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.

The April 23rd, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Hamilton dropped down in the batting order, the time the Angels almost trade for Miguel Cabrera and much more...

The Story: Mike Scioscia moved Josh Hamilton to fifth in the lineup against southpaw Derek Holland last night.

The Monkey Says: Scioscia is always loath to drop a star in in the lineup so as not to feed the perception that something is wrong, but moving him down a slot seems like a nice compromise seeing how Hambone can barely make contact against a lefty this year. Plus, knowing that Ron Washington has no problem intentionally walking Pujols to get to Hamilton, it forces Texas to pitch to Pujols more. It will be interesting to see if Josh moves back to clean-up against righties today and tomorrow, but I suspect he will.

The Story: Revisiting the time the Angels almost traded for Miguel Cabrera.

The Monkey Says: Rumors vary that the deal fell apart because the Marlins wanted Kendrick or some say it was because of Wood. I tend to think that it had more to do with the money involved as Arte Moreno hadn't yet lost all semblance of fiscal responsibility at that point.

One of the prime theories we were operating under during the off-season was that Jerry Dipoto had knowingly built a shaky rotation. But to make up for the rotation's deficiencies, he had loaded up on bullpen reinforcements so that Scioscia could shorten the game for the starters. The problem with theories is that they don't always prove true. Take tonight for example.

Joe Blanton had his best start of his Angel career, but that is just damning him with feint praise. He wasn't very good at all having allowed 12 hits in six-plus innings of work without striking out a single batter. That he gave the Angels a chance to win the game was more a lucky side effect than anything else. But the Angels did get that chance, staking Joe to a three-run lead entering the seventh. This is exactly how the plan was supposed to work. Only it didn't.

Scioscia tried to steal a little bit of rest for the bullpen by letting Blanton start the seventh, presumably because the Halos are going to be forced to use Jerome Williams to start this Thursday with Tommy Hanson going on bereavement leave. That may not have been the smartest choice since the very hittable Blanton allowed a hit. That led to Michael Roth coming in and giving up a jamshot bloop single to Berkman. Oh, well. But it was not well because Dane De La Rosa was called upon next and he took that small spark of bad luck and fanned it into a real conflagration. Still, the Angels had a shot to get out of the inning with the lead, only a high-bouncer off the plate by Jeff Baker resulted the tying run scoring.

It was hardly the most egregious bullpen meltdown, but it was one brought about by Dipoto not building enough bullpen depth for his plan to actually work. He knew he was taking a risk on Ryan Madson, who has yet to throw a pitch for the team and he couldn't have planned for Jepsen to get hurt, other than someone always gets hurt. Even in a best case scenario, the bullpen always felt like it was one arm short. Tonight, the whole short-handed bullpen fell short up to and including Ernesto Frieri who failed to hold up his end of the bargain by failing to keep A.J. Pierzynski in the park.

This is isn't first time this has happened this season and it won't be the last. Sooner or later, Dipoto is going to need a new plan.

Rangers 7, Angels 6

Hey look! The Angels are good again. YAAAAY! Now our rankings can be fun again... at least until we start talking about the starting rotation...

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		-- 0 Last Week: 1	Albert Pujols - Just imagine how good he would be if he had someone hitting behind him who could actually hit.
2		-- 0 Last Week: 2	Mike Trout - Dear BBWAA, kindly take note of who wildly outplayed who when the Tigers and Angels played last weekend.
3		+2 Last Week: 5	Mark Trumbo - Trumbo looks exceedingly comfortable at the plate and is really reducing the number of bad at-bats. The league should be scared.
4		-- 0 Last Week: 4	Ernesto Frieri - Just a thought, but maybe Ernasty should pitch more than once a week.
5		+4 Last Week: 9	Garrett Richards - Jerry Dipoto trade Kendrys Morales and Jordan Walden and spent over $28 million only to find out that his second-best starter was a guy already on the team that had been forced into the bullpen.
6		+4 Last Week: 10	Peter Bourjos - He still isn't walking, but he does lead the AL in infield and bunt hits. Hey, man, whatever works.
7		-1 Last Week:6	Chris Iannetta - He is feast or famine with the bat, this week was a feast.
8		+3 Last Week: 11	Sean Burnett - Say hello to the only off-season acquisition by the Angels that is actually working out as well as expected.
9		+4 Last Week: 13	Scott Downs - Slowly but surely he is beginning to resemble the Downs that was the glue of the bullpen for a season and a half.
10		-7 Last Week: 3	Howie Kendrick - I think we all knew clutch, situation hitting Howie was only going to last so long. It was nice having him around. He will be missed.
11		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Luis Jimenez - Lucho not only finally gives the Angels some depth but he might even be giving the Angels a tough decision to make once Alberto Callaspo gets healthy.
12		-4 Last Week: 8	C.J. Wilson - Wilson is a walking, talking example of why the Quality Start stat is complete and utter bullshit.
13		+2 Last Week: 15	Tommy Hanson - Only an Angel pitcher could shutout the powerful Tigers offense for six innings and still have it be a discouraging outing.
14		+6 Last Week: 20	Dane De La Rosa - The Angels traded a prospect to Tampa for a 30-year old reliever that turned out to possibly be pretty decent. Isn't it supposed to work the other way around?
15		-3 Last Week: 12	Jason Vargas - Well, he didn't give up a homer in his lone start this week, so that's progress... right?
16		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Michael Roth - It is only fair that an unorthodox pitcher like Roth be used in an unorthodox bullpen role. If Scioscia makes that happen, Roth might be my new favorite Angel.
17		+4 Last Week: 21	Jerome Williams - For the week, Williams went 6.1 innings, allowed three runs on eight hits and two walks. That is a better line for a start than either Blanton or Vargas had. I'm just sayin'.
18		-11 Last Week: 7	Josh Hamilton - So, anyone else wondering if the Yankees might be willing to trade Vernon Wells for Josh Hamilton?
19		+6 Last Week: 25	Brendan Harris - Look at li'l Brendan muscling up to show some power this week! His defense has been hit or miss, but his bat has done well enough to hold down the fort in Aybar's absence.
20		-3 Last Week: 17	Hank Conger - Anyone that can catch C.J. Wilson and prevent him from completely falling apart is A-OK in my book.
21		+3 Last Week: 24	J.B. Shuck  - FUN FACT: Shuck leads the Angels with a 1.055 OPS.
22		+1 Last Week: 23	Andrew Romine - Which happens first: Aybar comes off the DL or Romine collects another base hit?
23		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Michael Kohn - We are now officially in the "throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks" phase of building a bullpen.
24		-6 Last Week: 18	Joe Blanton - [EXPLETIVE DELETED]
25		-3 Last Week: 22	Mark Lowe - Placed on the DL with a stiff neck that was brought about by constantly hanging his head after walking every other batter.

Dropped from rankings: Jepsen (blaming arm problems on forgetting how to pitch again), Callaspo (made obsolete by Lucho placed on DL)

Biggest Riser: Harris and De La Rosa, up six spots

Biggest Dropper: Hamilton, down 11 spots

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The April 22nd, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Madson suffers another setback, Callaspo and Lowe to the DL and much more...

The Story: Ryan Madson suffered yet another setback after throwing a simulated game over the weekend.

The Monkey Says: I even joked recently that he had been making so much progress that he was due for another setback. So, you know, my bad. This really sucks though as Madson seemed like he was about to head out on a minor league rehab assignment and maybe rejoin the Angels at the end of the month. Then, of course, there is the matter that the Halos desperately need som more talent in the bullpen right now. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

The Story: Alberto Callaspo was placed on the DL with RHP Michael Kohn called up to take his roster spot.

The Monkey Says: Beto just wasn't getting better fast enough and, frankly, Lucho has been playing so well in his absence that there was no need to rush him. Kohn had a strong sprign and then was lights out in Triple-A. He could earn himself a prominent role in a hurry if he impresses.

In a game that looked like it was in the pooper early on the Angels managed to pull a hard, and I mean hard, fought victory. The Angels offense struggled through most of the game, failing to collect crucial hits in 7 of their 8 RISP opportunities. What really gets me excited is how the Angels battled against the such a heralded AL team, a team thought by many to play deep into the playoffs. The Angels lived dangerously off of Pujols' early 2-RBI double that carried the Angels all the way to the walk-off bomb by Mark Trumbo in the 13th.  

In a game where the starting pitching struggled intensely the bullpen came through fantastically, showing once again that it is now a huge strength in the ballclub instead of an incredibly vulnerable weak point. Now the Angels can take some serious heat to Texas this upcoming series and let them know who the real big daddy team of the AL West.

Angels 4 Tigers 3