Last night's rainout gave us a full day of the highs and lows of Angel baseball. In game one, the bats drove the team to a nice win which allowed them to gain some ground in the AL west. But in true Angel fashion the second game brought the Halos back down to Earth as the pitchers blew up in front of our eyes. So as time continues to march on with the 2013 season, the Angels seem content to still march in place.

Game One Angels 9 Red Rox 5

Game Two Angels 2 Red Sox 7

The second day the 2013 Amateur Draft is in the books for the Angels. As I myself am an amateur when it comes to speaking intelligently about draft prospects, I will avoid any real prospect specific analysis but instead off some deep, insightful commentary on the Angels' overall draft strategy.

Are you ready for it?

Here it comes!

Hold on to your butts!

Without further adieu...

HOLY CRAP THAT'S A LOT OF PITCHING.

/end of analysis

But seriously, folks. The Angels drafted a whole lot of pitching. Their lone selection on Day 1 was a high school pitcher and they followed that up today by using eight of their nine picks on pitchers. Here is the full list:

Round 3 (#95) - Keynan Middleton, RHP, Lane CC (J1)

Round 4 (#127) - Elliot Morris, RHP, Pierce College (J3)

Round 5 (#157) - Kyle McGowin, RHP, Savannah State (J3)

Round 6 (#187) - Harrison Cooney, RHP, Florida Gulf Coast (JR)

Round 7 (217) - Garrett Nuss, RHP, Seminole State (J2)

Round 8 (#247) - Nate Smith, LHP, Furman University (SR)

Round 9 (#277) - Stephen McGee, C, Florida State (JR)

Round 10 (#307) - Grant Gordon, RHP, Missouri State (SR)

See, I wasn't kidding about the pitching, The only non-pitcher they selected was catcher Stephen McGee, but I am assuming that pick was made merely out of necessity since they clearly need extra catchers now to handle all these freaking pitchers.

What is interesting though is that the Angels, while not dipping back into the high school ranks, aren't just snatching up safe college seniors either. In fact, their first three picks on Day 2 were JUCO guys and of their four-year college selections, just two of them were seniors. That is going to mean that the Angels could have some signability issues to do deal with.  That may not be too much of an issue though as some of these picks seem like a reach. Only Morris and Cooney appeared in Baseball America's Top 250 draft prospects and both were outside the top 200. Seeing how the Angels have the smallest draft bonus pool, that is probably a smart way for them to get their hands on guys with some upside without running into those aforementioned signability issues,

With the trade season slowly but surely coming into view the internet is bound to explode with an ocean of trade musings. Some of them valid, some of them creatively interesting, but most of them shallow and uneducated. This just comes with the territory of the trade deadline, everyone seems to enjoy playing armchair GM even though many couldn't tell you the difference between actual tradeable prospects like the Luis Jimenez's and C.J Cron's of the world. Most of the time you'll get plenty of "Minor League Player X and barely serviceable Major League player for a Top Dog A!". All us educated baseball thinkers are exempt from this status when you're educated to the point where we can devise intuitive and manageable trades with our knowledge of teams minor league systems, contract status', and teams actual willingness to trade a player. Taking all of this into account I've been pondering who the Angels most tradeable and realistic chip is, excluding the minor league system because that's a whole other ball game. Usually when you want to devise trades you have to look at what minor leaguers will be packaged and tons of other semantics we won't go into. Today we're just going to look at which Angels player on the big league roster is the most attractive trade chip.

This player is easily Howie Kendrick. Why? Well for starters, he's an All-Star caliber second baseman with a very good glove (though it tends to fluctuate at times) and an above average bat. He doesn't have power for days, but he can drive a ball hard into the gap and even launch one out of the park if he can get the right pitch. Problem is he has trouble selecting his pitches, shown by 110+ K's while walking no more than 33 times in a season dating back to 2011. While he does have his problems with plate discipline he still has the ability to hit the ball consistently and get on base, noted by his ability to keep his batting average above .279 over the course of his career. The biggest problem by far is his tendency to ground into absolutely back-breaking double plays, every Angel fan in the world can tell you he is the most unclutch hitter on the team by far. It's really bad, I don't need to drive the point home for you since you're a fan yourself if you're reading this.

Now, even through those troubles he experiences at the plate he is still a well above average second baseman, arguably top 5 in the AL. With the position the Angels are in right now selling a bit at the trade deadline would work wonders for the near future of the ball club. I'm not calling for a fire sale now, but what I would love to see is for Dipoto to pull a Dipoto move. Remember what he did with the Angels in getting Joe Saunders, Tyler Skaggs, and Patrick Corbin for Dan Haren when he worked with the D'Backs? Not only did they get a serviceable lefty to pitch in the major league rotation, but they got top prospects who are absolutely killing the league now. Patrick Corbin is currently making rookie history with the D'Backs, and Skaggs is no slouch either. Dipoto can pull a move like that with Kendrick, trading him away for big prospects that will pull in a huge return in the near future.

The June 7th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including explaining Williams returning to the bullpen, Mark Lowe released and much more...

The Story: Critiquing the decision to move Jerome Williams to the bullpen instead of Joe Blanton.

The Monkey Says: Yeah, I'm not at all happy about it, but it wasn't like Williams was throwing up great numbers against strong offenses. He had his good outings against the White Sox, Mariners, Royals and Astros who are all amongst the worst offenses in baseball. The one good offense he face was Baltimore and they slammed him, though that was his first start of the season, so he may not have been stretched out enough to be effective. It is also worth noting that his ERA as a starter is 3.08 but his FIP is 3.83, so don't read too much into that Felix comparison.

The Story: The Angels released Mark Lowe.

The Monkey Says: Well, you can't blame the Angels for taking a chance on Lowe given the state of their bullpen at the time. But gambles are gambles for a reason. They mostly don't work out.

It took long enough, but the Angels finally made their first pick in the 2013 Amateur Draft. We had to wait, but it was worth it as the Halos came up with a bit of a surprise in that they selected a high school player after focusing so heavily on the college ranks in Dipoto's first draft and much of scouting director Ric Wilson's career.

The kid they thought was worth breaking their usual line of thinking for was a tall, lanky southpaw from Kentucky by the name of Hunter Green, who is now your new favorite Angel prospect!

I'm not going to sit here and pretend I have any kind of personal opinion on Green since I am not a scout nor do I pretend to be one on the internet. What I can tell you is that all the prospect gurus were of the general consensus that Green was a player that could very well have gone in the first round. He ranked between the early-thirties and the mid-fifties on most of the top 100 prospect lists from various outlets.

That seems like a pretty good value for the Halos who really needed to make the most of their pick since they forfeited their first rounder when they signed Josh Hamilton. They clearly felt the best way to do that was to roll the dice on a youngster with a high ceiling rather than taking less risky college players like they have with their high picks in recent years.

It will be interesting to see if that philosophy continues throughout the rest of the draft as the Angels badly need to re-stock their farm system with both high-end talent as well as talent that can reach the majors quickly. As you will see with the various scouting reports I've provided below, Green definitely falls into the first description of being a high ceiling guy, but one that has a lot of work to do before he is even remotely close to being ready for the bigs.

From MLB.com:

A lanky lefty from the Kentucky high school ranks, Green interests some because of his projectable body and stuff.

His fastball will touch the low 90s at times and it's easy to see more velocity coming as he physically matures. While he's had some delivery issues that impact his control and command, they seem correctable. That should help him throw his sharp, biting curve more consistently to go along with his sinking changeup.

It's all about projection for the southpaw, but a team that thinks Green can fulfill his potential will be interested in taking him early on in the Draft.

From SB Nation:

Left-handed pitcher Hunter Green is one of the youngest players entering the 2013 MLB draft, making him an exciting pitcher with plenty of projectability, but one far away from making an impact at the major-league level.

Green's best pitch is his fastball, as his off-speed pitches need some work. The starter is still growing into his body, which makes some scouts hopeful that he can add more velocity as he continues to mature. The 17-year-old also needs to work on his command, but any team that selects the starter will give him plenty of opportunities to improve.

The southpaw is committed to the University of Kentucky, so he does have the option of joining the college ranks if he does not come to an agreement with whatever team drafts him.

At eight games under .500 and in third place in the AL West the Angel season is all but over. They won't admit that however. They probably think they can get hot again like they did after their slow start last season and maybe grab a Wild Card spot.

Maybe they're right. Maybe they can pull it off. Nobody can really say for sure what with us not being able to predict the future thanks to science's inability to deliver on the promises of all the sci-fi films I watched growing up. I WANT MY HOVER SKATEBOARD, DAMMIT!

What we do know is that if the Halos do end up making a playoff run, they are going to do it with an incredibly high degree of difficulty thanks to their inability to take advantage of their schedule. As we discussed a little over a month ago, the Halos had a stretch of 29 consecutive games against teams with losing records. That is a whole lot of lousy opponents. Unfortunately, the Angels didn't register a whole lot of wins as they managed to go only 15-14 which is tantamount to flushing that gift from the schedule makers down the toilet.

No, if the Angels are going to do this, they are going to do it the hard way. They have 102 games to make up 8.5 games in the Wild Card standing with at least five teams to leap frog in the process. But that isn't even the hard part. After the gift the schedule makers gave the Angels in the month of May, the rest of the season is a lot more like a lump of coal. Of those 102 games left only 38 come against teams that are currently under .500.

So, tell me then, where is it the Angels are supposed to make up all of this ground on those other five Wild Card teams or the two teams in front of them in the AL West?

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The June 6th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Pujols asked to go on DL a month ago, Angels bemoan loss of Hunter's leadership and much more...

The Story: Albert Pujols nearly went on the disabled list a month ago.

The Monkey Says: He actually had agreed to do it but changed his mind the next morning. That decision isn't looking too smart right now though since Pujols hasn't really come around yet. Still, it is kind of intriguing to think that even the Angels though his injuries were bad enough to come to him with the DL idea.

The Story: Mark Trumbo suggests that the Angels are suffering from the loss of Torii Hunter's leadership.

The Monkey Says: This is very surprising because this team should not be lacking leadership what with Scisocia, Pujols and Trout on the roster. Trumbo says some of those guys have stepped up but that there is still a void with Torii gone.