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The Pirates took a seat back on the bench, parked just on the other side of the Yankees from us. Now the playoffs are set. This afternoon the Rangers open in Toronto and tonight the Astros start against the Royals. tomorrow the Cubs will drive over to St. Louis and the Mets will have jetted out to LA to face the Dodgers. That leaves us three whole weeks to get out to even the start of the World Series. And we could be playing baseball for almost another month. Yeesh. Have some links.
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Angels Baseball
Happy Christie Day!: For some strange reason, Grant Green cleared waiver outright - meaning nobody else wanted him bad enough to risk being forced into trading something for him, even a bag of balls. So the Angels assigned him to Salt Lake City. This means he is still in the organization, and still one small step away from running around pre-games in Anaheim and entertaining Christie. Now, if we could just talk Dan Haren into taking over duties as team pitching coach, everybody would be happy around here...........
Trout Porn: With the season now in the books, we can spice up that Trout Cake of Utter Ridiculous. In the history of the franchise, Mike Trout holds the Top 4 positions for single-season offensive bWAR. He now sits, in career terms. at #4 with 36.7 and right ahead of him is Brian Downing in the 3rd slot at 39.8. Trout will have that before June is over. At the top sits Tim Salmon with 44.3 and if he keeps it up Trout will cap that before 2016 concludes. Trout's career batting average of .304 ranks 3rd all-time (behind Guerrero, then Carew). His On Base Percentage AND Slugging Percentage AND OPS (duh) AND OPS+ are all franchise career #1's. He is 9th in home runs. Despite not being overly aggressive this year, and getting caught on more than one occasion, his career Stolen Base percentage remains #1. His At Bats per Home Runs sits at #3 (behind Troy Glaus and Nike Napoli). In more advanced stuff, he is already #3 in RE24, #2 in WPA, #1 in WPA/LI and #3 in REW. In terms of advanced single-season rankings, Trout owns single season positions 1, 3, 5 and 6 out of the Top 10 in RE24. He owns 1, 3, 4 and 6 out of the Top 10 in WPA, He owns 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the Top 10 list of WPA/LI. And he owns slots 1, 2, 4 7 5 in the Top 10 seasons of REW. There is more at the link. It's just ridonculous...........
Trout Porn: While we are at it, Trout also has 4 of the Top 100 single-season bWAR numbers in MLB history..........And he already ranks 27th out of all active players in bWAR...........And he is already in the Top 20 in every one of the advanced categories I list above among active players..........
Taylor Ward: Ward is heading to Arizona for Instructional League ball. His first year showed him as a fantastic return for a #99...........
Stadium Update: Heard anything new lately on the negotiations between Arte and Anaheim? No? Well, neither has Anaheim. Councilwoman Lucille Kring would like somebody to take a duster to these "talks" and figure out if anybody is going anywhere............
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Elsewhere in Baseball
Uh Oh: Yesterday I pointed out hat Jessica Mendoza, ex-Olympic softball gold-medalist, made history on Tuesday by being the first woman to work an MLB playoff game as a broadcast analyst in the booth. Not everybody was happy about that. Some made an idiot out of themselves..........
Decisions, decisions: Don't let it elude you that you will be seeing a lot of ex-Halos over the next couple of weeks. You already got re-introduced to Sean Rodriguez last night. Scott Kazmir starts Game 2 of the ALDS. And John Lackey is going to start Game 1 of the NLDS. You already know that the Rangers are bringing along Mike Napoli and Josh Hamilton. I am not sure that Bobby Wilson made the playoff roster. You are also going to see Hank Conger, Kendrys Morales, possibly Joe Blanton, possibly Dan Haren, certainly Howie Kendrick and of course Zack Greinke, with an outside chance of Joel Peralta. And with the Cards, alongside Lackey there will be Peter Bourjos and Randal Grichuk (if his arm holds up). The Mets will give us an ACTUAL ex-Halo in Bortolo Colon to go along with the ALMOST Halo Matt Harvey (not to mention the never available HH meme Curtis Granderson).........Did I miss anybody??...........
Tools of the Trade: Tommy John surgery leaves a mark..........
Anybody Home?: Recall the link yesterday about the MFY stadium security waiting line fiasco? Well, today we add pics from INSIDE the stadium at the time of first pitch.............
Hmmm: Blind Gossip has a curious post. Not that it would surprise me in the least if there were any truth to it..........
The Bartman: If you can't buy him, build him..........(Notice, though, that the guy taking a photo of the imposter is wearing a shirt honoring the guy who the Cubs took out of the playoffs a few weeks ago.)..........
Oh Boy!: The Dodgers' Scott Van Slyke has an owie with his wrist, and this means we might get treated to Yasiel Puig bat flips after all!...........
Zoned Out: You might hear a whine or two coming out of Pittsburgh concerning the very large strike zone granted to the already dominant Jake Arrieta. It's true. But guess what? The same was true for Gerrit Cole as well.
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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 Thursday...for beer...
Friday: Beachwood BBQ is doing their Sour Fest 2015 all weekend..........Chico Beer Week, having kicked off on Thursday, also runs all weekend (runs through NEXT Saturday, in fact)..........Ocean Beach Oktoberfest runs Friday/Saturday at Ocean Beach Pier in San Diego...........Pomona Fairplex is running an Oktoberfest all weekend...........
Saturday: 6th Annual UC Davis Brewfest is at Aggie Stadium..........AHA Rally @ Heretic Brewing Company in Fairfield...........Also in Fairfield is The BooZ & BrewZ Beer Festival at 600 Texas Street.........BAM Fest (Beer, Art & Music) at 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica..........BraveCort Brew Fest & Masskrugstemmen at Girard Ave At The La Jolla Art & Wine Festival Wine & Beer Garden (a Masskrugstemmen is a beer stein holding contest)..........Hogtoberfest at Honey Wagon Brewing in Tehachapi..........Oktoberfest: Beer Olympics at Bar One in North Hollywood..........Beachwood BBQ Sour Fest 2015 continues..........Chico Beer Week continues..........Ocean Beach Oktoberfest concludes...........June Lake is hosting their Autumn Beer Festival..........Firestone Walker Brewfest runs in Turlock at 10 East Kitchen & Tap House..........Dana Point Oktoberfest is found at Lantern Bay Park..........Long Beach Promenade Beer & Wine Festival is Saturday only..........Nipomo's Best Oktoberfest is Saturday/Sunday...........San Mateo Bacon and Brew Festival is to be found in San Mateo Central Park..........Humboldt Valley Hoptoberfest at Perigot Park..........Yucca Valley Oktoberfest at Hoffman Field..........Beer Coast Fest LA at Grand Park..........
Sunday: Beachwood BBQ Sour Fest 2015 concludes..........Chico Beer Week continues..........Nipomo's Best Oktoberfest concludes...........Barrels, Brews & Bites at Railtown 1897 State Park in Jamestown..........
Stay safe, everyone!
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