The August 8th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Takahashi likely to join the rotation, Weaver drops his appeal, the free Hank Conger campaign goes national and much more...

The Story: Hisanori Takahashi is likely to move into Joel Pineiro's rotation spot.

The Monkey Says: I really dislike this idea.  The Angels barely have a competent middle relief corps and I don't see how taking one of the semi-competent components out of it to work in the rotation is a good idea, especially when Taka has a pretty poor (but short) track record as a starter in MLB.

The Story: Jered Weaver decided to drop his appeal and began serving his suspension.

The Monkey Says: This ended up being a weird story because Weaver said he was NOT going to drop his appeal after his start this weekend and there was word too that Scott Boras was somehow involved and encouraging him to not drop the appeal.  Yet somewhere between that post-game press conference and the game the next day, Weaver changed his mind.  Just strange.

Felix Hernandez may be one of the best pitchers in baseball and the Angels may have one of the weakest lineups, but for some reason whenever you put those two together, against all logic, the Angels ALWAYS win.

Angels 2, Mariners 1

Despite needing just 98 pitches to get through eight innings and yet still finding a way to fan 12 Halos while allowing just four hits and no walks, King Felix came away the loser against the Angels once again, moving his career mark to 4-8 against them.  What does this mean?  I have no idea because we all should know by now that a pitcher's win-loss record actually has fairly little to do with his own performance and today's game was a perfect example of that because Felix was fantastic and still came away with the loss, not that I'm complaining.

If anything, it is just an indictment of how bad the Mariners roster is.  They just can't support their ace even against an offense as pathetic as that of the Angels.  And in case you aren't getting what I'm driving at, it is that the Angel offense still stinks, so we should not be getting all happy that they did beat Felix today.  They got lucky that Ervin Santana was on again and that the Seattle lineup is even worse than their own.

The dangerous thing about winning is that it has a nasty way of covering up flaws like, for example, that the Halos won this series but scored just four runs in the three games.  That's a problem that can easily get overlooked if you just say, "Hey, man, things are awesome!  The Angels just beat King Felix!"

Yay for the victory, but boo before the way in which the victory was attained.

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Seattle Mariners (49-63) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (62-52)

Pitching Probables: SEA – Felix Hernandez (10-9, 3.36 ERA)  LAA – Ervin Santana (7-8, 3.32 ERA)

Game Info: 12:35 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

At the risk of coming off as horribly alarmist... sound the alarm!!!!!!!!! The Angel offense is listing dangerously towards another one of those run-scoring vortexes again and doing so at the absolute worst time.

As you well know, the Halos have plated a mere two runs in their last two games.  Two games does not a trend make, but it is still enough to start raising red flags, for example:

• Drawing a scant three walks in those combined two games
• Rolling into two doubleplays yesterday
• Falling victim once again to the Curse of the Unknown Pitcher (you're welcome, Blake Beavan)

And things are only going to get worse for the Angel offense since they are going to have to take on King Felix, a man they have bested a number of times, but still, facing one of the most-talented pitchers in all of baseball is far more likely to do harm than good to a sputtering lineup.  Making this potential offensive slump in the making all that much worse is that they would be experiencing it against one of the real cupcakes on their schedule, thus potentially forfeiting precious opportunities to make up ground on Texas (whose bullpen keeps blowing games).  Even worse, it could carry over into a road series in New York where the surging Yankees could really put a damper on the Angels' post-season hopes if they come in without any offensive punch.

I have to admit that I didn't watch this entire baseball game. Usually, I am pretty good about dutifully sitting through my Friday and Saturday assignments regardless of how the Angels are playing. On some occasions, I will tape the game and watch it after my children have gone to bed so they can avoid the screaming and swearing that happens. But tonight, after dinner, when I clicked on my iPad and saw the Angels were already losing I thought, screw it, I'm going to water my lawn.

It was obvious from just the few pitches I watched that Tyler Chatwood is now in over his head and the front office made a huge error in not going out and getting at least a serviceable major league pitcher. This raises a larger question. Can the Angels win the AL West with only three starting pitchers? Are the three amigos going to have to win every game the rest of the way just to give the Halos a chance? Only time will tell, but tonight was not a good sign.

Angels 1 Mariners 5

-- Not real sure what to say about the offense tonight. They did have eight hits and spread the wealth a bit but it never seemed to engage in anything that resembled a threat.
-- It kind of went unnoticed but Erick Aybar is struggling right now at the plate. He has like two hits in the past week and a half. It also highlights his influence on the rest of the line-up. When he is on the bats all seem to click, but when he's off, then the whole thing tailspins like it is now. Just saying, watch Erick and you will know what kind of day it will be.
-- Glad to see Bobby Abreu at least put the ball in play the other way a couple of times. Look, he is never going to hit another homer this year, but he still can eek out singles and doubles. That would certainly be better than the crap he's been dishing the past two months.
-- A Mariners note if you don't mind. They actually seem to finally have some pieces. Ackley is legitimately scary as a hitter. But the real find in Trayvon Robinson. This kid is going to be a star. I would like to now reserve my place in line to beat the tar (really wanted to us another word here but this is a family blog) out of the McCourts for selling this kid off to pay for a lawyer's new suit. Now I'll have to see him killing the Angels for the next 5 years.

Halo A Hole


What can you say. Tyler had no movement on the fastball tonight and seems like he just can't get over the hump and get guys out. He had Kennedy down in the first and couldn't put him away and it led to two runs. He was ahead a lot of the game in counts but kept letting guys hang around till they got to him. I think he might be getting tired, which is a really big problem. Tonight, he was just not good enough.

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Seattle Mariners (48-63) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (62-51)

Pitching Probables: SEA – Blake Beavan (2-2, 3.24 ERA)  LAA – Tyler Chatwood (6-7, 3.93 ERA)

Game Info: 6:05 PM PT; TV - FS-West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

Another day, another chance to move into a tie for first place. But the importance of this game is more on the mound than on the standings. Tyler Chatwood has to pitch well. With Pineiro imploding and being yanked from the starting rotation, Chatwood all of sudden is now a fourth starter, a very different role on a pitching staff. He has to be able to not to just keep his team in a few games, but be a legitimate winning pitcher night in and night out and potentially start in the playoffs. So this whole good one game, bad the next thing is going to have to stop. Basically, it's time to take off the training wheels and get busy winning some games.

Ah, extra innings. We hadn't seen you in awhile, but your presence tonight was a welcome one. How the Angels won this game tonight, though, is a bit of a mystery. Jered Weaver was his usual awesome self (as I predicted earlier today, I might add). But the offense was just this side of dreadful. Fortunately, the Halos were playing with what could go down in history as the worst team of all time at swinging the bat in the Mariners. All it took was one well placed hit to win it and keep the Angels in the hunt.

Angels 1 Mariners 0



-- Mark Trumbo had another solid night at the plate. 3 for 4 is a good night for most hitters, but Mark's evening was almost a disappointment since he didn't drive in any runs. But I blame that more on the guys in front of him than on his work. Keep it up Mark - you are rapidly finding a place in my heart.
-- Jeff Mathis is officially the anti-Trumbo. It's getting hard to find words to describe the sheer toture it is to watch him "hit". His average is now a robust .181 with another 0 for the game tonight. Not to mention, he struck out twice with runners in scoring position. But hey, I'm glad Hank Conger is playing well at AAA to get his confidence up.
-- A lot was made about Howie Kendrick's complaint about sitting out games in a round robin effort to get all four of the midgets playing time. Kendrick has been struggling a bit so it was nice to see him get 2 hits tonight. I, for one, think Kendrick should be in the line-up everyday since he is the Angels best pure hitter.
-- I was also glad to see Vernon Wells get the game winner. I think he will be a huge key to any Angels success in winning the AL West and his base hit could be the start of another hot streak.
-- Jered Weaver is really good. Enough said.

Halo Hero


Torii Hunter really should have been the Hero for his 2 run homer that was robbed by rookie Trayvon Robinson (btw, why did the Dodgers give him away? I think we know why they are in bankruptcy at this point...just sad). Still he was 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and scored the game winning run. Torii hit the ball hard all night, which is another good sign for the Halo offense.

Time for Free For All Friday, a time to talk about all the Angels-related topics that slipped through the cracks this week, as well as any other totally unrelated topic you feel like bringing up.

Here are a few topics for you to discuss amongst yourselves:

• I think I already mentioned this, but I don't care because it is just so great.  The Rangers lost two games againt the Tigers thanks to their vaunted rebuilt bullpen.  The first when new acquisition Mike Adams allowed a game-winning homer, the second when slightly less new acquisition Koji Uehara allowed a solo homer of his own that gave Detroit an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth only to have Mike Napoli hit what would have been the game-tying homer in the top of the ninth.  I scoff in your general direction, Texas.
• Now that the NFL is back and I now actually live in a city that has a NFL team, I feel like I should be more excited.  I think the problem is that I always hated USC and now I'm stuck in Seattle and their head coach Pete Carroll.  The hideous uniforms the Seahawks wear doesn't help much either.
• Allow me to be the 8,952,355,353rd person to point out that Hank Conger has been laying waste to Triple-A since he was demoted.  With a .317/.379/.583 slash line, I think it is safe to say that Hank should have his confidence back by now, even if those stats are Salt Lake-inflated.  So when is he going to get called back up?  I know Scioscia wants his defense to improve, and maybe it has in Salt Lake, but even if it hasn't, I don't think the team can ignore the chance to actually get some offense from their catchers finally.  Free Hank Conger!
• I'm considering going to the Red Sox-Mariners game next weekend because I feel like I'm a bad baseball fan if I don't see at least one game a month considering that I live ten minutes away from the stadium.  The problem I am having is a question of etiquette.  Who do I root against?  The Mariners are division rivals, but they are also a laughingstock.  Boston though is just so hateable and has the obvious history against the Angels.  I feel like if I root against both, I'm going to need a Prozac by the end of the game.  What is a monkey to do?
• I'm not sure why the Angels chose to call up Andrew Romine instead of Alexi Amarista.  The Angels don't really need another utility infielder, but they could use an extra outfielder and Amarista can play both the infield and the outfield, plus he can pinch-run.  He seems like the obvious choice.  Besides, don't they realize they are depriving me from making "Amarista is short" jokes again?  I was so looking forward to that.

Or just feel free to bring up a topic of your own.  I don't really care (as long as you keep it clean) because it's Friday.