Thor'sLinks: Angels bedevil Oakland's finest

ALBERT PUJOLS: Pujols launched career home run #555 yesterday, tying Manny Ramirez for 14th place. Up next is Reggie Jackson at #13 with 563.............

ANDREW HEANEY: Alden Gonzalez is doing his job as team scribe, pumping the cause of Andrew Heaney. I'm glad for that  Heaney is already the real deal. One year before I thought he would crack the 25-man and 2 years before I thought he would reach his potential. (See? Vegas, baby! I'm telling ya'...) I think it's silly to see Heaney as a 2015 RoY candidate. Not with Carlos Correa in the picture. But I do think it would be fantastick enough for Heaney to get some votes. Yeah. That would be cool............

MIKE SCIOSCIA: Yeah, MLB Trade Rumors saw the same thing I did yesterday when I called bullshit on Sosh and his comments concerning the LAA GM search and selection process - and the dog-piling that you folks did in the comments thereafter.  "That would certainly be the case for most managers, but a highly-publicized feud with former GM Jerry Dipoto reportedly led to his departure from the organization, leading many to believe that the 16-year-veteran skipper holds outsized influence in the Halos organization."

______________________________

Elsewhere in Baseball

OLD SCHOOL FAIL: We have a "thing" on our hands. This happens in the blogging world, when you discover some event where somebody acts stupidly, You post about it, That somebody speaks out in defense of their boneheadedness, forcing you to revisit the topic. Two or three more cycles of this and we have a circus, and you folks are berating us about beating dead horses. Of course, these are cases of horses who refuse to stay dead. Such is the case of National manager Matt Williams and the incredulous way he followed "roles" and tropes and abused his bullpen options into back-to-back losses, including walk-off loss the other night. Mike Scioscia would be proud. Lots of NetWriters took notice in this day and age of how antiquated his strategy has become....Now fully aware of the national backlash of fantastic content - seriously, just google "Matt Williams", it's everywhere - clearly demonstrating the folly of Williams' methods rooted in the baseball era circa 1066, his own GM Mike Rizzo came out in Williams' defense, creating even more opportunity for writers to come back and blow up the whole organization....Which is where we are....For the uninitiated, Grant Brisbee uses this circus to give you an introduction.  "In a tie game on the road, the closer isn't trying to save a win. He's trying to save a chance that the other team will screw up in the later innings."

VENGEANCE: Did anybody see this, and/or notice it? A few weeks ago David Robertson got pissy about Mike Scioscia arguing in his way and blocking his ability to stay warm. (I thought that Sosh and the ump did move and Robertson still did not take advantage, so bad on him.) Well, last night Bruce Bochy went out to argue a call with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. According to Bill Shaikin, Kershaw found a way to get his point across concerning arguing around home plate. He wasn't throwing easy to just stay warm, he was throwing heat right there near the unattentive Bochy. Sweet...........

OMNI: Screwball baseball cards desparately in need of captions...........Fans not paying attention and risking injury is not limited to only those who sit in the infield seats!............Looking at 2015 Cluster Luck again, we see that the Angels are not extremely unlucky, although they are far less lucky than say, the Royals. But they really do suck hard...........Is it me, or does Bryce Harper get a lot of owies? Futbol fans will get this: Harper may be America's Michal Owen..........I realize that the Angels have played like shit most of the year, and like real shit lately. So it's predictable that people want to ignore them and talk all about Twins versus Rangers for the last WC slot. But, really, there truly is more than enough baseball left in the season to easily get back in the playoffs. So don't pay too much attention to all that talk. Yet.

______________________________________________

And now, being the full service weekend linkage institution that we are, here is the obligatory moment we take out of each Friday Thursday...for beer...(which works better on Thursdays anyway, because it gives you all some runway to take advantage of Friday goings on...)

Friday: Sacramento Gold Rush Days Beer Crawl at the Old Sacramento Historical District..........

Saturday: 26th Annual Sierra BrewFest in Grass Valley, at the Nevada County Fairgrounds (for foreigners, meaning non-Californians, that would be Nevada County California)..........Squaw Valley Foam Fest out on Squaw Valley Road in Placer County............

Sunday: Nada..........

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

BEER BONUS #2: We are primed to migrate past Shandy Season and into fall brews. Here is a list of those that avoid the obvious. 10 Fall Beers With Absolutely No Pumpkin In Them..........

Stay safe, everyone!

______________________________

(All grammatical errors still remaining should be intentional.)

____________________