Are you like me?  When you get bored do you spend your time just idly surfing through the pages of Baseball-Reference?  Just me?  OK, wow, I'm a bigger dork than I thought.

Anyway, out of all the fun and interesting things on B-R, the section you can really get lost in is the Similarity Scores.  Basically, they take the palyer you are looking at and find the most statistically comparable players in the entire history of baseball.  Pretty nifty, eh?  Well, sometimes those player comps are pretty interesting, but other times... there is some real inadvertent comedy to be had.

Daily Links for the LA Angels including Bedrosian gets Tommy John surgery, Rodney just needs to "keep it simple," Weaver might have "dead arm" and much more...

The Story: Top Angel pitching prospect Cam Bedrosian will undergo Tommy John surgery.

The Monkey Says: TJ surgery is no longer a death sentence, in fact, plenty of guys come back arguably stronger than ever and Bedrosian is still plenty young enough.  It does mean that he really isn't going to be ready again until the middle of next season and still starting in the very low minors.

The Story: Mike Scioscia wants Fernando Rodney to "keep it simple."

The Monkey Says: I think that is a nice way of asking him to focus on fixing his mechanics, which Fraudney himself blames for his issues.  I've been pretty hard on Fernando this season, but the Angel bullpen really does need a righty setup man to setup and Rodney is probably the best man for the job, so hopefully he can get his act together.

The Story: Scott Downs appears to be in line for a promotion to top setup man.

The Monkey Says: As well he should.  He may not be the most dominant arm, but his track record is one of consistency, which is something the Angel pen really needs right now.

The Angels are in a major funk right now, and it's gonna take some special ju-ju to get them back on the right path. 

Angels 0 Mariners 3 

@
Los Angeles Angels Anaheim  (22-21) @ Seattle Mariners (17-24)

Pitching Probables: LAA – Jered Weaver (6-3, 2.25 ERA)  SEA – Jason Vargas (2-2, 3.86 ERA)

                                                                          Game Info: 7:10 PM PT; TV - Fox Sports West; Radio - KLAA 830 AM

 This road trip has been horrendous at best, all thanks to the blownpen's arson charge led by the one and only Fraudney. What happened to the road team that we've been seeing all season so far? If they ever plan on picking it up, Seattle is the place to do it.

You're never going to believe this, but I have another new weekly feature I want to try out.  This new endeavor is a chance for us to take a weekly look at what the other chumps in the AL West have been up to.  In other words, it is a chance for me to make fun of the other teams in the division.  Who could possibly be against that.

To kick off this feature, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the graphic above that shows the division-winning odds of each team entering the season.  Obviously there is a lot of season left to play, but I imagine that some of those pie slices would be distributed very differently.  Those pre-season prognosticators largely assumed that Texas was pretty much a mortal lock to win the AL West, with the exception of that minority of folks who just wanted to be different so they picked the A's.  The Angels?  Yeah, not so much (and the Mariners?  Ha!).

Yet here we are 40+ games into the season and there is basically a three-way tie atop the division.  No team is running away with the division and no team is truly out of it (except for the Mariners, this will be a recurring theme).  It is really going to come down to which team can best address their fatal flaw (or flaws).  The Rangers are injury-riddled and have suspect pitching.  The A's can't hit and are struggling mightily on defense.  The Angels, well, we know all about their pitiful lineup and their ulcer-inducing bullpen.

With 120 games left, it should be one wild ride to watch.  Until then, let's get to the meat of this feature and get the latest scoop on the rival squads.

I like to think that I coined Fernando Rodney's nickname "Fraudney" (that may or may not be true, but I take credit for it nonetheless).  MWAH's own Jon Lyons has also brilliantly labeled him "The Tilted Hat of Misery."  Those nicknames are fun, creative and entirely true, but I have yet another new name for us all to call Fernando Rodney and that is: Fernando F@#!ing Rodney.

Is it creative?  Not at all.  Is it appropriate?  Abso-freaking-lutely.

Who amongst us hasn't yelled that very phrase at our TV at least once this season.  Heck, I've probably screamed it five times in the last week alone.  This goes without saying, but Fernando Rodney has been so tragically terrible this season that he has quickly become the most hated man in Angel Nation and, really, he is blowing the competition out of the water.

Daily Links for the LA Angels including Scioscia favors playoff expansion, Kendrick getting some early MVP consideration, Scioscia downplays concerns over the Halos' lack of power and much more...

The Story: Mike Scioscia favors MLB adding a second wild card in each league.

The Monkey Says: This is actually pretty big news because Scioscia is a member of a special committe put together by Bud Selig to discuss changes to the game, so Scioscia's opinion will both carry weight and not fall on deaf ears in the league office.  As of right now, I'd say it is a pretty safe bet that the playoffs will be expanded sometime in the next two seasons, once they figure out the logistics of it all.

The Story: David Schoenfield of ESPN rates Howie Kendrick as fifth in MVP voting in the American League so far.

The Monkey Says: It is nice to see Howie getting some national attention, but I am not even totally convinced that Kendrick is the MVP of the Angels right now.  Then again, who am I to argue with Howie's 2.3 WAR, which is the second-highest in the AL.

The Story: Mike Scioscia tries to downplay concern over the Angels worsening power outage.

The Monkey Says: I kind of get the whole, "this team isn't built that way" mantra, but the situational hitting and aggressive baserunning method isn't working all that well right now either, so mixing in some more power sure sounds like a good idea to me.