Angels Return To Fenway, ESPN Likes New York. Halolinks

Tigers top Angels - FOX Sports on MSN
Torii Hunter hit a two-out single off Verlander in the first, then the Angels failed to reach base until the ninth. "That wasn't fair,'' Hunter said. "It was like PlayStation.''

Yeah, I've played that game. There's a bunch of zombies walking around and then there's this one guy who kills them all. That game doesn't seem like much fun for the zombies.

Angels-Red Sox Preview - FOX Sports on MSN
Buchholz (2-2, 2.19 ERA) turned in his best outing of the season Tuesday at Toronto, allowing one run in eight innings of a 2-1 victory. Buchholz hasn't found similar success against the Angels in the regular season, going 1-2 with a 6.35 ERA. Los Angeles' Joe Saunders is 4-1 with a 3.24 ERA in his career against Boston and 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA at Fenway, but the left-hander has gotten off to a rough start in 2010. Saunders (1-4, 5.74) gave up three runs, nine hits and four walks in five innings of a 9-2 loss to Cleveland on Tuesday.

SFGate: San Francisco Giants : The Splash : I am boycotting ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" tomorrow
Tomorrow night (last night), the New York Mets will appear on "Sunday Night Baseball" for the third consecutive week. Next week it will be the Yankees, who opened the series and season April 4 against the Red Sox. On May 16, ESPN takes a breather from its courtship with New York to show the Phillies at Brewers. Maybe that's just so everyone can be rested up for the May 23 Yankees-Mets game on "Sunday Night Baseball." It's time for Major League Baseball to grow a pair and tell ESPN, "Enough." There is baseball outside the Metropolis and the Hub.

Phillies and Brewers on May 16th? Who the hell wants to watch the Phillies or Brewers when the Mets are playing the Marlins!

Concerns about workloads for Fernando Rodney, Kevin Jepsen - latimes.com
Jepsen, who has a 1.64 earned-run average, leads the American League with 14 appearances. Rodney, who has a 2.84 ERA and five saves, ranks second with 13. The right-handers have pitched in the same game 13 times, with 11 of the team's 12 wins coming on days both pitched. At this pace, Jepsen and Rodney would appear in about 80 games this season. "Ideally, we're not using both guys on a given night," Scioscia said. "With our offense spotty, a little hit or miss, we haven't had those days where we could give one of those guys a breather and still be able to win a game. Most of our wins, we've had to use both of them. That's something we won't be able to maintain."

What's wrong with Stokes? Oh wait, 13 hits and 10 walks in just over 12 innings. How about Bulger? Nevermind, he's allowed more than 2 base runners per inning. Scot Shields? Yeah right. No wonder Rodney and Jepsen have been in so many games.

Saunders looking for solutions to slump - The Orange County Register
Throwing strikes – and not anything physically wrong with him – has been an issue for the Angels left-hander while getting roughed up in four of his first five starts this season, his most recent two outings in particular. Saunders has allowed four runs or more and lasted six innings or less in four of his five starts (an outstanding start in Toronto being the lone exception. Over his past two starts, he has allowed eight runs on 15 hits (eight for extra bases) and six walks in just 7 2/3 innings. His strikes-to-balls ratio (88-75) has been too close to even for comfort.

MLB plans to move on Rangers - Daniel Kaplan, SportsBusiness Journal - Sporting News
MLB as soon as this week plans to dramatically alter the course of the standoff between creditors and the owner of the Texas Rangers, multiple sources said last week, a development that could include the league seizing the franchise. Were the league to seize the team under its "best interests of baseball" rule, MLB could sell the club to the group led by Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan without, the league believes, the creditors blocking the deal, these sources said. But were MLB to choose that course — and late last week, the situation was still fluid — financial sources predicted a furious legal response from the creditors that could involve an involuntary bankruptcy petition on behalf of the baseball team.

What a mess this is. I haven't followed this story real close, but what it seems like to me is Rangers' owner Tom Hicks is trying to get cash out of the sale without paying off his creditors. If this is the case, use the "best interest of baseball" rule to restructure the deal (and tell Hicks to get lost).

May 3 - BR Bullpen
2005: With a 9-0 margin, a state legislative committee votes to approve a bill which will require the Los Angeles Angels, formerly known as the Anaheim Angels, to disclose on all promotional materials, including tickets, ads and team publications, that the team is based in Anaheim. Using the example of an orange juice company selling OJ that contains no oranges, California Assemblyman Tom Umberg, the bill's sponsor, says he is trying to promote truth in sports advertising.

At one point 23 in-a-row: