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Ka-Frikken-BOOM, Baby! Whaddaya think of THAT?! Matt Shoemaker leads off his game last night by hitting Brock Holt with his very third pitch, thus blowing his shot at a perfect game. Damn. Oh well, let's flirt with a no-hitter instead! Screw that doom and gloom our season is lost stuff, Shoe just decided to put on his scary-ass wild man glare and pitch his ass off, anyway. It would be 21 batters later before Will Middlebrooks would even get as far as first base, doubling in the 7th and erasing Shoemaker's no-no bid. Shoe would make it through 2 outs in the 8th before yielding to Mike Morin, walking off the mound with a line of 7.2 innings pitched, 1 hit surrendered, 1 walk, against 9 strikeouts. The Angels took the game with a 2-0 win, giving Shoemaker the Rookie a record of 12-4 while carrying an ERA of 3.56. Oh, and on the offensive side, Howie Kendrick and Erick Aybar were both 3 for 4.
Back to Shoemaker. The one thing more awesome than his performance last night, was the performance of his wife. She is 100% Halos Heaven material. Somebody needs to find her and get her a logon for around here. Stat. Also, for anybody that might have wondered about the strike zone that frustrated Albert Pujols and got both Pujols and Scioscia tossed last night, you should see the zone that Shoemaker was gifted. It's always good to take a look at the zone granted any pitcher that comes close to a no-hitter, and this one is, um, unsurprising.
So the Angels depart Boston and arrive in Oakland for a critically important series this weekend. And Major League Baseball will be watching. But before we get to Oakland, let's pause one last time for a brief moment and reflect: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim went into Boston, into Fenway Park, and swept the Boston Red Sox over a 4-game series. A major portion of humiliation was served. Cold. Smile, everyone. And eff 'em.
Ahhh. Feels good.
By the way, after watching this Boston series, if I could do anything to improve the current MLB Instant Replay System, it might be to move the replay center from New York to some place like Omaha, Nebraska or Cody, Wyoming. And staff the facility exclusively with locals. Just sayin'.
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- Garrett Richards: By this point in time this should really be nothing more than a recap, but it's worthy of discussion still so I am giving you all a reason to chat about it even more. Richards is out for the season with a torn knee tendon. (Specifically, a torn patellar tendon. If you were desiring to accompany Richards to LA and sit in on his exam, you probably would have seen an Xray that looks like this.) THis is, to be certain, a very impactful turn of events for LAA 2014. Recovery is expected to be 6 - 9 months. Matt LeBlanc will be given the first shot at taking Richards' turn in the rotation, and that will come Monday against the Marlins. Without a lot of days off, it will be hard for Scioscia to get fancy with the rotation and step over LeBlanc's turn very often. "6 - 9 months" means "February - May 2014". My question is: 6 - 9 months before he can begin work, or 6 - 9 months before he can begin competing?
- Welcome, Mr. Replacement Player: To fill the shoes of Garrett Richardson, Wade LeBlanc will take the left shoe and Cam Bedrosian will take the right one. LeBlanc will actually be taking the starter slot, and Bedrosian gets another shot at the bullpen. Let's hope Cam keeps improving, since his June sucked but his cameos in July and August were better. As for LeBlanc, well, we roll the dice, but we could use some good luck for a change.
- Discuss: At this point in the season, the Halos are still strong contenders to get to the playoffs. That's not rocket science thinking, there. But as the linked USATODAY article then presents, "The problem...will be when they reach the playoffs." And there are two ways this can play out: having to play a single "play in" game as a Wild Card, and getting to bypass that "play in" game as a Division winner. In either scenario, there may be a regular season factor of messing with your rotation options should the playoff race go right to the end, but let's ignore that for now.So the Wild Card Game is a 1-game gig, followed by the Divisional Series which is Best of 5, then the Championship and World Series are Best of 7. Richards would have gotten a max of 2 starts in the ALDS if and only if the Halos win the AL West. Otherwise his was only 1 start. If Schedules worked out right, his would have probably been 1 or 2 starts in the ALCS and WS. So now you have to bump everybody around and you are NOT going to give those starts to LeBlanc. You are probably going to go with Weaver/Wilson/Shoemaker and Santiago is long relief or urgent start should one series commence on the close heels of another. But, overall, how would you do it?
- Gordon Beckham: Welcome to Anaheim, Gordon Beckham! With Richards being placed on the 60-day DL, that opens a slot in the 40-man and Dipoto picked up second baseman Gordon Beckham from the White Sox. Not what you were expecting, is it? At one point, Beckham was the overall #8 pick in 2008. Anymore, showing that players are paper are more often than not something less when on an MLB field, Gordon is now a bench role utility infielder. But he's cheap, and adds depth, and under control through 2015. Going back to CWS are the well-travel PTBNL + cash.
- Kole Calhoun: Just a brief divergence for a moment. How is Kole Calhoun not on anybody's list of most underrated list of 2014 MLB players? Am I missing anything here? Is Calhoun really some kind of household name, more so than Kyle Seager or Ben Zobrist? Calhoun is tracking for a 6.3 bWAR season were he to play 162 games. Zobrist, by way of example (since he is tabbed as THE MOST UNDERRATED) is tracking the same way towards 5.5 bWAR. And if you asked 1000 baseball fans if they knew what sport Ben Zobrist played for, and another 1000 baseball fans if they knew what sport Kole Calhoun played for, my money would be on Ben Zobrist. Zobrist being the better known commodity. He is appreciated, and he is playing well. Calhoun is the guy who wanders all over the outfield and DH as Scioscia juggles lineups. Major League baseball has yet to start appreciating Calhoun at all. And Calhoun is killing it.
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This Date In Baseball History: 1886 - Chicken Wolf of Louisville smacks a game-winning home run that occurs, in no small part, because a dog has run onto the field and latched itself to the leg of Reds' center fielder Abner Powell, preventing him from making the throw home..........1917 - The Dodgers and Pirates play a 22-inning game, and Carson "Skeeter" Bigbee of the Pirates sets a baseball record of coming to the plate a total of 11 times..........1933 - Bill Veeck tries to stir the pot again, announcing a proposal to split the AL into two seasons and host an inter-league exhibition schedule as the mid-summer classic. The idea, obviously, goes nowhere..........1961 - Roger Maris becomes the first player ever to hit his 50th home run of a single season as early as the month of August, thanks to the pitching of Angels hurler Ken McBride. But in this same game, the Angels win 4-3 in front of the largest home crowd of the newbie franchise yet, 19,930 fans, played at the old Wrigley Field.........1965 - The Giants' pitcher Juan Marichal takes his baseball bat to the head of the Dodgers' catcher John Roseboro............1968 - Dick McAuliffe is walked by White Sox pitcher Tommy John, but takes exception to one ball being thrown to the backstop over his head. So McAuliffe charges the mound and takes out John, kneeing him in the shoulder and forcing John out for the rest of the season.. For his punishment, McAuliffe is suspended for 5 games. And fined $250...........1982 - It's the bottom of the 12th inning in St. Louis as the Giants have two outs on the Cards and Giants pitcher Gary Lavelle has 2 strikes on pinch-hitter David Green. Cards catcher Glenn Brummer is pinch-running, and standing on 3rd base. As Lavelle goes into his windup, Brummer takes off on a straight steal of home plate, catching everyone by surprise. Walk off, head first!..........1992 - The first pro game to go completely hitless in 40 years occurs in a minor league game between the Clearwater Phillies and Winter Haven Red Sox. The Red Sox suffer a no-hitter and lose 1-0, and the Phillies suffer a no-hitter and win, due to two walks and two sacrifice bunts in the 10th frame...........1998 - Today marks the day that a jar of androstenedione is seen in the locker of Mark McGwire. So this is the moment in time of hte very first crack in the PEDs dam and, eventually, it all starts to fall apart after here..........2003 - Garret Anderson reaches 100 RBI (which should help you on this quiz) becoming the first player in franchise history to do so in 4 consecutive seasons. He was also the first player to do this in 3 consecutive seasons.
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- TarpGate: I am wondering how the Rangers would feel about all this were they in contention this season. Or Seattle, should the Yankees edge them out of the playoffs at the last second. Just 31 days ago the Yankees were leading the Rangers and Yu Darvish when the skies opened and water poured down too fast for the confused Yankee ground crew to cover the field. When all was said and done, both sides agreed that the field was unplayable,and the game was called as official as of that point. Ron Washington agreed that the field was unsafe, and wished that he had the leeway to protest the outcome. MLB told him no. Fast forward to just 3 days ago. The Cubs were leading the Giants when the skies opened and water poured down too fast for the confused Wrigley ground crew to cover the field. When all was said and done, both sides agreed that the field was unplayable and again the game was called as official as of that point. But the Giants were granted the leeway of protesting, which was upheld by MLB. MLB blamed the problem on mechanical error due to previous ground crew stupidity (the Cubs accepted this ruling, but did come to the defense of their crew afterwards). MLB is splitting hairs here and the outcome is that the Rangers are screwed, the Cubs and Giants are left to figure things out for themselves, and the Yankees walk away 1 game closer to the Wild Card hunt. Some will argue in favor of MLB and the letter of the law in the rule book, but I would point them to last week's Friday HaloLinks, in the history section, where MLB already had precedent for navigating the letter of the law and dealing with ground crew results which favor the home team...Anyway, in the end the Cubs held on to their victory upon resumption.
- Bulking Up A Bullpen: Let's take another look at making one investment into a bullpen after another. For most teams, the theory is merely interesting to think about. But with us, and with Huston Street, it takes on a whole 'nother level of meaning. HBT dives deep into bullpen value, and values relative among the bullpen crew. Fascinating, actually, especially the associated articles linked from this one...First, there is the thread wherein bullpen arms are proven to be of extreme importance: "Let’s be clear: I’m not saying that Holland is better than or even close to being as valuable as Scherzer, Darvish and Sale. This just illustrates that his contribution to his team’s record was greater than any other pitcher’s. In fact, if you look at the pitching leader boards and sort by WPA, relievers routinely place very highly on the list, including seven of the top 10 in 2013." and then we go through a process of gluing bullpen arms together, understanding the value in hand, and realizing that the better your current pen is, the less you gain by vesting in yet another bullpen piece: "...the worse a bullpen is, the bigger the payoff from adding an elite reliever. While relievers can be volatile and it can never hurt to have depth, most teams only have two bullpen slots pitching high-leverage innings. Having two or three great relief options can be beneficial to a team, but once those slots are filled, a team would be wise to invest its resources elsewhere on its roster."
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Here we go again. Here is a scribe who says that WAR sucks. Sheesh. But this time it says that Mike Trout is NOT the very best baseball player in the universe...........Ah, life as a kid. Go to a baseball game, get front row tickets right down the line for easy foul ball collecting, take your glove, be a hot shot leaning over the rail, and get immortalized on the global Internet for all eternity for misplaying a wicked bounce right into the noggin and dropping you like a stone..............But, kid, really, just wait until you reach drinking age. Then your comic notoriety will get you the chance to be rewarded, with beer, by a broadcast crew!............Silliness. "What? You want to be a baseball team? AND you want to be the Jays? AND you want to be blue? Sorry, you need to be the Starling Jays or we'll sue your ass! And a GREEN Starling, even though there is no such thing." By the way, in reality Creighton has been the Jays forever, and their school colors have been blue for at least 70 years. See here, where they show off some pretty significant riffs in their past, which nobody seemed to object to then (towards the bottom).............When football fans write about baseball, you get things like this: a pitch clock on the field of play to speed up the game.............Banned Pete Rose accepts full responsibility for his actions, and then turns around and blames his lawyers for his actions............Most of you know that the NFL Rams once played pro football in the stadium in Anaheim. But for those of you who can also recall the Southern California Sun playing on our field, here is a quick glance at memory lane. The first pic has the Big A and scoreboard out beyond the left field fence..........Mike Trout is slowing down. Old Man Syndrome..........Speaking of Mike Trout, and I am not making this up, there is a new band that calls itself Puig Destroyer. Yeah, named after that Puig. And they are previewing one of their new singles. "Mike Trout". Seriously.
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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: Nothing.
Saturday: 25th Annual Sierra Brewfest (not to be confused with the Pale Ale) takes place in Grass Valley, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds..........The 3rd Anniversary BeerNerdz Blind Tasting occurs at Fifty Seven Degrees in San Diego............And The 3rd Annual Mira Mesa Festival of Beers will be found at Mira Mesa Community Park............Meanwhile, in non-anniversary stuff, The State of Jefferson Brewfest will beheld at Dunsmur City Park in Dunsmur (which is apparently, a city in California).........and Historic Downtown Petaluma is the location of Taste of Petaluma Charity Beer Event...........The Bodega Seafood Festival is advertising itself as a brew-friendly fest. They sure do list quite a few brewers to be present. This takes place on Bodega Highway in Bodega (imagine THAT coincidence!). It actually is going on Saturday and Sunday...........The Cherry Valley Beer & Sausage Festival is happening at Highland Resort Saturday and Sunday...........Hops in Humboldt takes place at Rohner Park in Fortuna
Sunday: The Bodega Seafood Festival concludes on Sunday...........The Cherry Valley Beer & Sausage Festival concludes on Sunday..........