The November 15th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Hunter signs in Detroit, Weaver finishes third in Cy Young voting, Nate Silver says Trout should win AL MVP and much more...

The Story: Torii Hunter signed with the Detroit Tigers for $26 million over two years.

The Monkey Says: This kind of worked out for everyone.  Torii is a great fit for Detroit and he got them to overpay him by a few million which somewhat justifies the Angels' decision not to re-sign him.  Then again, he might've taken less to stay with the Halos had they been more serious about keeping him.  Personally, I know people are mad Hunter is leaving, but I just don't seem him being worth this kind of contract and, more importantly, if letting him go allows the Angels to keep Greinke and sign another quality starter, it is all worth it.

The Story: Jered Weaver finished third in the AL Cy Young voting.

The Monkey Says: That was completely expected.  What wasn't expected was that some of the votes he got would become controversial.  Jered got just two second-place votes, both coming from Angels beat writers.  Some have pointed to that as a source of blame for Verlander not winning the award, as it was one of the tightest Cy Young votes in history.  Of course the other controversial vote was the Texas writer that gave Fernando Rodney a first place vote.  So, there's that.

The baseball world is still frothing with rage over the latest and greatest Marlins fire sale trade.  Actually, calling it a fire sale trade isn't fair, it is really more of a raging inferno sale trade what with them dumping their two biggest free agent purchases from the off-season before along with pretty much every other player on their roster making even a little bit of money.

But as crazy as that trade was, it actually could have been even crazier.  Surely we all remember how close the Marlins came to signing both Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, who of course ended up signing with the Angels.  As it turns out, a major reason that Albert and C.J. passed on Miami's respective offers was that they didn't include no-trade clauses, which is a Marlins club policy.  So, yeah, good call, fellas.

That got me thinking though.  The Marlins essentially decided that their spending spree went awry and that they needed to cut their losses, blow things up and start over (and pocket a lot of cash, because Jeffrey Loria is an epic scumbag).  One could say that the Angels big purchases didn't pan out either, though obviously not quite on the same level as Miami.  So, what if the Halos made good on that hypothetical and followed the Marlins' example by selling off Pujols, Wilson and maybe another bloated contract so that they could start over?

I know it seems kind of crazy to imagine, but I also think there is some logic to it.  Allow me to explain and then judge for yourself whether or not it is a worthwhile tact.

The November 14th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Angels 'low-balled' Hunter, Trout nominated for SI Sportsman of the Year, statistical revolution still won't be strong enough to make Mike Trout the AL MVP and much more...

The Story: The Angels "insulted" Torii Hunter with an offer of a one-year, $5 million contract.

The Monkey Says: That is straight from Hunter's mouth, so there is no reason to doubt it or the fact that he felt disrespected by it.  That piece of information certainly makes it clear that Dipoto never had any intention of bringing him back and really just made the offer so he could say that he made one.

The Story: Mike Trout has been nominated for the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

The Monkey Says: But he still isn't going to win the AL MVP.

Here is a scary thought, Kevin Jepsen.  That's it, just the idea of him.

That probably seems like an awfully mean thing to say about the one member of the Angel bullpen who wasn't a greasefire in the second half of the 2012 season.  But the fact of the matter is that we've all been fooled before by Jepsen.  Let's not forget how great Jepsen looked in 2010.  Back then, he had caused many to forget about his rough rookie season, instead making people think he might have what it takes to be the Angels' closer of the future.  Then, as we all know, he imploded in 2011, leaving the Angels without a critical part of their bullpen. 

One knee surgery and a few trips to the minors later, Jepsen was back with a resurgent second half in the 2012 season.  His velocity was back, his control was better than ever and his status as a key cog in the relief corps restored.  In other words, he is right back where he was coming into 2011, which is great for him, but terrible for the Angels if he ends up falling apart again.

Yes, the Angels are once again in the uncomfortable position of possibly having to trust Kevin Jepsen.  One would like to think Jerry Dipoto would upgrade the bullpen's talent and thus minimize Jepsen's role, but we know he isn't looking to spend much money on relievers and that same philosophy led him to go into the 2012 season with a clearly under-manned bullpen.  So, yeah, Jepsen could be back in a big way for the Halos.  The question is will his regained talent be coming back with him?

The November 13th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Trout unanimous pick for AL Rookie of the Year, Trout ready to move to left, assessing the risk with Zack Greinke's mental health and much more...

The Story: Mike Trout was the unanimous winner of the American League Rookie of the Year award.

The Monkey Says: I think he even got some National League votes too, just for good measure.  This was totally expected, but you never know when some beat writer for some tiny local paper is going to get creative and find a reason not to give the obvious choice a vote.  Perhaps that didn't happen this year because for the first time ever, the actual individual ballots have been made public.  That's an amazing step forward for the BBWAA who has kept the voting in the dark for so long and tried, poorly, to defend the decision to do so.

The Story: Mike Trout is ready to move to left field and for life without Torii Hunter as a mentor.

The Monkey Says: It is nice to see that he isn't letting his early success go to his head and using it to justify being stubborn about moving out of center field which he clearly prefers.

I hope your happy, Baseball Writers Association of America.  You've gone and screwed up another major award voting.  Oh, sure, the winner of the AL MVP hasn't been announced yet, but we all know you are going to do the wrong thing and give the award to Miguel Cabrera.  Don't feel too bad about it though, getting things wrong is kind of what you, as a collective, do.  It's your thing.

The problem is your "thing" annoys the living shit out of me, partly because the things you foul up are so utterly predictable but also because you have an uncanny knack for using your "thing" to make me care far more about an award that I really shouldn't have any active concern over.  I guess that is your "other thing."

I can't begin to tell you how much I don't want to care about who is announced as the winner of the AL MVP this Thursday, but I do.  I care SO much.  But I care for the wrong reasons.  I care because Mike Trout will not win AL MVP not because he isn't the best player, but because I get the sense that many BBWAA voters will cast their ballot for Miguel Cabrera less because of what Miggy did and more because they want to give a giant middle finger to the sabermetric community.

The November 12th, 2012 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim including Dodgers in pursuit of Hunter, Trout win Internet Baseball Awards AL MVP, Bogar and Hampon join minor league coaching staff and much more...

The Story: The Dodgers are the latest team said to be in pursuit of Torii Hunter.

The Monkey Says: I can't see that happening because it would require the Dodgers to trade Andre Ethier, who they recently signed to a bloated contract extension.  They'd have to move Ethier before Torii would even consider signing there and my guess is Hunter will have already been scooped up before the Dodgers find a taker for Ethier (if they ever do).  While we are talking about the Dodgers, consider it a blessing that they won the bidding for Korean pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, which could very well take them out of the bidding for Zack Greinke.

The Story: Mike Trout won the AL MVP voting in Baseball Prospectus' Internet Baseball Awards.

The Monkey Says: Good for him, I hope he enjoys it because he isn't going to win the "real" AL MVP award that is announced later this week.