Thor'sLinks: Back to baseball. NL Showdown time.

Grab a seat. Order up a fresh bag of popcorn. The playoffs get back in action tonight with a Game 5.

Sure, we don't have any skin in the game. But we DO have Mike Trout. Right now all the fans of the Dodgers and all the fans of the Nationals think they have the better deal. Tonight half of them will realize just how wrong they were.

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Everywhere In Baseball

Grant Brisbee comes to the defense of Clayton Kershaw's reputation in a way that only the most entertaining powers of a Grant Brisbee can muster...........

Hey, Eppler! Brian Sabean on line 3. Needs a bullpen. Is drooling for Cam Bedrosian. Who do we want for him? Christian Arroyo or Chris Shaw?............

And, man, does that Giants' bullpen totally suck. Imagine being on a staff with that much suck and being so bad that you are the very last guy your manager would trust to throw into a game that has turned into a tire fire. In fact, you suck so bad he would rather lose the season. Yes, Santiago Casilla, that person is you............

Here is something we have not seen in years. An LA Angels prospect making a Top 10, anywhere and for any reason. So we got Matt Thaiss, #10, Midwest League..........

Speaking of prospects, let's keep tabs on Julio Garcia and Brandon Marsh in the AFL.............

And we can also check out how Billy Eppler has been active the past few days. Scroll down to the LA Angels section and, among a bunch of other moves, you can see that the Angels have recalled Tim Lincecum. Not that it means that much in mid-October. But it's still fun to see the name...........

Hunter Pence is a special kind of crazy, and now has a lot of time on his hands to cause mischief............

How fun is this? The Padres, those miserable San Diego Padres, fired their own President yesterday. Mike Dee is gone. BUT...Mike Dee's General Manager, the A.J. Preller who has gummed up the whole franchise AND was busted for shenanigans for a second time, this time for keeping two sets of medical books? Yeah, Preller gets to stay and keep on trucking............

And while focused on the Padres, there should be no reason to fear the use of brown in a baseball uniform. It's just that the Padres tend to not use brown very well. Always close, but always just a cheesy side of nice. Dropping the brown altogether is probably the safe thing to do until they ever hire professional design expertise. Something other than Ray Kroc's mother-in-law..........

Let's pause for a quick moment of levity. Pete Rose photobombs..........

Ok, back to it. If you chart out the 2016 season, diving into different aspects of relative team performance, it's rather predictable to see the Angels in the less desirable quartile with alarming regularity...........

Oh, how surprising. Commissioner Manfred chimes in on the state of Nevada being willing to hand $750 million to the Oakland Raiders, by bringing up the Raiders as he discusses that other Oakland pro franchise, the A's and their pathetic stadium...........

The Dodgers may find themselves standing directly in the fire, having to face Max Scherzer in a Game 5 after getting away with besting him once already, but at least they can take solace in knowing that they used to be in the frying pan and only an well-timed injury to Stephen Strasburg is keeping him out of the NLDS...........

So, Baltimore, your manager made one incredibly stupefying decision that cost you the season? Relax and get used to it. No sense canning the guy. Speaking from experience, there might be a few more of those where that one came from...........

We can close the book on my Carlos Gomez watch. Over the final 33 games, Gomez gave the Rangers one of his best career slash lines of .284/.362/.543 with 8 home runs, and OPS+ of 134, and .9 bWAR. And, as expected, he bonded with his rescuers and wants to stay in Arlington. All that for the Rangers after picking GOmez upu off the streets and committing about a buck thirty nine in payroll...........

Yep. Those old MSM asshats who think they know today's game better than you because they watched the game back before you were in diapers? Umm. Not the same game you decrepit relics............

Someday, technology is going to let us pick and choose our primary camera angle, along with which camera they want to use to watch replays. Kind of like pro football. Not so revolutionary. But then we can leave behind those who resist change so damned hard...........

Is Javier Baez of the Cubs the latest youngster to start getting extra chippy? Success can do that to some people...........

Be happy that you are not on the same page as Ben Affleck, sports fan............Remember, we are talking about THIS Ben Affleck..........

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