WeekEnd HaloLinks: Signs of the Apocalypse

My goodness, even Grant Green got a hit. Matt Joyce hit a home run. These guys were 6 for 14 (.429) with runners in scoring position, leaving only 3 on base all night. 12 runs on 13 hits. And against newbie, unfamiliar, pitchers. This is the kind of thing that makes one wonder even harder about all the futility with which we are all so familiar. It also makes me wonder if the end times are near, because some of these things don't happen without Divine Intervention.

So you woke up happy this morning. And confused. Have some fresh links:

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Angels Baseball

Erick Aybar had to leave the game due to a tightening of his left hamstring. One can only surmise that it's been too long since Aybar was asked to do so much running around the bases.. As it turns out. Aybar did want to go back in, and ended up feeling much better later, but Scioscia is not taking any such chance. Consider him day to day.........

Matt Joyce also felt some tightness and had to exit the game. The story there must be the surprise of just being on base in the first place............No, honestly, we have to give Joyce credit. Over his past 7 games the dude is hot, hitting .381 with a .519 OBP and a pair of home runs. That, for the record, is crushing the guy he replaced in this same time frame.

As expected, Collin Cowgill hit the 15-day DL. The official word is that he has a wrist injury. More insightful observers would think that the item actually suffering from injury is his batting average...........

C.J. Wilson had himself a damned fine outing, although it took him 107 pitches to do it.  7 strikeouts over 6 innings against only 2 hits and 5 walks. That yielded but a single earned run. So now we have 3 of the Top 20 AL pitchers in terms of ERA.

We are all supposed to get real excited about snazzy drawings and all, which is why the City of Anaheim took some of their taxpayer's money and hired an architect to render up a few such snazzy drawings of what the stadium lot could look like if they have their way, and the team stays put. (Three actual drawings at the link.)

Somewhere in there is a baseball stadium. Which is the point, I think. My guess is that this is somebody's idea of creating the "ballpark in the neighborhood" feel. So, with a deliberate emphasis on city tax-base happy components, of which neighborhoods are not as much, Anaheim dreams of another car-friendly, pedestrian antagonistic, traffic-crushing, mash-up of Irvine Spectrum meets Harbor Boulevard.  One thing I wonder about Pepsiville, there, is that it appears as though the main entrance would be from Douglas to get to the parking structures, while whatever retail attractions they showcase in the closer views are all the way over on the opposite side of the stadium.  Hence, I suspect, all the buses.

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Elsewhere in Baseball

Oh, man. Not good.  David Dahl, Rockies outfielder on their AA farm team, was seriously injured whjen he collided with another player tracking a fly ball. Dahl lacerated his spleen on the play, requiring emergency surgery. Thank God he is alive and that being lost for the season is the only consequence.............

Here we go again. Miguel Cabrera versus Mike Trout. And it's only May, with Nelson Cruz already having more to say about all this than the article does............

We have all heard stories about how tough the day-to-day grind of minor league ball actually is. Well, nobody other than the 2015 Biloxi Shuckers are allowed to whine any further, ever again. Because they are building a new home stadium, and because that construction is behind schedule, Biloxi is out on the road, venturing through their season in the deep end of a 55 game road trip...........

Yeah, "probably the most Wisconsin thing ever".  Guy makes an outdoor grill fashioned after the Brewer's stadium. "Why? I guess mostly because I could."....I would think the Angel Stadium equivalent would use the entry ballcaps to hide a pair of side burners, and The Rock Pile to stash the charcoal bag............

I'm calling it now. Chipper Jones is going to end up a very bitter old man...........

If you wonder what the future might hold for a Mike Trout or a Bryce Harper or a Kris Bryant, well then grab a cup of coffee to stay awake and dive into the math...........

The Dodgers traded away Juan Uribe without checking with their marketing interns, failing to hold on to him until after Juan Uribe bobblehead night.......Juan "Urbe" isn't faring much better now that he is in Atlanta............

Billy Beane, no longer a magician??????????

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This Date In Baseball History: 1905 - Elmer Stricklett introduces the spitball............1911 - The Chicago Cubs travel from Columbus Ohio to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to take on the Pirates. They make it 3 hours and 35 minutes, what was then a new land speed record...........1922 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Major League Baseball is not a business, but a sport. And the anti-trust exemption protecting MLB from antitrust laws is born..........1946 - Ed Klep becomes the first white player to participate in a Negro League game...........1962 - Buck O'Neil becomes the first black coach in Major League Baseball when he is promoted from scout within the Cubs organization..........1989 - Mike Schmidt surprises everybody by conducting an impromptu press conference and announcing his immediate retirement. He will still be voted onto the Anaheim All-Star team by the fans (he won't play)..........2010 - Kendrys Morales hits a walk-off grand-slam home run to defeat the Seattle Mariners 5-1, and severely breaks his ankle as he jumps onto home plate. And life was never the same..........