HumpLinks: Halos launched by Angry Birds

Show of hands. How many arm-chair managers out there are still thunderstruck at the idea of pulling your best pitcher from a game where you are still within 3 runs, after he has thrown only 83 pitches, in the 5th inning of the first of 16 consecutive days worth of games that is bound to put a strain on your bullpen even without considering that you no longer have a solid 5-man starting rotation?

Anyone? No? Well, OK, just me then.

Have some Javy-Guerra-Is-A-Human-White-Flag Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

The Shoe Fits: Matt Shoemaker is coming back up to take a rotation slot tonight. And we all know what THAT means...........

Saving Ryan's Privates: Problems solved! Everybody else got stuck with guys like David Price, Ben Zobrist, Mat Latos, Jason Heyward, we waited patiently for that perfect fit. And yesterday we got him. The Brendan Ryan............

Ouch: I just really want to pretend that I did not watch Randal Grichuk hit a home run in Angels Stadium...against the Angels....just over the glove of Mike Trout....to put a dagger into the heart of the Halos' chances...........

Trout trades: Oh, stop, America. Please just stop. No more with all this silly trade Trout speculation. Just think about it, logically, before you boggle your own feeble keyboards and distract us Halo fans from our appointed rounds. The Angels are in this predicament precisely because they have Trout and no farm. Trout will cost any other team their farm. That would mean the receiving team would end up where the Angels are now: with Trout and no farm. If this situation is that bad for us, why would it become acceptable for any other franchise?..........

Nats-urally: The biggest news throughout MLB yesterday was the signing of Stephen Strasburg to a mega-extension. 7 more years, 175 million more dollars............It's worth pointing out that Strasburg was the anchor for next winter's free agent market. That market just turned into a 7-11, so if you were a Billy Eppler hoping to rebuild starting next Fall, your plans just took a big hit............

Rulers: When are rules not rules? Apparently, whenever MLB decides that they are not to be. Take, for example, that new slide rule. If the umpires on the field choose not to enforce it, and the MLB replay officials choose not to enforce it, then it must not be a rule, right?...........

Chicago Colossus: The Cubs are doing something that, quite literally, breaks baseball. Their run differential is on a trajectory that would be unparalleled in contemporary baseball. No, Not just unparalleled. No other team would be even within the same galactic cluster. They are on a pace to finish at +551. I know what you are wondering. The answer is -122. The Halos are on track to project out to -122. Or about 673 runs behind the Cubs. In a single season............

In-Vin-sable: Vin Scully might not be everyone's cup of tea (it's OK to go through life with as wrong an opinion as that), and he might not be as crisp as he once was, but by gosh his legacy is profound. And as I peruse the back alleys of the net to catch links for you, I am noticing that Scully is getting far more attention on his farewell tour than anything following David Ortiz..........

PEDs: Well, maybe the later release of PEDs names was not as bold as we were led to expect. Royals' prospect Raul Mondesi, Jr. is an important name, for sure. But he is still just a prospect. One with a well-known dad. And he was but one of three total minor leaguers suspended, as the Blue Jays and Twins also had one prospect each............

Sports Biz: Disney continues to kick royal ass with their movie revenue from the likes of Star Wars and Marvel movies and merchandise. But they got kicked in the teeth with their quarterly earnings report anyway, seeing their overall revenues and profits miss analyst projections. And they have the tumbling fortunes of ESPN to thank for that. Yeah. ESPN is losing subscription revenue and losing ad revenue, all due to their shitty content and cord-cutters. It's kind of a crack-up to me that the very rats that ESPN hitched their wagons to and plunged ESPN into the abyss are the ones that are dumping their ESPN gigs now before it goes under later...........Meanwhile, ESPN is freaking out about "skinny bundles" that allow cable consumers to subscribe to content that doesn't include ESPN. They sued Verizon over the action. Fortunately, Verizon found a way to neutralize the Disney legal squad...........

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The Duffle Bag

When some other team's ball boy puts more effort into his night then your own entire team, you know you have a problem..........Here. Feel better. Other teams are, um, sucking wind too...........Bryce Harper, Making Baseball Fun again. For the MLB fine collectors, at least...........And if John Farrell deserves the fine, so does Harper............Bill Nye, baseball revolutionary on behalf of all coaches too feeble to bend over on their own...........What is it about McCovery Cove that motivates people to exhibit their follies so much?.................No, Scott Boras, it's really not up to just the Lerner family when it comes to Bryce Harper's mega-contract. That's not how negotiations work. And we rubes all know it...........Albert Pujols, he of the .183 batting average, is not allowing his wretched on-field performance ruin his day..............When will players learn not to mess with the arm of Yeonis Cespedes???..........Hanley Ramirez and Coco Crisp: turf wars..........Free beer for a year? Bartolo Colon hit his home run in the wrong ballpark..........MLB finding a way to sell more merch. Now you just have to have the new Play Ball patched BP jerseys..........Bartolo Colon, the new hero of baseball...........

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