MondoLinks: Rain on Trout's parade? Halos for 2 today.

After sterling performances by C.J. Wilson and Garrett Richards on Friday and Saturday, pushing the LAA lead in the AL West to 1.5 games, Dolores rolled in and pissed all over our nationally broadcast party. She didn't even have the courtesy to remain a Hurricane. All that is left to do is figure out how to reschedule the lost game, and then head to the nearest river outlet where it meets the sea and wonder why the Metropolitan Water District can't figure out how to retrieve the lost rainwater. Of the two, the scheduling has already been figured out by MLB: doubleheader today. You go figure out the lost rainwater, because my job is just to give you a special run at some summer links:

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Angels Baseball

The Upcoming Series:

Minnesota Twins @ Los Angeles Angels - Angels Stadium, Anaheim, CA.

From the official team Game Notes: "TWINS ON DECK: Halos went 7-0 vs. Twins in 2014 (3-0 at home), first undefeated season series vs. Twins in club history…Was first seven-game win streak over Twins in a season since a seven-game streak April 11-Aug. 4, 1985…Since 2011, Angels are 11-4 at home vs. Minnesota…Halos are 73-54 vs. Twins since 2000 and the club’s 361 all-time wins vs. MIN are third-most vs. any opponent… Angels have won 10 of last 12 season series vs. Twins."

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Rain Check: As a Public Service Announcement, f you had a ticket to yesterday's game, and you cannot make the 2 PM start today, head over to the stadium ticket office and exchange your ducats for another game of your choice, provided it is not already sold out..............Both games today will be on Fox Sports West, by the way...........And this will all now screw up the rotation this week, with an extra game in compressed days. The Angels are now going to need a 6th starter in their rotation (Sosh says it won't be Weaver, who won't be ready in time).............Wilson nails it. If this hadn't been set as the Game of the Week for ESPN, it would have been played at 1:05 PM and completed in time to avoid the rain.................

Grounded: Recently I wrote a bit about how the LAA groundskeepers failed to roll out the rain tarp in a manner that exposed a lack of real-world experience. Forgivable, certainly, because it rarely rains during baseball seasons in Southern California. (It would occur to me, by the way, that it would be a good idea to take my crew off on a training mission to some other part of the country where they have regulation fields with tarps and it's raining. Just a thought.) Anyway, yesterday's rain gave us a new surprise: the game was cancelled in large part because the falling rains could not drain off the field. Why? Apparently the drains don't work, but don't call them clogged. Or something. Said Mike Scioscia: "Unfortunately, you never really know how your drainage system works until you get enough water, and there's so much standing water in that outfield that just has nowhere to go...the field was unplayable, with no way to remedy that...Was there a clog? I'm not a landscaper, but I don't think it's ever been tested like this. It's a lot of rain. Don't think anything is clogged. It's just saturated."..............Red Sox coach Bob Tewksbury was not impressed wit the groundlings, as they flailed away with their squeegees: "I've never seen that before. It looked like they were trying to rake the water." ...............

Open for Business: The first team to rush into the market this trade season hoping to grab the best returns are the Cincinnati Reds. Hearing the news, the Angels opened the junk drawer and grabbed their coupon clippings and dashed over, interested in Jay Bruce.  Bruce has a slash line this season of .255/.342/.474, which compares favorably against that of Joyce, who sits at .189 / .282 / .316. So that's an upgrade, of sorts, but it won't come free and we will be forced to add Kevin Jepsen to whatever the additional price will be for a Bruce or anyone else.................By they way, that slash line of Joyce? The Chicago White Sox DFA'd their third baseman, for the crime of carrying a slash line of .237 / .276 / .364.  (David Dreese, our third baseman, sits at .240 / .309 / .393). Jeez, we got some holes............

Trout Porn: Mike Trout keeps good company. For example, did you know that through their first 582 pro games, Trout has more home runs, more hits, practically the same number of doubles, scored far more runs, and stolen almost 4 times as many bases as Babe Ruth did?.............Trace the roots of The Face of Baseball, working backward from Mike Trout.............

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Elsewhere in Baseball

Smoked Out: I am putting this one out there just for the non-SoCAl readership, who are going to be totally confused. yeah, you all know that we got hit with the remnants of Hurricane Dorothy, now a mere tropical depression. Rain abounds all over the region, hammering Anaheim AND San Diego. Well, that was Sunday, but on Saturday we had another game postponed, a minor league game with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and the High Desert Mavericks. The reason? Too much heavy smoke pouring in from a nearby forest fire, chewing up acres and acres of dry tinder brush, all caused by lack of rain (and probably sparked by lightning from incoming said tropical depression)...............

AsteRisky: The hot news in MLB right now is Zack Greinke's scoreless streak, which has reached 43 2/3 innings. And in the middle of that he just ran off a string of 28 straight batters (across games) with 28 straight outs. That would be a "Greinke perfecto".  That's all good and official and everything. So we can ignore that Mike Trout home run that burned Greinke to lead off the All-Star Game in the midst of all this.............Bryce Harper thinks that Greinke's success has more to do with umpires than his inability to match Trout's success on outside pitches...........

Gold Medal, eh?: the Pan Am Games ended rather rudely for our domestic lads. Up 6-4 with 1 out in the bottom of the 10th inning, all hell broke loose and Canada took the title rather comically...............

Suite Deals: If you were thinking that maybe there would be some future time when the dwindling ticket sales in Anaheim might result in discounts as supply outstrips demand, here is an interesting wrinkle: enterprising third parties are stepping in and buying up the unsold premium seats and suites so that they can resell them piecemeal. "So let's go back to you and your friends at that Dodgers game...For about $90 per person, you get a general admission seat with a few beers and hot dogs...For $108 per person, you get a spot in a loge box, with a countertop area, HD televisions and a dedicated wait staff providing food and beverage service...Or, for about $150 per person, you can pamper yourself for a place in a luxury suite with all of its amenities...Your choice."...........

Misc: Chickens suck. They taste just like rattlesnake. And they can't coach...............Jonathan Herrera has a poltergeist that is trapped in his helmet logo............Detroit: go to a ballgame, where your team is a wreck, they get shelled, you go back to your car to mope all the way home, only to find that your car has been wrecked, and is a burned out shell............Is bad blood brewing in Texas? Right after a bench-clearing incident between the Rangers and Astros on Saturday, it appears that the two sides are still jacked up, as Dallas Keuchel is seen yelling at Delino DeShields, Jr.  for disagreeing with a low strike call. That won't be forgotten............Long form: defending sabremetrics with old-school radio jock............Wine trying to take over baseball? Nah. It may go with the game (from the suites), but it doesn't pair well with hot dogs, or popcorn. "Unless the Angels start selling Serve With Trout Pinot Noir. Then I think we can all agree that the Angels will win."...........