______________________________________________________________________________________________
Alden Gonzalez puts up an article on the official site listing 5 Angels to keep an eye on down the stretch. His list is: Jerry Dipoto - keep an eye on him because of the moves he might make; Josh Hamilton - keep on eye on him because he needs to regain his confidence against curve balls and be a productive bat; Garrett Richards - because he has a chance to overtake Felix Hernandez in the hearts and minds of CYA voters over his final 9 starts; Mike Trout - because he is awesome; and C.J. Wilson - because he needs to drop the snark (you haven't earned it, dude) and listen to "...the guy in the 18th row who's had four beers..." and in that moment knows more about what the hell you are doing wrong than you do.
So that's Alden's list. Fair enough. You got yours. Let's hear it. Who are the 5 Angels that need a close paying attention to down the stretch if this team is to make the playoffs??
Mine are:
Matt Shoemaker: because this guy has had a moderate amount of success that has resulted in outcomes way above his pay grade. This is smoke and mirrors stuff, folks, and it cannot last forever. Personally, I am hoping for 2 or 3 happy surprising seasons ala the Brendan Donnelly phenomenon of '02/'03/'04. But we cannot afford for the pixie dust to expire before his next 9 or 10 starts.
Josh Hamilton: because Josh, if you are reading this, put your laptop down and go read Proverbs 28:26. Then pick up the phone and dial Don Baylor.
Albert Pujols: because, historically, Pujols tends to do his best work in August and September. This is the time when he can carry the team and make up for slumps elsewhere in the order. The roster-wide slump now underway won't last forever, but it might for certain individuals. And a hot Pujols will make those precious few irrelevant.
Mike Scioscia: because as Oakland and the Halos fall back towards the pack here in the second half, things could start to get tight. As long as the margin of error is very wide, Scioscialism does not rear it's Ugly Head of Confusion. When things get tight, on the other hand...
Mike Trout: because Mike Trout is just awesome. And watching awesome is why we all watch baseball anyway.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
- Garrett Richards: Richards is the best. You knew that. But did you know the "why"? Jeff Sullivan over at Fangraphs may be on to something. Starting this season neither left or right handed batter have the ability to pull with power on his pitches. "...a year ago, Richards wasn’t easy to pull the ball against, and this year he’s gotten even more dominant in terms of his contact neutralization. His pitches are sharper, his pitches are harder, and his pitches are better located and mixed up absent predictability. For years, when we watched Garrett Richards, we wondered why his results didn’t match the perception. They’re matching the perception. Richards now is exactly as impossible as he was supposed to be."
- Mike Trout, 2014 MVP Runner-up: At least, that's what is starting to formulate around the league as discussion points. Various players being proposed by various factions due to various lines of reasoning. For example, Adam Jones, not just the best centerfielder in the American League, but the best damned baseball player, period...........Or how about ESPN's line of thinking that Felix Hernandez, Robinson Cano or Kyle Seager are potential MVPs..........To be fair, ESPN is not alone in pulling for King Felix. Ok, linking to BR was a cheap trick, so how about Fangraphs supporting the theory of Hernandez?..........Hell, I can even find a mention in favor of Jose Abreu (gotta scroll down near the end), or even two..........At least we are not talking much about Jose Bautista anymore.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
This Date In Baseball History: 1905 - The A's defeat the Browns 2-0 in a rain shortened game, as the Browns go hitless and strikeout 9 times out of their total 15 outs. But A's ace Rube Waddell doesn't get credit for the no-hitter due to, you know, rules and all..........1916 - Babe Ruth outpitches Walter Johnson as the Red Sox defeat the Senators 1-0 in 13 innings..........1926 - Babe Herman (not to be confused with George "Babe" Herman Ruth) doubles with the bases loaded, but only 1 run scores as Herman ends up joining two other base-runners on third base...........1941 - The Senators will again lose to Boston on a fateful outcome on this date, this time due to forfeit. After 7 full innings and with the Senators leading 6-3, rain takes over the field. the game is called after 40 minutes, apparently sealing the victory for the Sens. But Boston manager Joe Cronin protests that the Washington ground crew deliberately refused to cover the field, and the American league office agreed, awarding the contest to the Red Sox via forfeit...........1951 - The Catch, three years before The Catch. (The more fun to experience this would be to go here, and click the top of the 8th and watch the action!).........1970 - Tom Seaver has a 2-1 lead and 1 out and proceeds to strike out Bob Tillman for out #2. But the ball gets past catcher Jerry Grote, allowing Tony Gonzalez to score from third base and tie the game. Grote's throw back to Seaver, covering home, sails high and soars out towards second base. This allows Rico Carty to score from third, after Carty had moved over from second on the passed ball. And just that quickly, the Braves defeat the Mets 3-2. (Check out Top 5 Plays here!)..........1975 - Earl Weaver is ejected twice in the same day. Once during the first game of a doubleheader and then before the second game even begins..........1989 - Dave Dravecky, pitching for the second time after overcoming cancer, breaks his throwing arm while pitching for the Giants in a game against the Expos. (The videos are out there, but I am not going to link to any of them.).........1999 - Chuck Finley becomes the first pitcher in baseball history to strike out 4 batters in the same frame twice in his career as the Angels best the Tigers 10-2. Finley will actually end up doing this THREE times in his career..........2013 - The Owners vote to extend instant replay into the challenge system we have today. The final approval will be voted on again, in November.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
- Next Commissioner: How do you feel this morning? Enlightened? Uplifted? Empowered? Doesn't knowing that the next Fearless Leader of All Major League Baseball is the very embodiment of all that Bud Selig wishes a Commissioner to be?? Rob Manfred is now your go-to guy. Sure, Manfred is He Who Abused the American Legal System On Behalf Of Vengeful Billionaires To Persecute An Asshat, but he has presided over labor peace, but I credit that to weak MLBPA leadership so I suppose as long as MLBPA remains weak, Manfred remains a cool dude.
- Ernesto Frieri: Food for thought: As recently as two months ago Mike Scioscia, in a Mathesian level of stubborness, was insisting on trotting out Frieri as the owner of the "role" of 9th-inning closer. You already knew that Frieri was moved off to the Pirates, and that Frieri was blowing up even in Pittsburgh. Yesterday it was announced that Frieri cleared waivers - which means no other team in all of Major League Baseball wants him at any price, and Frieri then just accepted a demotion by the Pirates to AAA. Not even the Pirates want him. But Sosh did which, as of this writing, is one reasonable difference between why we are in second place, and not in first place.
- Baserunning: This is something maybe we should be talking about. In general, the rules of running the bases and how fielders and runners are to behave during play are inconsistent, and inconsistently applied. As Matthew Pouliot advocates over at Hardball Talk, this needs to get cleaned up. I particularly am charmed by his idea of a double-wide first base bag, which might have helped Erick Aybar in the first inning on Tuesday, when he was called out for running inside the line. This is the same as Pouliot is using as an example withe the Yankees-Orioles game on Wednesday. And we also had another episode at home platein the White Sox-Giants game this week (which I agree was catcher obstruction, and I seriously disagree with Deadspin's assumptions on that play).
- Pay Inequities: Sometimes when you go searching too hard to find a problem nobody is worrying about, you find a potential problem worth talking about. Matt Swartz at The Hardball Times writes about pay inequalitybetween White, Black, Latin and Japanese players in MLB. And, at a data level, it is true that there are real differences in compensation. Matt dives deep into the variables and collates them into various views and they all keep coming back and presenting the same thing. His conclusions are rather long-winded, and soft, but the whole article makes for interesting thinking. One thing I would like for him to consider concerning Latin players and their willingness "...to take discounts when they sign extensions far in advance of reaching free agency" is the relative value of the dollar back in their native countries. I have been told by a businessman who caters to professional Latin MLB players is that, for many, the standard MLB pension alone is sufficient to secure the financial future of themselves and their families.
- The Biz of Baseball: One of the subtexts ongoing in the jockeying for next Commissioner of Baseball was the subject of MLBAM revenue. While Rob Manfred was always the favorite, the two dark horses had a candidacy claim wrapped more around Internet and broadcast revenue protection and growth.Tom Werner was being pushed into the fray by folks such as Arte Moreno as an agent of change: attack the players union and redirect more cash from MLBAM into the pockets of the owners. The Werner faction took the Manfred faction to the mat. But the other candidate leads us to some more interesting background. Tim Brosnan dropped out altogether leaving the fight to Manfred vs. Werner. But who was this Brosnan guy in the first place, and why was he supported by anybody? Well, Brosnan, the MLB Executive Vice President of Business, as it turns out is THE guy who built the blackout empires. Pretty sad, actually, that our only alternative to Bud Selig's own choice are the guy who built the blackout nightmare we fans suffer under (Brosnan), and a guy who espouses leveraging those blackouts to lock in more dollars that should go more directly into the owners own coffers (Werner). Isn't it funny how businessmen feel about market regulations when those regulations enhance their own market manipulations?
- More Baseball Biz: By the way, keep a wary eye out for the lawsuit brought by fans against blackout practices. A US District Judge has denied MLB's attempt to use it's anti-trust exemption and get it excused from the suit. Judge Shira Sheindlin does not care one whit for the lack of logic coming from the pro-blackout MLB attorneys. By the way, in one of the links above, there is this nugget: as evidenced in a letter from Comcast to MLB, should MLB decide to drop their practice of regional partitions and blackouts, the Regional Sports Networks would sue MLB because it would water down their package products. Essentially, if MLB were to lose the blackouts, all those RSN's would end up gutting the rights fees they are paying to the Dodgers, Angels, and everybody else.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Hey CJ, you really want to know why sharks matter? Because sharks know how to STRIKE, DAMMIT!............Clutch Lives!............I use heat maps in my line of work all the time, and I don't care how much they want to tweak these things, baseball heat maps are still a long way away from being en efficient visual tool.............This only makes sense once you know the history of how Adrian Beltre feels about people touching his head. And then, it's pretty funny...........The best ballpark giveaways around both leagues, for 2014. Predictably, we are kinda weak here, but not as bad as might have been. On the other hand, this failed to make the cut!............It's only understandable that when your fellow employees are dismissive of the value you provide, you might as well quit trying to help them and go off and do something else...........Fixing the voting for Baseball HoF Voting, as figured out by "scientists". Step 1, allow for unlimited number of selections. Step 2, raise the threshold among all voters from the current 75%. Done................Northwestern University is clearly not located in a warm-weather state..........Colossus Google has decided. Mike Trout has won the 2014 AL MVP..........."Beer or tacos? Both, you fool!"..........Get it out of your head right now, people, Jon Lester is not going to be in the Angels rotation next year.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
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: California Beer Camp takes place at Steingarten LA. Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker, and ballast Point will all be in attendance.
Saturday: 101 Can Release Party is to be conducted at Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company, in Buellton...........Barley 2 Beer 7 Vine 2 Wine Classic will occur at Cal Institute Of the Arts in Valencia..........Timeless Pints, in Lakewood, celebrates One Year in existence..........Stone Brewing Company, being slightly older than Timeless Pints, celebrates an anniversary of their own at Cal State San Marcos. That would be their 18th birthday...........Firestone Walker 805 Beach Festival takes place at Avila Beach..........Santa Barbara Sea Of Suds(something that happens every now and then) will be going on at, of all places, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.
Sunday: Take the day off and enjoy a brew at home. Preferably with friends!