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Thor'sLinks: Angels keep falling, silently.

And so I have come. Just do not ask of me to be nice to reporters.

By Stirrups
Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

See, people? This is why we can't have Trout Porn. Mike was 0 for 4. With 3 strikeouts. And he left 3 men on base. Our 2 through 5 were a combined 1 for 16 with 7 strikeouts at a time when, supposedly, Mike Scioscia finally stopped turning the page (which, let's be honest, is simply one level of hell above "surrender") and unleashed the dogs of war.

Well, these are dogs alright.

How these guys went from being the top run-producing offense of 2014 to nearly the worst such thing just 12 months later is an amazement. It's well beyond any Howie Kendrick meme.

So Jered Weaver did what Jered Weaver does - dance through raindrops until one of the middle innings, give up a cluster of runs on a long ball, and run through his remaining innings until relief arrives. Oh, wait. No, he didn't. Weaver got an early Christmas gift of getting to drill an asshat Kyle Seager who was showboating his own clown act in the batters box. That earned an immediate ejection for the privilege of showing the balance of the LAA staff what to do with this dickwad going forward. At least Weaver looked well groomed for all the news coverage that exchange is going to generate.

Anyway, that cluster of runs was merely 3, but that was triple the volume that 9 of our guys could muster through 27 outs when they are all supposed to be fighting for life itself.

Feeble. It's as if they are trying with all their might to restrain themselves from providing us with any links...

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Angels Baseball

The Upcoming Series:

Los Angeles Angels @  Minnesota Twins - Target Field, Minneapolis, MN.

Day Game Time Probable Pitchers TV
THURSDAY 5:10 PM PDT Hector Santiago (8-9, 3.21 ERA) vs. Tommy Milone (8-5, 3.73 ERA) FSW, MLBN
FRIDAY 5:10 PM PDT Andrew Heaney (6-3, 3.32 ERA) vs. Mike Pelfrey (6-9, 4.09 ERA) FSW
SATURDAY 4:10 PM PDT Garrett Richards (13-11, 3.81 ERA) vs. Kyle Gibson (10-10, 3.71 ERA) FSW
SUNDAY 11:10 AM PDT Probably Matt Shoemaker but let's keep that a secret and sneak up on 'em! vs. Tyler Duffey (3-1, 3.72 ERA)

From the official team Game Notes: "TWINS ON DECK: Angels lost in series finale in previous meeting (7/23), snapped a nine-game win streak vs. Twins, longest in Club history vs. Minnesota…Halos went 7-0 vs. Minnesota in 2014 (3-0 at home), first undefeated season series vs. Twins in club history…Halos are 75-55 vs. Twins since 2000…Angels have won 10 of last 12 season series vs. Twins."

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David Freese: Freese is too busy being clutch to be worrying about how this winter's free agent market is going to worship the monumental success disappointment of 2015. Don't forget, this is a guy who gave us a slash line of .240 / .309 / .397 with a -1/2 Run Expectancy before he went out onto the DL and missed 5 weeks of the season. The .364 BA and 4.2 Run Expectencyover the past 13 games is merely resume padding. The damage had already been done............

Call-ups: Figures. Huston Street, a union rep, loves the tradition of September call-ups giving teams a long look at prospects playing at the Major league level. Good for the prospects to get experience, and good for the franchise to get a solid chance to measure where there next generation of everyday players happens to be at. Mike Scioscia doesn't like it. Not at all. Why? Because maybe it means that at the tail end of a season one of his competitors gets to line up against AAA pitchers and hitters while his team has to face a Dallas Keuchel and Mike Napoli. To which I say: "Hey, Mike! maybe you shouldn't have been turning so many pages back in May?"...........

Bugs: You recall the story yesterday of how Huston Street says that he was experiencing flu-like symptoms before he went out and personally drove the final nail in the coffin of the 2015 season this past Sunday? That bug is making the rounds. David Murphy claims the same symptoms yesterday. Murphy's response to those symptoms was decidedly more positive............

Catching Up: The Halos list 4 catchers on their 40-man roster (Chris Iannetta, Carlos Perez, Jett Bandy and Rafael Lopez). Lopez is inactive, so there are three catchers in the dugout. And starting with the September 9th game, only Perez is seeing any action. Iannetta, and his .180 season-long batting average, are stuck on the bench, sitting there right next to Jett Bandy and soaking up the atmosphere..........

Trout Porn: Ok, let's just force it. And try not to laugh. Mike Trout is up for Best Major Leaguer and Best Everyday Player in this year's Esurance MLB Pokemon Awards...........(Oh, Ok. Here is yet another one of those late-season puffery pieces shining a light on another one of those things that Mike Trout used to do a lot of.)

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Elsewhere in Baseball

Yeonis Cespedes: Yeah, that Cespedes deal between the Mets and Tigers has worked out pretty damned well for the Mets. So far. And if they cannot hang on to him for a reasonable price once the seasons ends? Will the Mets feel Greinkeed?..........

Dark Ideas: MLB.tv blackout rules are an abomination, a plague upon a sport that exists to serve we, the fanbase. There are some extremely egregious examples of how bad are their rules. And one particularly stupid example that boggles the mind: Guam. Guam, for the unaware, is so far away from the nearest MLB stadium that it actually exists in the future. And yet, for MLB.tv, that is still not nearly far enough away...........


OMNI: See folks? Foul balls may be fun, but even cupcakes are more fun. As are little sweet bread products covered with icing............Lady HH'ers! Now is your chance to don YOUR throwbacks!!!.............Barry Zito, the Walking Dead, still out there kickin' it. Just in time to do one last bad thing to us at the end of the month before his career comes to a complete close.............

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06-Favored-Beverages

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: The California Beer Festival lands in Ventura for the weekend at City Hall/Mission Park.............In San Diego, at the Port Pavilion On Broadway Pier, you will find the 21st Annual San Diego Festival of Beer...........

Saturday: The California Beer Festival continues in Ventura.............V3Hopfest, a brewfest that follows on after the V3 charity bike ride through the San Francisco foothills, takes place in the afternoon at Bishop Ranch...........The Sierra Nevada Beer Dinner will be at Hilton Del Mar...........Malibu Beer Festival will be at the Malibu Lumber Yard up on Cross Creek Road...........Find the California Brewers Festival at Discovery Park in Sacramento..........The Lake Arrowhead Oktoberfest is at the Lake Arrowhead Village...........Downtown Brentwood Craft Beer Festival at the Brentwood Community Center..........At Point Tiberion Plaza you can find the Tiberion Taps Beer Festival...........

Sunday: The California Beer Festival in Ventura concludes.............Another San Francisco treat this weekend is the Best Coast Beer Fest at Marina Green on Marina Blvd...........Taps and Tapas in uptown Whittier is a brand-new function to the SoCal scene............

BEER BONUS #1: We continue to track the Ales for ALS 2015 project brought to us by red floyd. This week nothing is scheduled..........

Stay safe, everyone!

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(All grammatical errors still remaining should be intentional.)

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