MondoLinks: Halos Napped all weekend long

Mike Napoli spent the weekend going 5 for 9, smacking 4 home runs, scoring 5 runs, walked thrice and drove in 8, and raised his batting average a whole 25 points. All this done as Mike Scioscia's watched and lost 2 of 3 to the Red Sox.

If only Napoli was this good against all teams, and not just the Angels. That might be enough to bring forth rage at the eternal pain we suffer as a consequence of stubborness past, foolish exchanges driven by ego, rash acquisitions burdening the finances for a generation of talent.

But Mike Napoli is not this good against all teams. Just the Angels. Just some of the time. Just enough to piss us off, and make us fantasize of other roads as though those would lead to better places. And keep in mind that with just a little bit better fortune in our recent past, we don't have a Sean Newcomb...

Link away:

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Upcoming Series:

San Diego padres @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Angels Stadium. Anaheim, CA.

Day	Game Time	Probable Pitchers	TV
MONDAY	6:05 PM PDT	Tyson Ross (2-4, 3.93 ERA) versus Jered Weaver (3-4, 4.37 ERA)	FSW
TUESDAY	7:05 PM PDT	0drisamer Despaigne (2-3, 6.11 ERA) versus Matt Shoemaker (3-4  6.29 ERA)	FSW
WEDNESDAY	7:05 AM PDT	Andrew Cashner (1-7, 2.89 ERA) versus Garrett Richards (4-2, 2.98 ERA)	FSW

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The general mindset in the Angels clubhouse is one of confidence in their future. The reasoning is that, yeah, they haven't been playing all that well BUT they are playing .500 ball.  So certainly when they get their act together they are going to be doing way better than .500 and zoom into the playoffs. Or some such. But they better not wait too long. They are already at a point where they have start playing .600 ball if they need to get to 93 total wins. It's .560 ball if they want to get to 88 wins. Somewhere in between those should be a playoff spot.

Mike Morin made it to the 15-day DL after straining his oblique, resulting in the call up of Cam Bedrosian. Now, we all know that we fans have the highest faith in those players are are yet to come (as opposed to those who are in the lineup on any given day), so Bedrosian came with high hopes. his first time up earlier this year he got into a couple of games without giving up any runs. Ummm, yesterday, not so well............

Bedrosian was stuffed into a red-eye flight to Boston and then run out to the mound just in time to face Mike Napoli, and paid the price for Naps' vengeance. Sciosci'a review: "We had to give him the ball and hopefully give him a chance to get his feet on the ground and get a good inning. His stuff looked good, but he couldn't command it enough to be effective."............

Collin Cowgill had to be scratched yesterday with a mysterious hand ailment. This is a real problem, yet still undefined...........

In case you missed it, Mike Trout is the best slider in baseball. Not "has" the best slider. "Is" the best slider.  That needs to be a sixth tool or something. And that "weak arm" complaint needs to start taking a back seat........

Nice going, Albert. But now this little girl is going to want to be an Angels fan. And she has to grown up in a Boston household. And it will all be your fault.

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Josh Hamilton takes the field again today. Brace yourselves for the media storm...........

Oh, man. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's all legal, and everybody needs to have situational awareness at all times in a baseball game, so it's all fair and everything. And I don't want to go all Justin Verlander here or anything. But then a team goes and switches to flag football to make the final out and win a game to advance to the state championship. That just smells funny to me...........

Here, gimme the cue. My turn............Foul ball into the corner pocket...........Speaking of pool (was I?), the Marlins went off and had themselves a pool party celebration. The reason? They did not lose. Honest. That was the real reason.

The odds are that you, the reader, have never caught a home run ball at a Major League game. It takes more than a little bit of strategy and a whole hell of a lot of luck. So imagine being so fortunate that you finally get to catch one, and videotape yourself doing it. Extremely rare, but it did happen once. No, strike that. Not once, but TWICE. BY THE SAME GUY. Freaky..........

Really? Cincinnati Reds manager Brian Price got himself prematurely ejected for arguing balls and strikes, before any balls were even pitched.

Cool throw, Votto...

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