, and both are seen as front-runners.

The Monkey Says: This is the first we've heard about Evans being a candidate, so he is yet another name to watch.  I'm not crazy about what he did in his time running the Dodgers, but it would be interesting to see how having a guy who has worked in the front office and as an agent would work out, especially since he is currently Hank Conger's agent and must have a choice thing or two to say about how Mike Scioscia handles his catchers.  As for Hahn, I'm not surprised he is a top candidate, but I don't know what that even means anymore since DiPoto, Oppenheimer, Evans and Hahn have all been called favorites thus far.

The October 21st, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Friedman is the Angels top choice for GM, Angels might lose out on DiPoto to Baltimore, looking at Kim Ng's story and qualifications and much more...

The Story: It has been confirmed that the Angels have met with Andrew Friedman and that he is their top choice to take over as GM.

The Monkey Says: This is going to be a long week as we wait out this GM hunt.  The notion of getting Friedman is an exciting one and it sounds like he can have the job if he wants, but it is unclear if he actually wants it.  Friedman has a great working and personal relationship with the Rays owner, so it isn't a given that he is going to jump to greener pastures at the first given opportunity.  Either way, MLB bans breaking big news during the World Series, so they can't make an announcement about who they end up hiring until it ends.

The Story: If the Angels are interested in Jerry DiPoto, they will have to beat out the Orioles for him since he has emerged as their top choice.

The Monkey Says: This has been hinted at before, but it seems to be legit now.  I still think given the choice most GM candidates would pick the Angels over the Orioles, but if the Halos get strung along by Friedman for too long, they risk losing out on quality fallback options like DiPoto.

It is time to wrap up the off-season homework assignments for all the Angels.  I wish I could say I've saved the best for last, but I clearly haven't since the last group up is none other than the Angels reliever, aka the Blowpen.

I just wish there was a grade worse than F that I could give.

Big, big, BIG news out of St. Petersberg.  According to what is now multiple sources, Arte Moreno and other members of the Angels top brass have been in the Tampa area the last day or two and were at one point seen dining with their golden boy general manager Andrew Friedman, via DRays Bay:

On Tuesday night, one of our readers was at a restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg when he saw Andrew Friedman dining with Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim team owner Arte Moreno and another individual he later identified as team president John Carpino. This individual lives locally so Friedman is no strange face to him, and he immediately recognized Moreno when walking by their table. Both he and the friend he was dining with feel extremely confident in what they saw, and confirmed after another walk-by and an internet search that the third person at the table was team president John Carpino.

I know I titled this post as a rumor, but the updates to that original post provide additional confirmation that the meeting did happen, so this isn't some random dude claiming to see Theo Epstein ordering a pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks (although that kind of worked, didn't it?).  For those who might somehow be unfamiliar with Friedman, he is currently considered, in most circles, the best GM in all of baseball because of the fantastic work he has done with the Rays.  His profile is creeping close the same profile Billy Beane once had during the peak of the Moneyball A's, so it is no wonder the Angels appear to be interested in him.  It is also worth noting that Friedman works without a contract, so he is free to leave the Rays at any time without compensation.  Like Beane, at the time, everyone expects Friedman to jump ship sooner or later, although most figured he would take the vacancy that is expected to open in his hometown of Houston if/when the sale of the Astros is ever finalized.

The delay in that sale could prove to be to the Angels' advantage.  I would have to think Friedman would have a surprising comfort level with the Angels based on the Scioscia-Maddon connection and the fact that he has made deals with the Angels before.  Obviously Reagins is gone, but Friedman surely got an idea for how the Angels work and would go into the job with a plan already.  Of course, this assumes that he is willing to take the job and that he is even interested.

Not to throw water on this whole thing, but there is a slight possibility that the Angels were in town for other reasons, specifically that Friedman's assistant GM, Gerry Hunsicker, was originally viewed as a prime candidate for the Angel job.  It is entirely possible that Moreno came to town with the idea of talking to Hunsicker and figured he might as well take a run at Friedman while he was there.  Perhaps Friedman is really interested or maybe he is just humoring Arte so that he can later lobby him to give Hunsicker the job instead.

At any rate, this is all nothing but speculation, but it is clearly a situation worth monitoring because getting Friedman would be a massive coup for the Angels.

(FYI, Friedman is now added to our GM poll, so go ahead and vote for him rigorously)

The October 20th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Kim Ng to interview for Angels general manager opening, Rich Hahn and Tory Hernandez also to get interviews, a post-mortem on the 2011 Angels season and much more...

The Story: The Angels will give Kim Ng an interview for their general manager vacancy.

The Monkey Says: Kim Ng would be the first female GM in major professional sports, which is kind of the reason that I think she might soon emerge as the front-runner.  This is totally just a hunch, but I think being the guy to break the glass ceiling really appeals to Moreno.  On the flip side, I don't know if Arte is going to want a new GM that will instantly be polarizing and highly scrutinized in the way Reagins was by the end of his run, though likely without as much vitriol from Tony.

The Story: Rich Hahn of the White Sox and the Angels own Tory Hernandez will also receive interviews for the GM opening.

The Monkey Says: I am all for Hahn getting an interview as he might be the hottest name when it comes to prospective GMs.  The interview for Hernandez worries me though just because he is an internal candidate and it had seemed like the Angels were going out of their way to avoid that.  Call me cynical, but his entry into the pool, coupled with the exclusion of Gary DiSarcina thus far, has me wondering if maybe Hernandez has been the guy all along and all of these other interviews are just part of a well-orchestrated charade, although I don't know if Moreno is clever and under-handed enough to pull of such a scheme.  All of these interviews are set to go down in the next week apparently, so we should hopefully have an idea of who the Angels will hire by the end of the month.