MondoLinks: LA Angels and Chicago White Sox recap, and MLB draft news

While you were away....heroes rose from their slumber.

The South Side of Chicago wended their way through the southland this past week. And not to be taken too lightly, considering the White Sox came into Anaheim with a record quite almost identical to that of LAA. But the Halos were 3-7 entering the weekend, having been sunk, thumped and punked by Seattle, Oakland & Houston, respectively. The White Sox came in 6 - 4 over their prior 10, including victories in 2 out of 3 against the Bumbling Blue Bums who stole our cap logo up the freeway.

But the result was lovely, sweeping us off our feet as they swept  the ChiSox back out of town faster than ruby slippers sucked Dorothy back to Kansas. And, just in time to welcome the emerald and gold hooligans from the far north, we Halo fans are back in the Land of Oz. And Ernesto Frieri is warning everyone that it is time for Oakland's luck to run out.

Josh Hamilton hath returned, and in a big way. He and Kole Calhoun drive the offense to 8 runs behind another strong outing by Jered Weaver and the Angels took the opener 8-4.  It wasn't as close as all that...........Saturday brought more fireworks than The Big Bang from the night before.  CWS had Chris Sale sailin' along with 7 shut out innings and a 5 run lead. The Angels had committed two errors and had only 2 hits total, both singles off the bat of Hamilton. But Erick Aybar would collect that many hits in the 8th inning alone. The Angels would score 6 total runs, take the lead and snatch the win in the most dramatic of fashions, with the highlight being a game-tying grand slam home run by Mike Trout on a 3-2 count and sending Sales' last pitch of the right deep into the Rock Pile. May this 6-5 victory be the defining moment of a glorious run deep into October!............Chris Sale did not respond as gleefully.............Sunday brought out the brooms. C.J. Wilson just dominated the White Sox, going 7 1/3 and surrendering a single run on 3 hits. And Hamilton continued to blow up the Chicago pitching (2 more hits and 3 RBI's) to raise his BA to .400 as the Angels capped off a great SoCal broomage weekend with a 4-2 win.

By the way, Mike trout is batting .373 since May 17th. And Josh Hamilton is batting .348 since coming back. Garrett Richards takes the mound tonight and it would be nice if he were still pissed about that outing against Oakland back on May 30th.

You people all need to step up your ballot-stuffing efforts. Trout has slipped to #2 vote-getter overall............I, for one, am not too happy to see that Hambone has not learned his lesson about the rubber bricks that MLB now uses for bases.

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Moreno-Carpino Shame Update

In all this joy, do not forget: Jim Fregosi still not being honored with a memorial patch.

62 games lost. Only 100 games remaining to save face.

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By the way, Chris Sale is still upset.

Here is my tally recap of the LA Angels selections from the 2014 Rule 5 4 Draft:

41 total selections, across 40 rounds (LAA picked twice in Round 12)

16 Right-handed pitcher, 6 left-handed pitchers.  22 pitchers total.

6 outfielders

5 corner infielders

4 catchers

3 middle infielders

4 High Schoolers

4 Junior College players

33 College players (4 5th year seniors, 13 seniors and 16 juniors)

21 players taken out of the South

9 players taken out of the West

6 players taken out of the East

4 players taken out of the Mid-West

1 player taken from Puerto Rico

7 players taken from California and Georgia

5 players taken from Texas

3 players taken from Illinois

2 players taken each from Florida and Louisiana

1 player taken from each of 15 other States

So, this brings Jerry Dipoto's draft record as GM of LAA to these tallies::

This crop is real big on experience, and big on pitching but consistent with Dipoto's approach. Our Area Scouts from the South and West appear to be very influential sellers, while we went back to the well in the Jersey/Connecticiut area. And three kids from Illinois? Good pitches from some scout there!