RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		-- 0 Last Week: 1	Mike Trout - With the week he just had, the Angels should see to it that his entire extended family attends every single one of his games. I imagine giving him a fat contract extension would allow for him to pay for that himself. Sounds like a win-win.
2		-- 0 Last Week: 2	Howie Kendrick - It is official, Kendrick is in the conversation for a batting title now. I never thought this day would come. I can't wait to see how he screws it up.
3		+2 Last Week: 5	Jason Vargas - It was good to see him have a strong bounceback start in a bandbox stadium against potent lineup.
4		-1 Last Week: 3	Jered Weaver - That's weird. It is almost like him recovering a few ticks of velocity didn't fix everything.
5		-1 Last Week: 4	Mark Trumbo - Trumbo seems to be starting his second half swoon a little bit early this year.
6		+1 Last Week: 7	Albert Pujols - A great week for The Machine marred by him ending it with a strikeout to abort what would've been an epic comeback victory for the Halos.
7		+1 Last Week: 8	Kevin Jepsen - He allowed his first run since coming back from injury, but it was unearned. He is making this not believing in him thing really difficult.
8		+4 Last Week: 12	Ernesto Frieri - Three innings, no hits, no walks and six strikeouts. Now this is the Ernasty we've been looking for.
9		+1 Last Week: 10	Chris Iannetta - He can't throw out base stealers, but at least he can pick guys off now.
10		+1 Last Week: 11	Michael Kohn - Two appearances, two batters faced, two strikeouts. Talk about making the most of limited opportunities.
11		-5 Last Week: 6	Erick Aybar - How has nobody mentioned that Aybar has ONE stolen base this season?!
12		+2 Last Week: 14	C.J. Wilson - Wilson had one of his best starts of the year but did it without Conger catching. Maybe Scioscia should see if that can become a trend.
13		+3 Last Week: 16	Tommy Hanson - Hanson looked fantastic this week, but was it because he was facing a lame Yankees lineup or because he is finally rounded into form after his long layoff?
14		-5 Last Week: 9	Jerome Williams - Solid start against a good team? Still not good enough to replace Joe Blanton.
15		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Peter Bourjos - After his home run robbing catch against J.J. Hardly, I think we can all put the "Trout belong in center" debate to bed.
16		-3 Last Week: 13	Scott Downs - Downs has one job, getting lefties out and now he can't even do that right.
17		+4 Last Week: 21	Garrett Richards - It has got to be the lack of nasty, crunchy long hair.
18		+4 Last Week: 19	Hank Conger - The whirly, over-the-head follow through on Hank's home run swings give me a great deal enjoyment.
19		-4 Last Week: 15	Alberto Callaspo - Callaspo has a .541 OPS this month. In completely unrelated news, Luis Jimenez has a .908 OPS this month. If you try and tie those two facts together to form a roster move suggestion, that's on you.
20		-2 Last Week: 18	Josh Hamilton - The power came out a bit, but thus far it doesn't look like the two-hole experiment is going to work out.
21		-1 Last Week: 20	J.B. Shuck  - As a guy who comes off the bench to try and draw a walk, Shuck is pretty useful. Let's try and keep him in that role.
22		-5 Last Week: 17	Dane De La Rosa - Back already? I didn't even get a chance to drop him from the rankings so I could re-add him.
23		-- 0 Last Week: 23	Joe Blanton - Best week ever! Blanton didn't pitch once. Let's do it again some time.
24		-- 0 Last Week: 24	Brendan Harris - We live in a world where having Brendan Harris play first base with Josh Hamilton on the bench and it doesn't really raise any eyebrows.
25		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Brad Hawpe - I'm still confused about the fact that Brad Hawpe even still exists.

Dropped from rankings: Chris Nelson (DFA'd away), Robert Coello (fuckleballed up his shoulder)

Biggest Riser: Frieri, Conger, Richards; up four spots each

Biggest Dropper: Aybar, Williams, De La Rosa; down five spots each

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The June 17th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Scioscia to keep Hamilton in two-hole, the Dodgers cost the Angels TV revenue and much more...

The Story: Joe Blanton will return to the rotation on Tuesday.

The Monkey Says: Which you probably figured out after Jerome Williams threw three innings of relief on Sunday. This is absolutely the wrong move, but at least Scioscia seems to be inching closer and closer to finally pulling the plug on Blanton. Then again, he is only setup for success facing a lineup like Seattle, which was probably the whole point of pushing back his turn in the rotation.

The Story: The Dodgers ended up costing the Angels potentially billions of dollars in their TV contract.

The Monkey Says: Frank McCourt cut a sweetheart deal with Fox so he could try and use the money to pay his own personal debts. The league didn't allow it, but the Angels used that contract as a model for their own deal with Fox Sports. Had Moreno known how much the Dodgers would've ended up getting, he might've been able to get more, but I doubt he would have matched the deal. The impulse here is to blame McCourt for artificially lowering the value of TV contracts at the time, but it seems to me that the fault here lies more with the Angels for not reading the tea leaves properly. Not that they got a bad deal, but it would've been nice to get even more money.

Jesus Christ what a game. A highly un-Weaver-like start made it seem like the Angels were down and out for the count very early on, and that held up all the way until the 9th inning. A monster of an inning led the Angels to rally for 5 runs while down 6-0 to come one run within winning the game. Unfortunately with Trout up to bat with 2 men on he did the last thing we would have wanted to see, he walked....putting the game in Albert Pujols hands. Now I don't want to ride the poor guy into the ground, but Pujols is probably one of the last guys we want to see up to the plate with bases loaded and down by 1 against Mariano Rivera. Trout was the best hope the Angels had, two absolutely epic players battling in Trout and Rivera, two of the best in the game going head to head in a huge moment. It's unfortunate Trout took a base on balls, we could have all predicted a lousy strikeout by Pujols, at least with Trout it would have been easy to stomach.

Maybe now we can get Pujols out of the three hole?

Yankees 6 Angels 5

Hey, I remember this team. The decent starting pitchng. The shut down bullpen. The timely hitting and agressive baserunnig. The occasionally boneheaded play that ends up meaning nothing in the end. It's as if someone went down to the clubhouse and reminded Mik Scioscia what his teams used to excel at. Over the past two games the Angels have been the team on the offensive. Granted the Yankees are not what they used to be, but an extended winning streak is what the Halos need if they have any hope of getting into the playoffs. They play like this and that might just happen.

Angels 6 Yankees 2

We have officially reached the panic section of the Angels' season. The team started the night 10 games under .500 and closer to last place than the wid card race. Things are pretty bleak around Anaheim. So tonight's first game of a 10 game homestand felt more like a referendum on the future than a ballgame. Could the Angels actually salvage something of this season? Would they be able to give us a reason to care about baseball when the dog days hit? Maybe it's a bit hyperbolic to say each game is the single most important one of the 2013 campaign but here we are. Tonight the Halos had to grind a game out and, lo and behold, they came out on top. Is it a momentary respite from the misery this season has been or the start of the great comeback we are all hoping for? Only time will tell.

Angels 5 Yankees 2

They say if you love someone, set them free. If thy come back, they're yours. If that is true, I guess it means Vernon Wells is ours, in a toxic relationship sort of way.

Yes, that fateful date is upon us. The pariah that was Vernon Wells returns to Anaheim this weekend for the first time since he was banished to the Bronx. I'm sure you are all whet with anticipation of this event. I know I am. I had to put a tarp down underneath my desk and everything.

I still recall fondly the day the news that the Wells trade broke. Vernon himself described it as a dream come true as he apparently been secretly harboring a desire to don the pinstripes since he was just a wee lad. Well, the feeling is mutual for me. It was a dream come true to see Wells no longer adorned in Halo red and instead bringing down the Evil Empire from the inside. Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Dreams can become a reality if you want them badly enough.

Still, I can't help but remember that some actually tried to rain on the parade back then. The Angels gave Wells away for some monetary savings and two nothing prospects. Don't they worry that they might need a fourth outfielder? Won't somebody please think of the bench?!

Yes, there were those that actually thought the deal might blow up in the Angels' face. How that was even possible, I don't know seeing how the trade they made to initially acquire Wells years ago already exploded and left a smoldering hole where their face should be. There really isn't a face left to blow up. However, Wells did make us all a little nervous the first month of the season when he posted a shockingly great .911 OPS in April. The dream was starting to like a nightmare and became a full fledged night terror when the Halos lost Peter Bourjos to injury and had nothing but scraps on their bench to replace him with. How could this be?

Oh, it couldn't be. Nevermind. Everyone move along and return to your homes. Nothing to see here.

The June 14th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Angels tried to draft Tebow, sign a top draft pick and much more...

The Story: Former scout Tom Kotchman recalls the time the Angels tried to draft Tim Tebow.

The Monkey Says: Drafting football players was an old trick the Eddie Bane regime loved for some reason. Let's just be thankful that this didn't happen because Tebowmania coming to Anaheim might have been enough to make me quit life.

The Story: The Angels signed their third-round draft pick, Keynan Middleton.

The Monkey Says: He signed for under slot, as did two of the other top ten picks they signed. They have one other guy who signed exactly at slot, so they have some excess pool money to throw around which will be important when it comes to them top pick Hunter Green and some of the other high school talents they drafted.