Thursday Halolinks: Angels Club Royals, C.J. Cron Ups His Value

Off-day, short but sweet Halolinks:

• See, all they needed to do was get that bum Pujols outta the line-up: Angels beat Royals 11-6 behind Weaver, Trout - Yahoo! Sports. "Weaver won his seventh straight start to tie a career best and Torii Hunter, Mike Trout and Bobby Wilson homered for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday." Yeah, I'm just kidding.
• I'm all for skipping Santana since he's been so awful lately, but saving him for the Rangers? This could get REAL ugly: Santana will be skipped to work things out - angels.com. "With the off-day on Thursday, it allows the Angels to pitch Dan Haren on full rest Friday and C.J. Wilson on full rest on Saturday against the Rays. Santana is slated to pitch early next week on the road against the Rangers." Oh, and I think he should shave off that stupid beard.
• Keep this up and you're going to find yourself getting traded!: Cron extends streaks with walk-off slam - MiLB.com. "Cron's blast gave him a .319 average (22-for-69) during the hitting streak, which began on July 9. The more impressive streak is the nine-game stretch in which he has driven in at least one run. The Utah native has 20 RBIs during that stretch, giving him the overall Minor League lead with 95."
• The question; How slimy is Jeffery Loria? POINT: Marlins' Jeffrey Loria and David Samson conned Miami, lined their pockets and held a fire sale - Yahoo! Sports. "People actually bought into the thing, recognized them as a real team and not just some affiliate run by a couple of swindlers who had already screwed Montreal and were primed to do the same to another city. It wasn't ever going to end any other way. You knew that. You knew. When Jeffrey Loria and David Samson are involved, it can't end any other way, because they know no different."
• Taking the other side, Dave Cameron -- COUNTERPOINT: Don’t Crucify the Marlins for Making Smart Moves - FanGraphs Baseball. "I have no interest in defending Jeffrey Loria from any of the valid criticisms that are leveled at him. However, the reality is that he wasn’t in charge of the team in 1997, and the off-season of 2003-2004 wasn’t a "fire sale". And neither is what they’re doing now. Hanley Ramirez hasn’t hit in two years, his transition to third base hasn’t gone very well, and he’s due $31.5 million over the next two seasons. Trading him now is no different than what the Arizona Diamondbacks did by making Justin Upton available in trade, and no one was calling that a fire sale just three months into the defense of their 2011 NL West title." Okay, so this really has nothing to do with sleezebag Loria, it's just fun calling rich people slimy.
• A very interesting first person look at being traded: Transactions - Instream Sports. ""What do you mean you got traded," my new wife said to me as I entered the house with a plane ticket in my hand, "Where are you going? What does this mean for us?" "I’m going to Canada, and I have to leave now." It was a very, very tough conversation, especially when you’re packing two suitcases through it all."
• How bizarre is this? Vi Ripken, mother of Cal Ripken Jr. abducted at gunpoint, located unharmed - baltimoresun.com. ""There's a woman who's tied up in a car down the street," he told nearby officers, who "zoomed over" to free the 74-year-old mother of Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr." Glad this story had a happy ending.
• What a knucklehead: Carlos Gomez has the best foul ball trot in baseball - HardballTalk. "Carlos Gomez killed a baseball during the first inning of yesterday’s Brewers-Phillies game. Unfortunately for him it went foul."
• Instead Of Nike Gear, Egypt Gave Its Olympic Athletes Chinese Knockoffs - Deadspin. "Someone at the Egyptian Olympic Committee appears to have outsourced that responsibility to the lowest bidder, because all 117 Egyptian Olympians were given counterfeit Nike gear. What's worse, they've had to pay out of their own pockets to replace it."