The April 25th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Aybar and Madson head out on rehab assignments. the curious lack of stolen bases by the Angels and much more...

The Story: Erick Aybar and Ryan Madson both were sent out to extended spring training to begin rehab assignments.

The Monkey Says: Aybar is hoping to play a game or two and join the team in Seattle this weekend, but he might wait until the Oakland series based on reports from yesterday. The more interesting news here is that Ryan Madson will supposedly be pitching in live games for the first time in his rehab, however he also reportedly didn't throw a scheduled simulated game earlier this week, so he may not be all the way back to where he was before his latest setback. Let's hope that this turns out to be more of a real step forward though because the Angels badly need another quality right in the bullpen as soon as humanly possible.

The Story: Why are the Angels not stealing more bases?

The Monkey Says: This is actually a big question across all of baseball. For reasons that nobody seems to fully understand, stolen bases are down markedly across the league, so this isn't an isolated issue with the Halos. That being said, the Angels have been conservative of late in my eyes. Specifically, the team seems reluctant to put Peter Bourjos on the move, especially Monday night when he had a leadoff single and then declined to try and steal his way into scoring position, which is pretty infuriating. In their defense, the Angels have hit-and-run quite a bit, so they aren't remaining stagnant.

The Angels actually aren't terrible. A game like this one, an 11-3 laugher at the hands of the Rangers, would normally indicate that the losing team is not a particularly good one. But, injuries.

As Michael Roth, a college pitcher less than a year ago, valiantly navigated through 3 spotless innings before finally tiring, it became painfully clear just how stricken by injuries this Halos ballclub has been. The big bullpen pieces this offseason, Ryan Madson and Sean Burnett, have both been nicked and hurt here and there. Madson has yet to throw to an in-game pitch. Fellow reliever Kevin Jepsen has been plagued with a strained triceps. Another bullpen piece, Mark Lowe, is out with a strained neck. Shortstop Erick Aybar has a heel contusion. Third baseman Alberto Callaspo's right caf has been as tight as a yoyo.

And the biggest guns have also been bitten by the injury bug. Ace Jered Weaver freakily shattered his left elbow. Albert Pujols is dealing with plantar fascitis, which is as painful as it sounds.

When viewed in that light, the fact this squad has mustered an 8-12 record can seem a little miraculous. So, Mike Scioscia's limited bullpen "staff day" today was a disaster. Did anyone honestly expect Michael Roth to dominate this potent Ranger lineup? The bullpen is taxed heavily. When pitchers are tired, they pitch badly. The Angels entire pitching staff was and is tired. So they pitched badly.

Here's to a new day tomorrow, eh folks?

Rangers 11, Angels 3

Game Notes

-- I suppose one of the more interesting late-game plotlines was whether Mike Scioscia would give in to the fun and put a position player on the mound. The favorites were Mark Trumbo, who pitched in highschool, or JB Shuck. Of course, Scioscia opted to keep things un-fun. Scioscia's gonna sosh.

-- Um. Yeah. I've got nothing else.

Halos A-Hole of the Game

Anyone just feel like _________ this guy?

A little over a week ago Mike Scioscia made the impulsive bold and probably correct decision to move Mike Trout down in the order, slotting him in the two-hole and declaring that he would be there to stay. This came on the heels of Angel fans spending a great deal of time wringing their hands for an entire off-season over who Mike Scioscia should have bat in the two-hole, presumably behind Trout. Well, it turns out that all of that needless worry was, in fact, proven to be needless because Scioscia just blew the debate up.

But lo and behold he has given us a new source of angst through his batting order machinations. The all important lineup configuration debate has sprung anew with questions over who should now assume the leadoff spot so vacated by Trout.

The answer might seem obvious since it is really the same players being considered for leadoff that were considered for the two-hole, but the problems are not real equivalents. Sabermetric research has suggested that your overall best hitter should bat second, so shifting Trout down a spot makes some sense. What the research suggests for lead off is that OBP is king and putting someone with power in that role is something of a waste. This is different than the two-hole discussion we previously had where we assumed Trout was not an option. OBP was still very important, but there was more of a necessity for the batter to be one of the top hitters on the team, which is why there was so many people lobbying for Hamilton to bat second (you know, before he started playing and stunk up the joint). There was also some momentum behind the more old school thought that the two-hole guy should be a bunt and bat control guy, a notion that Scioscia clearly subscribed to when he selected Aybar for the gig, much to my chagrin.

The April 24th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including 'disrespect' for Hamilton, Aybar out until next week, Burnett ailing and much more...

The Story: Dave Schoefield thinks dropping Josh Hamilton to fifth in the batting order is "disrespectful."

The Monkey Says: Calm down. He moved down one spot. It isn't like he was batting ninth. There was also the lefty-lefty matchup to consider. This is a fairly justifiable decision given Josh's struggles. We know from Pujols last season that this isn't something Scioscia considered lightly. To say it was born out of panic is just wrong-headed. Maybe Scioscia just wanted to light a bit of a fire under Hamilton and I don't really see anything wrong with that.

The Story: Erick Aybar will not come off the DL on Thursday as first expected.

The Monkey Says: He is going to test his heel in a few extended spring training games first and hopefully return for the Oakland series next week.

In a game that looked uncomfortably similar to last night’s meltdown, Howie Kendrick sent his teammates back to the locker room with something to celebrate. The Angels battled to a 4-3 lead heading into the eighth behind a gutsy performance from starting pitcher Jason Vargas. But a rough, rough defensive eighth inning brought Vargas’ first victory to a screeching halt.

Mark Trumbo made a mental error, making an unnecessary throw home from first instead of taking a sure out. Andrew Romine later completely missed a routine ground ball, allowing the bases to load with zero outs. Reliever Scott Downs gutted it out, however, and allowed only one run to score, tying the game 4-4.

In the ninth, with a runner on second, Adrian Beltre smoked a sure double to left field off of Ernesto Frieri, only to find it snuffed by a spectacular Mike Trout diving grab.

Two innings later, Howie Kendrick sent a screaming liner over the centerfield wall to give the Angels their second walk-off victory in three days. These April victories count, and the more the Angels can snag, the better, obviously.

Angels 5, Rangers 4

Game Notes

-- Peter Bourjos is really starting to take hold of that leadoff slot. The speedster legged out another infield single, and gave me another unhealthy heart palpitation. Is this only infatuation? Or is there more...?

-- Josh Hamilton went 1 for 5, but the box score doesn’t tell the whole story. The slugger is starting to really swing the bat with more authority, being robbed of an RBI double to deep left in the first inning by a terrific Jeff Baker sliding catch. Baker paid the price, however, with what looks like a bruised left knee. This Angels blogger thinks Hamilton is priming up for a huge month of May.

-- After recording the final out in the seventh, Jason Vargas became only the second Angel starting pitcher this season to complete seven innings. His pitch location and command looked much better in this outing, and looks to start eating innings with the same voracity as last year. The Angels bullpen could really use the diet. (Forgive this terrible food analogy)

-- Speaking of the bullpen, Dane De La Rosa did a nice job rebounding from last night’s rough outing, logging two perfect innings to set up Kendrick 11th inning heroics. With the bullpen stretched so thin, Scioscia had no choice bringing him, and Downs, and Frieri back with no rest. But a job well done holding together a creaky ship the best they could.

-- Luis Jimenez’ defense is miles away better than it was even in spring training. The rookie made a few more nice plays at third, and ignited a late-inning rally with a hit that ultimately fell short. But you’ve just got to love the poise this young man is playing with.

Halo Hero of the Game

'Nuff said.

It’s no surprise the Angels have a farm system that ranks dead last or next to last in all of baseball.  There are many reasons for this.  When Eddie Bane was the scouting director, the Angels were prone to drafting high-risk, high-reward high schoolers and rarely dipped into the collegiate ranks.  This resulted in a few homeruns, like Mike Trout and Peter Bourjos, but a lot of strikeouts as well (think Ryan Bolden or Cam Bedrosian so far).  When there aren’t any players in-between, the organizational ranks are left bare once the good players are promoted. 

The Angels also had an unfortunate scandal in Latin America that resulted in scrapping the entire infrastructure out there.  For two to three years, there simply weren’t a lot of highly desirable Latin American prospects coming to the U.S and making a difference.  The Angels also have made it a habit of signing top free agents in the offseason, which has resulted in the loss of top draft picks on a continual basis.  It may only be one or two picks, but players like C.J. Cron and Kaleb Cowart are considerably easier to find in the first round than they are in the third round. 

Finally, the Angels have traded away many of their most desirable prospects to land big name major leaguers to help in the short term.  So what players could we add to the Angels organization had they not made these trades and how would they rank as a system?

Another season, another big money Angel free agent slugger struggling in April. As we all know far too well by now, Josh Hamilton has been flat out terrible for the Halos. His numbers really can't get much worse, nor can his overall dilemma given that his problems are much more difficult to figure out than one might think.

The easy answer is that his plate discipline and contact ability have gone to crap. That is true, sort of. His plate discipline and contact rates have always been pretty ugly, but it has always worked for him, at least until he had a prolonged slump late last season and then again to start his Angel career. Given how bad he has been this year, one would expect his numbers at the plate to be much worse than normal. But they aren't, and so begins are quest to figure out what the hell is going on with Hamilton.

The discipline and contact issues are bound to be a factor, but they are actually somewhat improved over 2012. His overall swing rate has decreased by over a full percentage point from 2012, but it is almost one percentage point above his 2011 swing rate. He is also making a lot more contact than in 2012, up to 71.3% from 64.7% in 2012. That is actually pretty encouraging, but his current rate is still the second-worst rate of his career, so it isn't all good news.

Now here is where it gets very confusing: Hamilton is currently posting a career-best by a substantial margin of 3.99 pitches per plate appearance. That stat nearly blew my mind, though it is somewhat explained away that Hamilton has been striking out at a 28.4% rate, which is a ridiculous rate. Turns out that you need to see at least three pitches to strikeout. Who knew? But at the same time, Hamilton's 6.2% walk rate isn't too far below his career average, so it isn't as if he is completely falling apart at the plate.