The January 4th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including the weirdest stat about the 2012 Angels, why the Angels won't be trading for Giancarlo Stanton and much more...

The Story: The weirdest stat of the Angels' 2012 season.

The Monkey Says: I totally understand how that came to pass, but it blew my mind anyway.  I'm not sure how significant it is, but the fact that the Angels had so many switch-hitters that they pretty much rendered all left-hand specialist relievers useless against them is definitely a good thing.

The Story: Why the Angels, or any other team, won't be trading for Giancarlo Stanton.

The Monkey Says: I know this was tongue-in-cheek, but if the Angels were to trade for Stanton I'm 99.99% certain that Bourjos would be part of the package going the other way.  That being said, the Halos don't have enough prospects to include with Bourjos to make such a deal happen.  The best deal I can think of is Bourjos-Trumbo-Cowart-Maronde-Richards.  That might actually be good enough to get the deal done, but it would also deprive the Angels of anything resembling a high quality prospect for the next two years.

It seems as if the ripple-effect made by the Kendrys Morales trade has stretched farther into the roster than many might think.  A lot of Angel fans were unhappy, or I could say outright pissed, that Kendrys was traded for some third-rate inning eating starter from the lowly Mariners. I mean, not only did the Angels trade away one of their biggest power bats for a mid-tier starter, they gave him directly to a division rival! Oh crap! Only thing is that move isn't as bad as people would like to think. This article isn't going to be another "analyzation" of the Kendrys trade by some college-aged wannabe sportswriter in his underwear, but I do want to talk about it a little to set up what I really have to say.

The biggest gripes Angel fans have had with the trade is that:

1) It takes away a potent left-handed power bat out of a lineup that was lacking left-handed power to begin with (prior to the Hamilton signing)

2) The short-lived idea of the Angels having a serious Murderer's Row with Trout-WhoCares-Pujols-Hamilton-Trumbo-Morales will no longer be a reality. 

The idea of the Angels losing one of their more potent left-handed bats in Kendrys Morales would be a shocking concept to stomach if the Hamilton signing never happened, but that's just the thing, it did happen. Hamilton has a far more powerful left-handed bat than Kendrys does (Hamilton .566 SLG% vs. RHP as opposed to Kendrys .512 SLG% vs. RHP). Let's not forget Kendrys' ineptitude against LHP which is shown by his career .275 OBP against lefties in 370 AB's. Hamilton does not have the same problems against lefties as Kendrys does, as noted by his .350 OBP and .510 SLG% against LHP. The Angels effectively replaced Kendrys with Hamilton and Bourjos since Bourjos' playing time and future as an Angel were in serious jeopardy with the logjam that came with the Hamilton signing. 

The January 3rd, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including uncertainty in the Angel rotation, battle of the AL West nicknames and much more...

The Story: The Angels' rotation is their biggest question mark for the first time in years.

The Monkey Says: There isn't that much uncertainty.  Vargas and Blanton are pretty much known quantities and while Weaver has some health and velocity questions, he should still be at least pretty good.  The real question marks are Hanson and to a lesser extent C.J. Wilson.  There is a small chance that the rotation will stink, just like there is a small chance it will be fantastic.  But in all likelihood it will be somewhere between abover average and below average.

The Story: The battle of the AL West team nicknames.

The Monkey Says: The Astros win?  Methinks not.  Yes, they have the power of the cosmos, but God created the cosmos and Angels are his agents, therefore they are equipped to combat gamma ray bursts and black holes.  I'm pretty sure that's in the Old Testament somewhere... I think.  I haven't been to church since I was like eleven.

The MWAH prospect countdown begins!  Kicking things off this season is last year's #14 prospect.  How did he fall so far so fast?  SPOILER ALERT: He forgot how to hit.

Carlos Ramirez
Position: C  Highest Level: Double-A
Bats: Both Throws: Right  Height: 5'11" Weight: 210 lbs.
Age: 24  Born: 3/19/88

2012 Season Stats
Double-A: 323 PA, .204 AVG, .312 OBP, .276 SLG, 12 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 23 RBI, 55 SO, 4 SB, 0 CS, .245 BABIP
 

Contact – B-.  Being a catcher, Carlos certainly has good hand-eye coordination.  This skill transfers not only from behind the plate but at the plate as well.  Ramirez’s swing can be overly long at times, but he’s seems adept at getting it through the zone and making contact with pitches, even the ones he’s fooled on.

Power – C.  Ramirez is mostly a line drive type of hitter when he makes good contact.  This may not result in the type of homerun totals that get attention from fans, but Ramirez is no stranger to driving the ball into the gaps with authority.   

Discipline – B-.  Ramirez, like many college catchers, entered pro ball with what I would consider an “above average” eye at the plate.  He isn’t an easy out, he works counts, and doesn’t chase bad pitches.  He even collects a fair amount of walks.  I don’t think he’ll ever post an incredibly high OBP, but given how low his BA is, his OBP actually looks pretty good.

Speed – C.  Carlos Ramirez is a catcher, and he’s not a fast runner.  I haven’t seen anything that suggests he’s a dumb runner either, but I wouldn’t consider this tool an asset.

Arm – B.  Ramirez is pretty fair at gunning potential base thieves.  It truly is his defense that’s going to carry him onto a major league roster someday, and as far as I can tell, his arm is better than both the catchers in front of him in the depth chart, Hank Conger and Chris Iannetta.

Performance – D.  Ramirez simply hasn’t performed offensively outside of a hitter’s park.  But the good news is he continues to develop and perform defensively, which should land him in Scioscia’s good graces soon enough. 

Projection – C+. Ramirez has a chance to be a good major league defensive catcher that gets on base.  It remains doubtful that he will hit enough to be an everyday player though.

Estimated MLB Arrival Date – Early 2015

(*As always, the above scouting report is provided by Scotty Allen of LA Angels Insider)

The January 2nd, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Angels have the top-rated outfield, Hunter claims he was misquoted about gay teammates and much more...

The Story: The Angels boast the top-rated outfield in baseball according to Buster Olney.

The Monkey Says: I love his idea of the Angels outfield possibly getting 100 homers and 100 steals combined.  That is a big stretch since it would mean a pretty huge year from Bourjos, but I have to imagine that has never been done before.

The Story: Torii Hunter, predictably, claims he was misquoted regarding his comments about a potential gay teammate making him feel "uncomfortable."

The Monkey Says: The only thing that bothers me more than a bigot is a hypocrite and Hunter appears to now be both.  Kevin Baxter, who wrote the story, immediately refuted Torii's claim and says he has the recorded audio of the interview to prove it.  Way to go, Torii.

It's time for us all to make resolutions for the new year or at least that is what the TV keeps telling me.  My dog keeps telling me to murder my neighbor, but that's whole other post. 

Anyway, since I am a slave to societal conventions, I've got my annual installment of Angel blogger resolutions ready to go!  I think there is even a chance that I will adhere to a few of them this year too.

It is 2013, so I should probably have 13 resolutions, but that seemed like a lot of work, so you'll just have to settle for eight.

2012 is drawing to a close.  For the Angels, it was a bittersweet season as they welcomed superstars Mike Trout and Albert Pujols to the team, but also had to stomach the brutal disappointment of missing the playoffs.  But here at MWAH, it was all good as we had our best year ever and even capped it off with our best month ever in December.  How did it all happen?  Because of you, the readers.  You all read a lot of stuff, probably instead of doing your work, so shame on you.  But just in case you want to procrastinate further, take a trip down memory lane by reviewing these top ten posts for MWAH in 2012:

1. Give Mike Trout a contract extension now - This is the one article that just never stops getting traffic.  Every time he does something amazing, I suddenly got a spike in traffic on this post.  Now, if only I could get Trout and Dipoto to read this and actually get a damn extension done.
2. Mike Trout is Superman and I can prove it - Trout again.  Really, I'm surprised that Trout wasn't the topic of all ten of these posts.  Oh, and he is totally Superman.  I half expect him to start wearing a cape in the field next season.
3. The case for and against firing Mike Scioscia - This is awkward.  I felt icky just writing that post as I am an unabashed Scioscia apologist.  For me, 2012 will always be the season that Scioscia officially fell from grace.  Even if he lasts another decade in Anaheim, 2012 will be a big blemish on his record, which is kind of crazy since the team did still manage to win 89 games.
4. What's next for the post-Greinke Angels - Remember how for a few days after Greinke signed with the Dodgers and Angels fans had no idea what the Halos were going to do?  That was a rough period, but then they signed Hamilton and this post became irrelevant almost immediately.
5. Six Angels that could be traded before Opening Day - I am not the least bit surprised that this was popular since everyone loves trade speculation.  The best part of it though is that none of these guys got traded before Opening Day, although two got released and one of them and one got traded after Opening Day.
6. VIDEO: Mike Trout makes amazing catch, provides further evidence that he is Superman - Oh, I see you thought I was kidding about the Superman thing.  No sir, I am not.  Not kidding at all.
7. The last temptation of Vernon Wells - The only thing more reliable for pageviews than trade rumors or Trout awesomeness is writing about getting rid of Vernon Wells.
8. Mike Trout high school memories (braces included) - Seriously, you people will read anything about Mike Trout, won't you?
9. Please, Angels, let Peter Bourjos go - I was very happy to be wrong about this.
10. The Angels 2012 payroll according to WAR - This was thinly veiled attempt to show how utterly worthless Vernon Wells was in 2011.

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