Jered Weaver has a broken elbow in his non-pitching arm. Jon Paul Morosi talks about the Angels‘ April pains.
Los Angels Angels
Buster Olney discusses Josh Hamilton’s 5-year, $125 million deal with the Angels and thinks Mike Scioscia will be under more pressure than any other manager in baseball.
What are the odds Zack Greinke will return to the Milwaukee Brewers as a free agent this offseason?
Greinke was traded to the Angels at the trade deadline due to the Brewers sinking as low as they have all year (thanks bullpen!). However, Greinke is only a loaner for the Angels this season, as he is a free agent after the 2012 season.
The real question is: where will Greinke end up?
The Brewers would love to resign him; they have already reportedly offered to resign him to a Matt Cain-esque,
5-year, $100M+ extension, which he reportedly turned down. To give hope to Brewers fans, Greinke has expressed his love for Milwaukee on several occasions, although the true sentiment behind those comments can be argued.
Everybody loves a home run. The Home Run Derby has provided some fantastic ones over the years. The 2012 teams have been announced and will face off on July 9.
The NL Home Run Derby team is captained by the Dodgers Matt Kemp. He announced his team on Sunday night, which includes first time participant Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Gonzalez. Kemp has been out of the game since May 30 with a strained left hamstring but he intends to participate in the Derby. He has 12 homers on the year. Beltran is in second place in the NL with 20 homers on the year. Stanton has 19 and Gonzalez has 17. Kemp had wanted to have teammate Andre Ethier on the Derby team but a strain of his left oblique prevented that selection.
For Angels fans, it’s easy in hindsight to look back and cruse their team for not starting the season with Mark Trout on the Opening Day roster. But on the other hand, would Angels fans dare to imagine where their club would be right now had Mike Scioscia and Co. not made the call to bring the 20-year-old phenom up to the big leagues?
It was April 27th. The Los Angeles Angels were 6-14, and for a team that was supposed to be a World Series shoo-in, some were already declaring the Halos’ 2012 season was over. Yet thankfully, because of injuries and several key players under-producing, the Angels were practically forced to call up Trout sooner than they had originally intended.
Quick—how many wins does Cliff Lee have in 2012?
Well, if you were watching Tuesday night’s Dodgers-Phillies game but found something better to watch at the seventh-inning stretch and said “one,” you’d still be wrong.
Thanks to another clutch hit from Dodgers second baseman Elian Herrera, the boys in blue rallied late, effectively keeping the Phillies’ ace winless in 2012. Lee (0-3) took a two-hitter into the eighth and was a strike away from getting out of danger before Herrera hit a 2-2 pitch off the left-field wall to put the Dodgers ahead. Herrera’s double would prove to be the game-winning hit, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the Phillies.
In the American League, the story for the first full week of June remains much the same as it has been for the entire 2012 season – Rangers lead the way.
The Texas Rangers are still the best in the American League after 55 games. The Rangers are 32-23 and have a .582 winning percentage. Of late though, they have fallen off a bit going 5-5 over the last 10 games. It has done little close the gap between other teams in the AL West however. The Angels have been playing much better ball than earlier in the season going 7-3 for their last 10 but they are still 4.5 games behind the Rangers. Tampa Bay and the White Sox lead the AL East and Central divisions with the exact same records 31-23.
The only downside to Mike Trout absolutely killing it in the major leagues since he was called up back on April 27 is that it took the Los Angeles until April 27 to pick the phone and make the call.
At no point since his arrival to the big leagues was Trout’s ability put on display than during the Angels‘ 4-2 victory over division rival Texas Rangers Friday night. The 20-year-old Trout drove in or scored all of the Angels runs, including a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning that would ultimately end up being the game-winning hit.
Los Angeles Angeles fans can finally breath a sigh of relief. Their team is finally at .500 again for the first time since April 9, or basically when the 2012 season started.
In a bizarre back-and-forth game with the New York Yankees Monday night, the Angels came out on top thanks to first baseman Mark Trumbo’s solo blast in the bottom of the ninth to give the Halos a 9-8 victory, extending their winning streak to eight games.
“I was super proud of the way we came together against a really good team,” said Trumbo, who came just a single shy of hitting for the cycle. “Of course they’re going to score some runs in that situation, but it’s huge the way we came back from the first inning on.”
