The October 12th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including DiPoto and Oppenheimer rumored to be GM candidates, Wells' contract is still the worst, Olney thinks Angels might go after Pujols and much more...

The Story: Jon Heyman tweets that Jerry DiPoto and Damon Oppenheimer are candidates for the Angels general manager opening.

The Monkey Says: DiPoto is going to be a hot name for any GM opening so it is a bit early to say if he is a serious candidate or if the Angels are just looking at him because it is the trendy thing to do.

The Story:Joe Posnanski declares Vernon Wells' contract the worst in baseball.

The Monkey Says: At least there are only three years left on it, right?  Anyone?

Alright, Angels.  You've had two weeks to rest up and lick your wounds since the end of the season, but relaxing time is over.  If you want to return to the playoffs next year, you're going to have to do some work this off-season.  I've got some homework assignments for you all to work on, but today I'm starting with the infielders.

Relax, no reading required for these homework assignments.

The October 11th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Angels fire long-time scout in unceremonious fashion, Mathis to play for MLB in exhibition series in Taiwan, Arte Moreno breaks his silence on the organizational changes and much more...

The Story: The Angels fired 68-year old scout Rich Schlenker in a "30-second phone call."

The Monkey Says: The Great Purge clearly isn't limited to the top.  This is an unceremonious way to treat a guy who has served the Angels for so long, but it isn't the first time that the Halos have been accused of being somewhat insensitive when it comes to cutting an employee or player loose.  The question now is why are the Angels already firing scouts and not just executives?  It could be that they want to totally clear the deck for a new GM, even this feels like a bit much to accomplish that, unless they already have someone lined up (which I doubt).  In their defense, it is also entirely possible that Schlenker just wasn't good enough at his job anymore.

The Story: Jeff Mathis has been selected to play for an MLB team playing an exhibition series against a Taiwanese all-star team.

The Monkey Says: Geez, Bud Selig, what did Taiwan ever do to you that you would subject them to that kind of torture?  I feel like this borders on being a hate crime.

Since it seems like the odds of an Angels player winning of the traditional awards this season are longshots (Trumbo and Walden have outside shot at Rookie of the Year), now seems like a perfect time for me to hand out the annual Monkey Awards, celebrating a year of excellence and a deriding a year in disappointment all at the same time.  Let's get right to it! 

These aren't your daddy's annual blog awards... unless your daddy is a primate.

The October 10th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Abe Flores fired, Lyle Spencer blames the fans for Mathis' inability to hit, previewing 2012 prospect sleepers and much more...

The Story: The Angels have fired director of player development Abe Flores.

The Monkey Says: The heads continue to roll.  Flores had been director of player development since his predecessor Tony Reagins was promoted to GM.  I know that Gary DiSarcina and Tory Hernandez continue to be mentioned as potential candidates, but that looks less and less likely as the team continues to divest themselves of the other remaining members of the front office.

The Story: Lyle Spencer is convinced Jeff Mathis will "be a fine total player" once he gets away from the harsh fans in Anaheim.

The Monkey Says: I'm going to take the high road and simply say that I hope Spencer gets a chance to prove his case this off-season if/when the Angels non-tender Jeff Mathis.

It's that time of year again, time to fill out some end of season ballots.  As this blog is a card-carrying member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (actually, there are no cards, this is the internet, after all), I must fulfill my association mandated duties by casting a ballot for all of their standard season-ending awards.  Yeah, it isn't Angels related, but I think you can all handle it, especially since the Angels news cycle is completely dead right now (which is why there were on Halo Headlines today, literally nothing to link to, probably the first time that has ever happened).

With the Angels promising to cast a wide net in their search for the Tony Reagins' replacement, I figure they could probably use a little help in narrowing down the field of candidates.  Just to make sure they don't make any of the same mistakes with their next GM, I took it upon myself to create a screening questionnaire for all potential candidates.

Fill out the questionnaire yourself.  Who knows, maybe you could qualify to be the next general manager of the Angels?  You can't possibly be any worse than Reagins was.