Twitter is a great social media tool, especially for athletes.  It gives them a chance to interact with fans and show that they can be humble and gracious despite their fame.  It also allows them to insinuate that they are about to fornicate with an inanimate object, so I guess there are some drawbacks too.  Well, whatever your taste in tweets might be, the Angels have the entire spectrum covered this week.

Mike Trout takes his demotion to Double-A in stride - @Trouty20 Back to little rock ! Had awesome experience up here in Anaheim thanks for everything !

• He even gets sent back to the minors well.  Does that make him a six-tool player?  Seriously, this kid has no flaws.  I'm pretty sure he could cure cancer if he felt like it.

Victor Rojas thanks the weather gods - @VictorRojas29 Still amazed that we went through Baltimore, Cleveland & Detroit at the end of July & never experienced a rain delay. #luck

• Baseball announcers fear nothing more than lengthy weather delays.

CJ Cron has some very important things on his mind - @CCron24 Eagles will be very solid in #Madden

• Sometimes you have to remember that these prospects are just out of college and high school, so a team's rating in Madden is actually a big deal to them still

Chris Pettit overshares - @cpettit815 About to get intimate with the foam roll for 10 minutes...

• Be gentle, Chris.  It is the foam roll's first time.  And 10 minutes?  Way to go, stud!

...and finally, we end things with the world's worst Twittering athlete, Chevez "Chevy" Clarke.

@OfficialChevy Great pitching pitching by B-Mac today... I went yard today... Hit a Homerun!!!!

• This marks the first Chevy tweet that has actually made me smile.  Chevy has a pathetic .561 OPS right now, so he needs to start producing otherwise he's going to just be another dumbass on Twitter and I will lose the anchor of my weekly feature.  I may not like Chevy, but I need him.

@OfficialChevy Man I'm gettin really black!!!!!

• On second thought, I hope he never gets another hit.

When Bobby Abreu officially made enough plate appearances to vest his $9 million contract option for 2012, you'd have thought drowned a sack of puppies based on the vitriol aimed in his direction by certain segments of the Angel fan base.  I guess that is what happens when you are they guy who now could stand in the way of Mike Trout ascension to the majors.

Gosh, you'd think the Angel fans would be used to having old, overpaid outfielders on their roster by now?

Anyway, the instant his option kicked in (and even before it did, really), Angel fans have been racking their brains to find a way to unload Bobby to alleviate the impending logjam in the OF/DH spots.  Some of these schemes seem rather practical, others, well, let's just say they score points for creativity but the German judge really screwed them on the plausibility score.

Somehow ridding the roster of Abreu and his entire salary is obviously the clear preference, but given the lack of a market for an overpaid DH with no power, I'm going to go ahead and guess that trading Abreu this off-season may not come to pass.  Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean the sky is falling.  Actually, it might be a good thing for the Angels... if they are smart about it.

The August 3rd, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Weaver suspended six games but will appeal, previewing the August trade market for the Halos, for some reason the Angels will honor Derek Jeter and much more...

The Story: Jered Weaver has been suspended for six games for throwing at Detroit's Alex Avila, but he will appeal the suspension.

The Monkey Says: He may be appealing, but he hardly seems contrite about his actions, essentially saying he doesn't really regret much of it and showing he is still a little miffed about the way the Tigers acted.  He doesn't stand a chance on his appeal, but he is really only doing it so that he can serve his suspension during a stretch where the Angels have an off-day so that his absence doesn't mess up the rotation too much.

The Story: A look at some potential August trade targets for the Angels.

The Monkey Says: Umm, I love Sam Miller, but some of those targets are real stretches, so I am going to assume that this was done at least partially with tongue in cheek.  In my opinion, I've got a sneaking suspicion that the Halos are somehow going to end up adding Kyle (ugh) Farnsworth sometime around August 20th.

The Story: The Angels are going to celebrate Derek Jeter's 3000th hit and career in some fashion when the Yankees come to town on September 9th.

The Monkey Says: Monkey confused.  Monkey no like Yankees.  Why Angels honor one?  Monkey angry.  MONKEY SMASH!!!!

The Story: Buster Olney believes the AL Cy Young race is shaping up to be great.

The Monkey Says: Nope, sorry, Buster, but you are wrong.  Verlander is going to win.  I think he pretty much locked it up on Sunday as he came within a few outs of another no-hitter (and he narrowly missed out once before the game after the original no-hitter) and Weaver probably alienated a lot of voters by going ape the way he did.  Only old windbags and NY media honks are going to vote for Sabathia.  It won't be a landslide, but Verlander is going to win because he is the cool, trendy pick.

The Story: A look back at Weaver, Verlander and the 2004 amateur draft.

The Monkey Says: I love the part where they say the point isn't to bash Matt Bush, which is true, because the whole point was to bash the Padres for being dumb and cheap.

The Story: SB Nation's MLB Power Rankings contain a hilarious fake trade conversation between Tony Reagins and KC GM Dayton Moore.

The Monkey Says: Be sure to read this with no beverages in your mouth because you will laugh hysterically and spit your beverage all over your screen and keyboard.  So much LOL.

It wasn't another no-hitter, but Ervin Santana still seemed to have plenty of that same magic left in his arm as he cruised to a complete game shutout of the visiting Twins.

Angels 5, Twins 1

I don't know how much longer Ervin can keep this up, but I'm glad to watch and find out.  He was lights out once again tonight, just as he has been, really since late June.  Granted, Santana has hardly faced a murderer's row of lineups over that stretch, but that shouldn't detract too much from what he's done.

With tonight's complete game, Santana has now gone nine straight starts allowing three runs or less and gone at least seven inning in seven of those nine starts.  That is some Weaver-esque stuff right there.  And his brilliance tonight comes at a perfect time since it shows the Rangers that the Angels aren't going away even though they did nothing at the trade deadline.

Really, who needs bullpen help when your starters finish what they started?  Keep it up, Ervin.

@

Minnesota Twins (50-58) @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (59-50)

Pitching Probables: MIN – Brian Duensing (8-8, 4.35 ERA)  LAA – Ervin Santana (6-8, 3.47 ERA)

Game Info: 7:05 PM PT; TV - KCOP; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

So much emotion for just one little game, it hardly seems fair and I hardly know what to expect from the Angels tonight.

Will they come out fighting after they got their blood boiling in that fiasco in Detroit?  Some say that, despite the general level of stupidity on display, the Halos could use that as a rallying point for their playoff push.

Or might they come into the series with their heads hung low after seeing the Rangers make two flashy moves at the deadline and their own team make none?  I'd like to think the players are professional enough to realize that is just part of the business, but with so many youngsters, the improvements by Texas could prove to be discouraging.  Or, the vets on the team could turn that frown upside down and try and frame the lack of trades as a vote of confidence from management that they believe that the current roster is good enough to get the job done.

And then there is Ervin Santana who is making his first start since his no-hitter.  Who knows where his head will be at?  Will he remain as locked in as he was against the Indians or will the success go to his head and cause him to lose focus?

Needless to say, this game should be VERY interesting.

And so Mike Trout's first cup of coffee in the majors comes to an end with the team announcing that our hero has been demoted to the minors, reporting to the Arkansas Travelers.

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!  The Travs?  Again?  Hasn't he already destroyed the Texas League enough with his .950 OPS?

The short answer is, "yes."  The long answer is, "yes, sort of, but it is complicated."

I, for one, definitely thought the Angels would be sending Trout to Triple-A to play for the Salt Lake Bees, so I understand why some are concerned that he is being asked to remain at the Double-A level.  Some have speculated that it is because the Angels have decided to slow his career curve down a bit after he scuffled during his brief stint in the bigs.  Those people would be wrong.

Yes, it is unusual to have a guy like Trout not jump up to the next level after he has so thoroughly proven himself at a lower level, but there is a unique confluence of circumstances that led to this CORRECT decision to keep Trouty in Little Rock.  First, the Travs are a playoff-bound team, something the Angels are very big about.  They want Mike to get post-season experience, which is somewhat odd since refining skillsets should be a higher priority, but it seems pretty clear the Angels want him to learn to play under pressure, a hint that they might have plans to use him sooner rather than later.  Trout won't get that experience with the Bees because, well, the Bees are horrible and currently sit 14.5 games back in the standings.

Second, Salt Lake might actually be bad for him.  The level of competition and talent might be better at Triple-A, but it isn't that much better than in Double-A.  The problem with Salt Lake, and the Pacific Coast League in general, is that it is a hitter's haven with all of the high altitude ballparks, Salt Lake chief amongst them.  That kind of environment can lead to some bloated stats that have a tendency to cover up flaws in one's skillset, leading to the creation of bad habits (see Wood, Brandon or McPherson, Dallas).  On the flip side, the Travelers play in an extreme pitcher's park, so Trout is going to have to earn every one of his offensive stats AND hone his defensive skills by patrolling the spacious outfield.  I actually think the defensive development might be one of the bigger driving factors here.  Trout is a good defender due to his speed, but in his small sample size of big league time I witnessed, he looks like he still has a fair amount of work to do on getting reads and taking smarter routes.

Finally, and I hate that this is part of the reasoning, but keeping Trout in Double-A turns down the volume on the Trout hype machine.  Trout was met with much fanfare during his promotion and many wanted him to stick around.  Had Mike gone to Triple-A and started putting up monster numbers in the thin Utah air, those calls for his permanent ascension into the Angel lineup would only grow louder.  Stuck back in Arkansas, those calls will still ring out, but without much substance since the team will always have the built-in excuse that he has yet to even attempt Triple-A.

That's it for this week, check back in next week to see what happens to our future hero.  Same Trout Time.  Same Trout Channel... err, blog.

Loyal readers, I have a favor to ask.  For the last three years I, along with Ryan Falla and Jon Lyons, have busted our ass to provide you with a constant stream of daily Angels content and we almost never ask anything in return, but today I am going to ask you to help us out.

This fall, Blogs With Balls, the top sports blogging organization out there, is presenting awards to the top sports blogs in the land and I want your help to make this blog one of them.

The USMAP awards are a chance for little blogs like this one to get the notoriety they deserve and you can help us get that by nominating us in all applicable categories (Best Sports Site - Writing Quality, Best Team-Specific Site, Best Sportswriter) by going to this link.  The more nominations we get, the better the chance that we will get the attention of the good folks at Blogs With Balls and hopefully be named a finalist for the general public to vote on.  If you like this blog, please nominate us and have your friends nominate us and help us get this chance to get our name out there in a big way.

Don't make me beg, because I totally will, I just want to wait until closer to the end of the nomination process so that it looks like I have some pride in myself.