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Sometimes the revolution just takes a guy by complete surprise.
Things were active enough heading up to the 2014 MLB trade deadline yesterday. And there were enough rumors swirling to lead us to believe that maybe there might be a single big name move if the planets aligned just right. Instead of the planets merely aligning, though, even before we got to noon out here in the West we found Jupiter, Venus and Mars all sitting at our dining table eating our Halo lunch! Had this been some other planetary system, or had we been in some other part of our orbit, we might have tasted some of this meal. But the fare being dished about was not to be ours. So close, so tempting, so beyond our reach. All we are left with is our imagination.
So imagine if Kole Calhoun had a little more power, a little more speed, but struck out more and got on base less frequently, was slightly worse in put-out assists from the outfield, was a couple years older than he is, was under control for only one more full season, and cost 20 times as much in salary as he does now. Do you know what you would have? You would have trade bait for 2 months of Jon Lester, straight up. And Boston would jump all over it.
On the other hand, imagine if Garrett Richards were a little younger, with an even better ERA than he does now, an even better WHIP than he does now, an even better ERA+ than he does now. Do you know what you would have? You would have trade bait to have once paired up with Jose Rondon and get 2 months, and one full season, of David Price. And Tampa would jump all over it.
Or, conversely, imagine if Efren Navarro were a year older, with a lower Slugging Percentage and a lower On Base Percentage, pretty much the same Batting Average as he does now, but you were on the hook for 6 times the current salary that you already are. Do you know what you would have? You would have trade bait to package with spare parts for John Lackey, plus change. And Boston would do that.
Big names moved yesterday, and they moved in a flash. Oakland and Detroit put on a testosterone contest and the Mariners bolstered their offense. The Rays filled roster gaps - current and near future - and saved payroll liabilities. The Red Sox turned their formidable attention to 2015 and the AL East might pay dearly. The Tigers, Mariners and Red Sox have 14 months to get contracts in order before bills come due. Oakland has only 2. All except Boston are now threats to varying degrees to whatever plans we might have had for any 2014 playoff experience. And Boston will be there next year.
But amidst all that churn on Thunderstruck Thursday, which was populated with front line, top rated, active roster players, with few prospects being a part of the significant moves, there was something worth thinking about. The A's, the Cardinals, and the Rays are all considered to be the smartest thinkers in baseball. And the smartest thinkers all did one thing in common: they went after the very strongest starting pitching that they could afford. As strikeouts continue to rise throughout all of Major League Baseball, and batting averages continue to fall, did we just see the first skirmish in the new revolution?
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- Angels Win: It was a good night to be an Angels fan. Mostly because I am a glass-half-full kinda guy. So when the Angels don' t make any moves on Deadline Day, I am thrilled that we didn't make any stupid panic moves to be regretted for eons. Anyway, the Halos avoided a sweep by defeating the tough Orioles in yet another game of extras, when Kole Calhoun walked, Mike Trout singled him over to third base, and Albert Pujols brought him in for a 1-0 win in the 12th. So the Angels won, won against a potential playoff team, avoided a sweep, left town on an upnote, and Trout had 2 hits - in 1 the same game! (That hasn't happened since July 20th, by the way, as Trout's BA plummeted to below .300.)
- Tyler Skaggs: Skaggs had a no-hitter going last night. A no-hitter! For almost 5 innings, which is the point in time when The Rule officially kicks in. But then he took himself out with an injury. Tightening in his forearm. But, on the upside, he felt perfectly fine again before the game ended. Tyler is thinking all is well, and expecting a pending MRI in Tampa to confirm that. Of course, it isn't his call: Scioscia will wait on direction from the medical department before determining if Skaggs needs to go on the disabled list. "Any pitcher that has something in their arm, whether it's their forearm or elbow or shoulder, there's no doubt you're concerned and you want to be cautious with it," Scioscia said. "I don't think we're overly concerned long range, but we're going to certainly monitor this right now."
- Matchups: On the downside, we leave Baltimore with the impression that the Orioles match up well against us. They agree. Sure, they have Gold Glove Best Centerfielder In Baseball Adam Jones, who looks omnipotent when facing an offense that fails to score. But they lead their charge against our barricades with Bud Norris. Bud - Frikkin - Norris. Going into last night's game, Bud Norris had a 2014 ERA of 3.94 all in. And that includes the 1.35 ERA against LAA this year. I am just too GA to do the work and figure out how much more incredibly awful Norris would be if we weren't around. It's inexcusable that this offense of ours, and this bullpen of ours, "matches up" equitably with any squad with a strategy of leveraging the existence of Bud Norris against us.
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This Date in Baseball History: 1906 - Harry McIntire of the Dodgers goes 10 2/3 innings of no-hit pitching before surrendering the first Pirates hit of the game to Claude Ritchey. Thus, McIntire joine Jered Weaver on the list of failed no-hitters. McIntire will end up losing the game 0-1 in the 13th inning on an un-earned run..........1923 - Harry Frazee, a mere 3 years removed from selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees, sell his interest in the Red Sox. (By the way, you may find it interesting to learn that Ruth was sold away from the Red Sox because he was acting like a gigantic ass-hat.)........1924 - Dazzy Vance strikes out 7 consecutive batters. He will K 14 in total..........1933 - Carl Hubbell loses his consecutive inning scoreless streak at 45 1/3 innings, setting a new National League record. This record will stand until 1968, when Bob Gibson surpasses it at reaches 47. The current record, for all of baseball remains with Orel Hershiser at 59 innings, set in 1988..........1941 - Lefty Gomez throws a 5 K shutout, winning 9-0. No big deal, right? Wrong. In this game, Gomez walked 11 batters, establishing a major league record for walks in a shutout. Gomez will stand alone here, until 1970 when his record is tied by Mel Stottlemeyre. The Angels have two players on that list, close to the record. George Brunet with 10 in 1966, and Nolan Ryan with 9 in 1972........1945 - Mel Ott becomes only the 3rd player ever to reach the 500 home run milestone..........1945 - With Dutch Leonard on the mound, Irv Hall of the Phillies lines a shot right back at the pitcher and the ball gets lost inside the Senators hurler's pants. Hall is credited with a single..........1970 - Willie Stargell has a pretty good day, gathering up 14 total bases on 3 doubles and 2 home runs..........1972 - Nate Colbert has an even better day than Stargell did just 2 years before, becoming only the second player ever to hit 5 home runs in a double header. Colbert also drove in a total of 13 runs and accumulating 22 bases on the day..........1975 - Billy Martin is hired as Yankee manager. This will be hiring #1 of 5..........1978 - Pete Rose goes 0-4, ending his consecutive game hitting streak at 44. Afterwards, if I recall correctly, Rose was pretty pissy that the Atlanta pitcher Gene Garber failed to groove him easy fastballs in his final at-bat..........1998 - Garrett Anderson goes 0-4 against the Red Sox, thus ending the longest hitting streak in Angels history at 28 games..........2005 - Rafael Palmeiro, not long after testifying before Congress and refuting accusations that he took steroids - even threatening to sue Jose Canseco for making the accusations - becomes the first high-profile player in MLB history to be suspended for violating the MLB drug policy, after he fails a test..........2007 - The Minnesota I-35 bridge collapses in Minneapolis, killing 13 people and injuring another 145. It also causes a massive traffic jam in the area. With almost 25,000 people inside the Metrodome for a game between the Twins and Royals, officials decide to play the game rather than flood the area with even more traffic. In remembrance of the victims, the Twins will postpone to game scheduled for the next day.
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MLB Trade Deadline:
- Lester/Cespedes: Jon Lester was moved to the Left Coast, in exchange for Yeonis Cespedes. This works for Oakland if they go deep in the playoffs this year, OR they can convince Lester to remain in Beanetown, and not go running back to Beantown, in November. Of course, odds are high that Boston-itis will kick in and fans and front office will extend their claws and start taking cheap swipes at their once-beloved Lester. But this makes Oakland a rotation monster that stacks up formidably against anybody, and the only monster rotation that doesn't have to face their formidable offense. Meanwhile, I don't know what is more interesting: watching what Cespedes does on offense banging shots off The Green Monster, or what what Cespedes does on defense when pushed so close to the infield by the Green Monster. First base is now within range of his howitzer. But Boston has work to do with Cespedes, because Yeonis plays with a contract that prohibits the Red Sox from extending him an offer next year. So he can leave and Boston cannot collect a compensation pick. They get nothing in return.
- Here is the Information Summit from the perspective of Oakland fans
- Here is the Summit from the perspective of Boston fans
- Detroit Countered Oakland's Check, With One of Their Own: David Price moved to the Tiger rotation, as Austin Jackson went to the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay collected Drew Smyly back from Detroit and Nick Franklin back from Seattle. Price is in Detroit until 2015. Say what you will about downtown, but Detroit still has rockin' suburbs. He'll be fine, but the AL Central may never score another run. At least, not until 2015 when Price finally makes it to Manhattan Beach. Tampa Bay made a nice save, plugging a defensive hole that they have and a rotation slot that was inevitable. And they did it before desperation time. Meanwhile, Seattle got a sweet little present to upgrade centerfield, just by not being asleep yesterday. And, best of all, all of these players are still in the 2014 playoff hunt.
- Here is the Info Summit on the Price exchange from Florida's POV.
- Here is Detroit Central for calculating just how right this Price is.
- And here is the take from Mariners Central (LL), just happy to be playing the game early.
- St. Louis tries to pull an Oakland: Preparing themselves to face the Dodgers in the coming playoffs, the Cards went after Justin Masterson first (snicker, snicker), but then jumped on John Lackey and moved him to Anaheim, Missouri. Gaining Lackey, plus pitching prospect Corey Littrell and cash, cost the Cards an Allen Craig, a pretty damned good 1B/CF with lots of club control still on the table, and a Joe Kelly, but Lackey is only going to cost the Cards $500,000 next year. The Dodgers probably think all that is just too cute.
- For the Cardinals Data Dump, click here.
- For the Boston bonanza on the Lackey-luster, peruse here.
- To observe the Dodgers pretty much not giving a shit, here is your path towards enlightenment.
- Missile-Frikkin'-Laneous: Other dudes took bus rides. Probably because some GM's needed to look busy in front of their boss who was getting a lot of calls from his fellow club membership while on the back 9. Instead of me going off on another 3,000 words, just keep clicking here all day and keep up with the Continental Trailways schedule.
- In other news - Hall Of Fame Voting: Here is an interesting byproduct, maybe not accidental, of the recent eligibility change to HoF candidates. It’s a fairly safe declaration to make that the younger the baseball fan or follower, the more tolerant they are of past PEDs use by baseball players. The corollary is that the older the voter, the less tolerant. When a writer becomes a member of the BBWAA, they must wait (and last!) 10 years before they get to vote for HoF candidates. Writers coming into BBWAA are predominantly, almost be definition, young. Thus, young voters are not going to get to bring their PEDs tolerance voting behavior into the HoF process for another 10 years. But by then, because of the change right at this most propitious time by the HoF itself to limit eligibility of any player to 10 years on the ballot, pretty much all the players being debated now will see their eligibility expire before their supporters comprise a large enough voting bloc to get them enshrined.
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What beats beer league softball? How about beer league 1864 baseball! And, if you live out West and don't have access to fancy-dancy official groomed baseball fields, you could always just scratch out some tracks out back just beyond the motherload............Even with Tulo trade rumors running rampant, Rockies react to rude wrongdoing...........Some of you old-timers might remember The Great George Plimpton Baseball Hoax that was Sidd Finch. Looks like the Twins may have whipped out their 3D printer and turned that fairy tale into reality..................Remember when I was writing about having replay judges in New York will remove accountability away from the field of play? Other people are noticing this now, after the fact..........It's so sad to dogpile on top of this year's Rangers misery, what with their Laurel and Hardy outfield. Nah, no it's not so sad at all! But, hey, at least they aren't the Pirates!!..............Jack White does his best impersonation of Sydney Carton while he throws out the honorary first pitch........... Clayton Kershaw is also a little rusty coming out of the All Star Break...........Ewww. When things go really bad for people who happen to be players of the game of baseball..........Here is a long, winding, fascinating journey through the bowels of A-Roid and his PEDs world, with a minor side-story of how MLB slipstreamed a new ban into their program trying to play catchup.
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And now, being the full service weekend linkage institution that we are, here is the obligatory moment we take out of each Friday...for beer...
Friday: The 8th Annual Guns and Hoses Wine, Brew & Food Fest takes place at the Marriott Hotel in Rancho Cordova..........IPA Days 2014 will be held at Downey Brewing Company, which is in Downey of all places. This repeats Saturday and Sunday...........The Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza takes place in Mammoth Lakes all weekend.
Saturday: Downtown Morgan Hill Brew Crawl is being organized in Morgan Hill..........IPA Days 2014 continues at Downey Brewing Company...........The Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza continues.
Sunday: Beer Camp Across America Takeover is at the Libertine Pub in Morro Bay..........The 2nd Annual Advent real Estate & Property Management's North PB Sip 'N Stroll beer and food event is there for the enjoyment at Turqouise Cellars in San Diego..........IPA Days 2014 concludes at Downey Brewing Company concludes...........The Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza takes place in Mammoth Lakes concludes.
BEER BONUS: This year, The California Beer Festival comes to Frank G. Bonelli Park in San Dimas on Saturday, September 6th, from 12:30 - 5PM. I am giving you all a creamy heads up because I am in contact with the organizers and looking to do something special with this year's event. Some of you might want to consider saving the date. For the record, the Halos are playing at 4:10 PM in Minnesota that afternoon.