The July 27th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Angels approve more reportedly payroll, Erick Aybar offered straight up for Jose Reyes, Nationals want Peter Bourjos and much more...

The Story: The Angels are rumored to have officially approved a payroll increase AND offered Erick Aybar for Jose Reyes, straight up.

The Monkey Says: Now THAT is a bombshell!  Too bad I don't believe any of it.  Moreno loves Aybar and refuse to believe they would trade him straight up for potentially just two months of Jose Reyes.  I don't even really think the Angels have actually approved more spending, or at least not a significant amount of more spending.

The Story: The Washington Nationals have inquired on Peter Bourjos.

The Monkey Says: Angels fans went nuts on Twitter when this rumor came out.  For some reason everyone just assumed that it was a Bourjos for Zimmerman trade, which is absolutely preposterous and I am ashamed that so many fellow fans jumped to this conclusion.  If you've paid any attention to the Nats this year, they've been searching desperately for a regular center fielder since Opening Day, so they are kicking the tires on just about everyone right now, but not so they can give away their franchise cornerstone.  There is a chance the Angels could trade Bourjos this off-season (though I doubt it), but it makes zero sense for them to trade him away in the middle of a playoff race.

Jordan Walden came awfully close to making Yogi Berra proud, didn't he?  It was nearly deja vu all over again for the rookie closer, but this time Waldo managed to wiggle his way out of it.

Angels 2, Indians 1

Like I said in the game preview, Cleveland is just a bad, bad place for Angel closers and Walden seemed set out to prove me right.  Fortunately, Matt LaPorta must be my Walden's guardian angel, because he bailed Jordan out in a big way by bouncing into an easy doubleplay to grant Walden a reprieve.  Of course, that still left Walden to deal with last night's hero, Jason Kipnis, and dealt with him he did, by smoking the kid on four pitches.

Game.  Set.  Match, Walden.

Now the question is if Jordan is over this slump he's fallen into.  Based on his pumped up reaction, I would say that he was pretty relieved to survive this outing but it wasn't in a way that suggested that he was worried about the future, which is great, because that is the kind of mindset a reliever needs.  I feel confident that he's going to be in solid shape mentally going forward, but mechanically, he probably still needs some work, even though he wasn't nearly as wild as he was on Monday.

Just to be safe though, let's hope the Angels can maybe score more than two runs tomorrow to win comfortable and spare us from a third Walden save adventure in Cleveland.

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (55-48) @ Cleveland Indians (52-48)

Pitching Probables: LAA – Jered Weaver (13-4, 1.81 ERA)  CLE – Josh Tomlin (11-4, 4.12 ERA)

Game Info: 4:05 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

There are loads of reasons to dislike the city of Cleveland.  It is dirty.  It is smelly.  Their river was once so polluted that it actually caught on fire.  Their sports teams have done nothing but torture their citizens.  But above anything else, I dislike Cleveland because for as long as I have been an Angel fan, the Indians have destroyed each and every Angel closer.

Cleveland was a living nightmare for Troy Percival, as he had a 5.90 ERA and suffered nine losses at the hands of the Tribe over the course of his career.

Even K-Rod struggled with the Indians, posting a 5.01 ERA against them, his worst mark against any AL team.

And now last night, they claimed Jordan Walden as well.  One blown save does not a disaster make, but I can't say I have any warm and fuzzies about him coming in for a save should a chance arise tonight.

The trade deadline is just a few days away, but nobody is exactly sure what, if anything, the Angels have up their sleeve.  With so many confusing and conflicting rumors to sort through, the best way to figure out what embattled Angel GM Tony Reagins is planning is to take a look back through his history at the deadline.

We all know Reagins is not afraid to make a deal, but we can learn a lot about his trade-working train of thought by picking out the major patterns he has displayed over the last three seasons.

2008 - Traded Casey Kotchman and Steve Marek for Mark Teixeira

In his official trade deadline as the lead decision maker, Reagins swung for the fences by breaking from the standard Angel protocol by acquiring a big name rental player.  Of course, the hope was that this would give them a leg up in signing Tex, but it didn't work out, though the Angels didn't end up giving up much to get those few months of Teixeira, though that was largely helped by Kotchman flaming out horribly the instant he landed in Atlanta.

The July 26th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Trout gets his first homer ball back, trade deadline talk galore, trading for Wells might've been a better move than signing Carl Crawford and much more...

The Story: The fan who caught Mike Trout's first homer was more than happy to give it back to him.

The Monkey Says: I'm just shocked that the guy is an avid collector and handed the ball over so readily.  That would seem like the perfect kind item to have in a collection, especially given the lofty projections for Trout's career.

The Story: Jon Heyman seems to think the Angels have narrowed their trade search to Aramis Ramirez and Heath Bell.

The Monkey Says: I don't think the Angels are going to pay the price for Bell, but I am sure they will stay in those talks as long as possible to drive the price up for the Rangers.  As for Aramis Ramirez, I've said all along that he is a great fit for the Halos, but he seems deadset enforcing his no-trade clause.

Another game in which the Jordan Walden let's an Angels lead slip through his fingers. This game was destined for the toilet, and that's just where it ended up.

Angels 2 Indians 3

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Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (55-47) @ Cleveland Indians (51-48)

Pitching Probables: CLE – Fausto Carmona (5-10, 5.63 ERA)  LAA –  Dan Haren (10-6, 3.10 ERA)

Game Info: 4:05 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

This is Dan Haren's opporunity to put that tired, re-used line to rest. You know which line I'm talking about, the old "he can't pitch after the All Star break" which has been prevalent the past few seasons. It's been eating me up the past few weeks, not because it's true, but because Dan Haren is the only one giving life to those words. I thought his first start out was a fluke, but then he comes back and does even worse against the Rangers! The third time's the charm they say, let's hope Haren doesn't squander this opportunity.