Albert Pujols, still playing with some discomfort in his groin, crushed a pair of homers last night and announced to Mike Trout and David Freese that the dude who gets the free dinner for most home runs in June is gonna be the old man.
The Angels offense has regressed beyond the mean, right out there to outright angry. They have hit 13 home runs in the last 5 days. Their 4 home runs last night was more than all the other AL teams hit on Monday, combined. The chicks must really be diggin' it. They are still far down the league totem pole when it comes to things like hits and runs, but they are starting to claw and climb their way back up.
It still doesn't feel like there is consistency, as though this ride is fragile. Consider that the Angels have won 5 in a row, but that makes them only 6 and 4 over their last 10 games. I am happy to have the 5 wins in a row and the blistering offense. But I am a greedy bastard. I want to start seeing a consistent 7-3 next the LAA line in the standings every morning.
Until I get that, have some links:
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Angels Baseball
Erick Aybar has to be among the funniest dudes now playing Major League Baseball. When Rays catcher Rene Rivera totally choked his slide attempt when trying to reach second base, coming up about 20 feet short, Aybar went full Marx Brothers on him as he waited...and waited...and waited to apply the tag. This got even old-school Pujols to crack up. Why this is not on the MLB front page is beyond me..............
Albert Pujols did himself a little strutting last night with his second home run (you can't really see much of it on the video). Mike Trout noticed, and Mike Trout knows respect. "When you hit 500 of them, you can watch them. I don't think anybody's going to say anything."..............
In case you blinked, the roster merry-go-round took another spin yesterday. After pitcher Vinnie Pestano was sent down and Efren Navarro was recalled to play first base, the Halos were down a pitcher. in an exchange in the other direction, outfielder Alfredo Marte went down and pitcher Edgar Ibarra came up. But that swap still didn't open up a slot on the 40-man, so outfielder Gary Brown was DFA'd.............
It's Angels Alumni week here in Anaheim. The Rays brought back with them Kevin Jepsen and Ernesto Frieri. (And Bobby Wilson and Steve Geltz. We have ex-Ray Matt Joyce.) I hope to not see any of them this series, but if we do, I would hope that our coaching staff knows enough about Jepsen and Frieri to make sure nobody bothers to swing at anything............
Not suggesting that it's going to last or anything, but prior to last nigh Johnny Giavotella had a bWAR of 0.3 and Howie Kendrick sat at 0.2 bWAR. In fairness, Fangraphs has Kendrick leading in fWAR with 1.1 versus Johnny G's 0.6, and Kendrick does have a superior slash line, leading with a BA comparison of .292 to Giavotella's .278...........
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Elsewhere in Baseball
The Royals fans continue to spend their idle time in productive ways. No re-runs of Laverne and Shirley for them. No sirree. And I am certain that the terminals at the public libraries throughout the state of Missouri are queued up all day. Because the Royals are owning the AL starting lineup in the Cincinnati ASG this year through the on-line vote process. Hell, they even have Eric Hosmer running down Miguel Cabrera for starting 1B! And with their manager being the AL skipper in the game, they should expect considerable playing time............
As Jeff Sullivan does so well, a breakdown of Bryce Harper facing of against Aroldis Chapman..........
The biggest surprise of the AL West are the Houston Astros, of course. But other surprises are the struggles of the Halos and Mariners. (I confess to be not surprised in the least at the tanking that is going on in Oakland.) What this means is that the Rangers, who should be writing off the 2015 season with their pitching injuries, are actually in the hunt. They are only a game and a half behind the Halos, and 5.5 games out of first place altogether. And now, here comes Joey Gallo............
And now it is just a myth. The last living Chicago Cub to have played in a World Series game has died...........
Joey Votto taking his cues from the Brian McCann school of self-assigned baseball cop, by riding Bruce Harper for not running fast enough to take first base after getting plunked square in the back with a pitch. This might have been one time that I could have rooted for Harper to, you know, be an ass.............
Whoops. What? The Phillies are rumored to now be willing to chip in some cash to trade away Cole Hamels? "While the desire for a prospect package still exists (as it should), being willing to eat some of Hamels' deal makes all kinds of sense for the Phillies, who are rich enough to make this happen in order to get the prospects they need and want."...........
Click here to lose the next 20 minutes of your life. The interactive visualization chart leads with the valuation of first baseman, but there are enough other positions that have been done now to play around. A lot. Here are a pair of clues: (1) you want your player to be as close to the right wall as possible, indicating their strength of play; and (2) if you care about payroll management, you want them to be as close to the bottom line as possible, indicating their affordability to their franchise. Also, you can change the date range to watch players vary as their success over the season vary. .............
This is how it's going to be all year, watching various players cycle in as the flavor-of-the-month to exceed Mike Trout as AL MVP leader. This month's flavors are Josh Donaldson and Prince Fielder............