The July 29th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including rumors heat up that Aramis Ramirez might waive his no-trade clause, evaluating Jered Weaver's Cy Young chances, Santana basks in the no-hitter afterglow and much more...

The Story: Aramis Ramirez is beginning to rethink his refusal to waive his no-trade clause.

The Monkey Says: Now we are talking!  Ramirez has been saying all season that he won't waive his no-trade clause for family reasons, but he seems to be realizing that the Cubs could be heading into rebuilding mode and may not want to stick around for it.  If he does decide to allow a trade, the Angels are the most logical match both in terms of team fit and trade package.  There is even word that the Cubs had scouts at last night's Arkansas Travelers game.  Ramirez better make up his mind soon, because if he needs to allow whatever team that acquires him to figure out what to do about his 2012 option which automatically vests if he is traded, but he may not want it to, so there will definitely be negotiations that need to take place.

The Story: Can Jered Weaver win the Cy Young?

The Monkey Says: It is going to be close this year and might come down to who finishes the season best.  I still think Verlander has the edge because he is flashier than Weaver, but if Jered can keep his ERA under 2.00, voters of every kind are going to have a hard time not voting for him.

The magic carries over to Detroit as Trumbo comes just a single shy of hitting for the cycle, having himself one of his best games all year. Unfortunately the magic didn't carry over to Pineiro, who continues to struggle start after start. The firey offense that was absent during the Cleveland series finally came back to play against the Tigers, the proof that this offense has finally jumpstarted is irrefutable. Jeff Mathis ended up with a multi-hit game today, he even had an RBI! If the fire carried all the way down to the 9 hole logic states that it's gotta be for real. Especially when that 9-hole hitter is named Jeff Mathis.

Angels 12 Tigers 7

That stench you smelled across the country after Ervin Santana finished his no-hitter was the the collective group of would-be MLB contenders soiling their pants at the thought of having to face this Angels rotation at some point in the post-season.

Already armed with arguably the best pitcher in baseball right now, Jered Weaver, and the most underrated but almost as dominant ace in baseball, Dan Haren, the Halos were already formidable foes in a best-of-five series, but now add Ervin Santana at the top of his game to those two and the Angels should be striking bowel-evacuating fear into the hearts of any opposing team that dare stand in their way.

As we saw with the Giants last year, a team with similar offensive concerns to the Angels, if you have strong pitching and your underwhelming lineup can heat up at the right time, you can go a long, long way in the playoffs.  That is a mold the Halos have been looking to fill all season long, but they didn't fit in perfectly until Santana's very public emergence as a force to be reckoned with.  It wasn't like folks didn't know about Ervin Santana beforehand, after all, he is a former All-Star.  But they haven't seen much of that All-Star caliber Santana since 2008.  Nagging arm problems have robbed him of some of his fastball's velocity and some of his wicked slider's bite, which led to his abysmal 2009 campaign and his pedestrian (outside of his win total) 2010 season.

What many haven't noticed is that in 2011, Santana is creeping closer and closer to replicating the magic he had in 2008.  His 1.16 WHIP is his second-best mark to date, his K/9 and BB/9 rates are both his best since 2008 and improvements over his career rates.  Better yet, his 3.47 ERA is right on par with his xFIP of 3.58, suggesting that he isn't just getting by on strokes of luck.  No, as we alll saw in his brilliant performance yesterday, that once dominant stuff he possessed in his early career is still very much alive and kicking in his right arm, even if it doesn't show up quite as often and that is why AL contenders should be crossing their fingers that they don't draw the Angels in the playoffs.

@
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (57-48) @ Detroit Tigers (55-49)

Pitching Probables: LAA – Joel Pineiro (5-5, 4.61 ERA) DET – Brad Penny (7-7, 4.51 ERA)

Game Info: 1:05 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

So far the Angels have won 3 series in a row, let's see if they can come up with a 4th series against the Detroit Tigers. The pitching has been stellar as of late, but the offense? Not so much. They've failed to put up any more than 2 runs in the past three games during the Cleveland series, a series which came after the Angels dropped 17 runs on the Orioles in three games. I'll give the Angels the benefit of the doubt and chalk that up to bad luck on the Angels part, but if they manage a similar effort against the Detroit Tigers then I'll start to worry. As if I haven't been worrying about this offense the entire season.

The July 28th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including reactions to Ervin Santana's no-hitter, inside Jered Weaver's BABIP, Angels focusing on bullpen help via trade and much more...

The Story: Ervin Santana's no-hitter was a surprise, but also not a surprise.

The Monkey Says: I think I have always liked Santana a bit more than most Angel fans, so I appreciate how good he can be, but even I am a little surpised to see that he is capable of spinning such a dominant performance like he put forth yesterday.

The Story: Santana's no-hitter shows that his tools are still there.

The Monkey Says: I don't think there was ever much of a question about his slider, the concern has always been in regards to his fastball and the velocity he lost off of it a few years ago.  What I think this glosses over is that Santana is also maturing as a pitcher and attacking in a smarter manner while also not getting rattled in pressure situations like he did his first few years in the league.

The game that was 27 years in the making finally found life today in Ervin Santana's no-hitter, the first solo no-hitter for the Angels since 1984. All of this was made possible not just by Santana's efforts, but the rest of the teams as well. Howie Kendrick made a few astonishing game saving plays and Bobby Wilson called one hell of a game, something I'm not too sure the rest of the catching staff (all 1 of em) could do. It's great to see Santana cap off what was other a rather unimpressive series for this team. Maybe this could be the shot of adrenaline the Angels needed to hit a blazing hot streak and fly past the Rangers.

Angels 3 Indians 1 

We are back with another week of Angel tweets.  However, this time we are getting deep, like existential thought deep with one of the Angel youngsters which is a nice reprieve after all the boner talk last week.  But in an even bigger surprise than baseball players having brains, Chevy Clarke takes a break from his usual inanity to try to explain himself.  He fails, but at least he tries.

Howie Kendrick is now a photographer - @HKendrick47 Got into photography this past year. If you want to see some of my photos go to flickr.com/kendrickfamily47

• Anything that keeps him busy and thus too occupied to film more commercials for Howard's Superstores is just fine with me.

Mark Trumbo gets philosophical - @Mtrumbo44 "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could." -Emerson

• Ralph Waldo Emerson?  Wow.  That's some deep stuff Trumbo is getting into.  If only we could get him to read something that convinces him to actually take a pitch every once in awhile.

Inspiring words from Trevor Reckling - @TRECKLING30 While you sleeping someone else is getting that extra edge over you and working 10 x harder

• Nice to see that Reckling can always fall back on a career as a motivational speaker if this whole baseball thing doesn't work out.

Chris Pettit is sweaty - @Cpetti815 I think I just sweated out a gallon of liquid

• This tweet was a one shot tweet, so no context was provided which only makes the imagine what could possibly have made him sweat so profusely and exactly what liquid he was sweating out.  Whatever the case may be, I'm pretty sure it is gross.  So much for the artsy fartsy trend in the tweets this week.

...and finally, our weekly deriding of what a horrible tweeter Chevy Clarke is might be starting to pay off.  While there was plenty of drivel in his timeline this week, Chevez mixed in a few tweets that actually suggest he is capable of rational thought.

@OfficialChevy In order to understand my train of thought u would put urself my position.. U can't expect me to think like u cause my life not like urs

• This is standard megalomaniacal thinking from Chevy, but at least it is an actual thought.  For what it is worth, I'm glad that I can't think like Chevy because I'm pretty sure it would result in my brain melting out of my ears.

@OfficialChevy TO ALL HATERS.. If u have nothing to say positive ... KEEP THEM COMING.. My motivation to make ur face turn blue when its all said and done.

• See?!?!  We are getting through!  Granted, Chevy is still incapable of using proper grammar and is mixing his metaphors, but at least he is finally aware that most people want him to shut the hell up.