Thursday Halolinks: Jered Weaver Returns With Six Shutout Innings, Dodgers Coming To Town

Day off? Not for Halolinks!:

• Limiting Weaver's pitch count was probably a good idea, but what if the game had been 0-0 or 1-0 at the time? Would they still have made the change? Weaver helps Angels shut out Giants in return - Fox Sports. "Scioscia had Weaver on a pitch count of between 75 and 90 pitches, and Weaver seemed to have that number in the back of his mind. He threw 71 pitches through five innings and needed just seven more to retire the side in the sixth, but he didn't even try to convince his manager to let him pitch one more. "I think coming off the mound in the sixth, he was hoping there might be a seventh, but no," Scioscia said. "No chance. Not tonight." Weaver conceded it felt strange knowing he wouldn't go any farther, but he didn't even ask to keep pitching. He knew the answer. "It was a little weird," he said. "I came in and was kind of like, man, this is bull crap. But at the same time, I knew it was going to happen. It was nice to be able to get through six."
• Within this link (Angels veterans keeping Trout humble - angels.com: News) are posts about Trout, Scioscia and the pine tar blow up, and this tidbit: "With a 6-0 victory over the Giants on Wednesday, the Angels lead the Majors with 10 shutouts."
  
• San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Angels - June 20, 2012 - MLB.com. "Thanks to a vintage Weaver, the Angels -- off Thursday before hosting a weekend series against the rival Dodgers -- took two of three from San Francisco. They've now won nine of their last 12 games and eight of their last nine series, improving to a Major League-best 32-18 since April 28 to help them stay 5 1/2 games back of a Rangers team that has won six straight." Because of crap like this: Yu Darvish settles down, leads Texas Rangers to sixth straight win - FOX Sports. "Darvish held San Diego to five hits over eight innings and got his first major league hit to help the Texas Rangers beat the Padres 4-2 on Wednesday for their sixth straight win."
• Los Angeles Dodgers at Los Angeles Angels - June 22, 2012 - MLB.com Preview. "Like most ballplayers, Haren is a very routine-oriented person, preferring to pitch on his usual four days' rest whenever possible. But with an off-day and the return of righty ace Jered Weaver to the rotation, Haren will be throwing on six days' rest for the first time this season. Haren hasn't pitched on six days' rest since last Aug. 26, when he lasted only 4 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs."
• Carlos Santana Was Out By Six Feet, Except That Umpire Jim Wolf Is Legally Blind - Deadspin. "Carlos Santana basically gives up on sliding into the base, because he recognizes, being a baseball player of sound mind and body, that he is so incredibly out and nothing could possibly overturn such an obvious ruling." Robots? Did someone say "Robos"? A Brief History of Robotic Umpires - Old Time Family Baseball. "Because a robot has never disobeyed its prime objective and slaughtered a whole group of people before. A revised Three Laws of Robotics: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Calling balls and strikes correctly trumps the first two laws. By far."
• Ex-Orioles player Eddie Murray is part of insider trading inquiry - Yahoo! Sports. "The investigation involving Murray is related to the probe that led to the filing of a civil insider trading case against former Orioles player Doug DeCinces. In August 2011, DeCinces settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay $2.5 million in fines, while neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing in the trading of Advanced Medical Optics shares."
• A Big Bang Theory Rerun Outdraws Fox's MLB Game Of The Week And ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, Combined. Last Week's TV Ratings, In Context. June 16:
  Baseball Night in America [multiple games] (FOX): 2.0 million viewers, 1.8 rating
  The Legend of Korra (Nickelodeon): 2.4 million viewers, 2.1 rating