MondoLinks: Halos avoid being swept with their own broom

After trying to push the top half of the batting order to get it in gear in the Friday and Saturday contests,  the #'s 5 through 9 slots in the order just took over entirely and carried the Angels to victory yesterday. That was the one game I was figuring as a sure loss.

Seriously, hitters five through nine scored 9 of the Angels' 13 runs over the weekend, collected 22 of the 34 hits, and hit 2 of the 3 home runs (Soto had 2 and Pujols 1). That's like found gold.

Ron Roenicke has the insides on the Milwaukee dopes. Roenicke was fired as manager of the Brewers on May 3, 2015, meaning today marks the 365th day since his canning. Scioscia will never have better scouting on any opponent in the entirety of his career. So let's have some Inside-Dopes Links:

______________________________

Everywhere In Baseball

Roster Rollercoaster: The LAA Uber Hotline was busy over the weekend. Craig Gentry was sent onto the 15-day DL with a back strain and Shane Robinson was called up and had himself a great Sunday, going 2 for 4 and scoring 3 times. Matt Shoemaker was kicked down to Salt Lake to get his act together and A.J. Achter was called up. C.J. Wilson was moved over to the 60-day DL, meaning that there is no longer any chance of Wilson showing up in June..........

Depth Charges: With Wilson remaining DOA and Shoemaker being tossed onto the casualty cart, it hurts to learn that Andrew Heaney is going to be out for 4 to 12 weeks. As in 1 to 3 months. Not before June, and maybe as late as August. That is spelled A-u-g-u-s-t. It,s the month that comes after July. Just a few weeks before the end of the season...........Garrett Richards took an early shower yesterday, suffering from cramps and dehydration. While that is not a sign of injury or loss of turn in the rotation, it is a sign that we burn more relievers than we might have had, otherwise...........And Tyler Skaggs is still having the medical world study up on his shoulder problem. Skaggs won't be around any time soon, either..........And, yeah, that means we have only 4 starters on the roster at the moment............

Deep Sigh: Here is a suite of Opportunity Lost links. Last season Matt Joyce ended up with 43 hits and a .174 BA, giving a -1.0 bWAR effort on a team that finished exactly 1 game out of the playoffs. Joyce already has 12 hits, and 3 home runs, in only 30 at-bats for the Pirates and is up to +0.7 bWAR already..........

Daft Draft Ideas: Get this. The Atlanta Braves are so desperate for draft picks that they are willing to take on bad contracts if the sending team adds draft picks to the deal. For example, theoretically the Angels could send Albert Pujols and all of the money he is owed if the Angels throw in their 16th pick in the first round. Actually, no. No they could not. Stop dreaming. MLB only allows Compensation Round picks to be traded. We get to keep Pujols for, like, ever..........

Branching Out: And you thought you were such a techno-hipster what with all your predictions of an eventual robot calling balls and strikes. Beware of you bragging over beers Future Boy, because it turns out that efforts to automate the strike zone go all the way back to Branch Rickey..........

Pharma: News is pouring out from the land of subterranean chemical pursuits. Jake Arrieta takes on the rumor-mongoring of Stephen A. Smith, which I already linked to, Justin Verlander spouts off on Dee Gordon's bust, and Verlander might only be the tip of the Spear of Backlash.  And we might see a list published this week with more busted players............And it finally appeared: an article from avid Giants homer Grant Brisbee jumping into the Dee Gordon story to defend Barry Bonds. I knew that this was coming. It was only a matter of time..........

______________________________

The Duffle Bag

Fair is fair. Look, for the same reason we shouldn't go over the moon because a Bryce Harper launches 2016 as a monster - against mostly crappy teams, we also shouldn't get all pissy just because he K's 4 times in one game - now that he is seeing better pitching..........5, 287,921 pages of rules and decades of extensive training, and we still can't get an obstruction call figured out?..........The Cardinal Way gets a stiff run for its money..........Joe Maddon could never be a manager of an Arte Moreno baseball team. Because Joe Maddon runs a pretty damned cool ship and it's no place for red polos and block slacks...........Imagine if this had been a Mike Trout home run ball, and all you got was something signed by a bunch of Rangers............Mark Trumbo had a tough time with Chris Sale, too..........Heads up. Here comes Yu Darvish to make things even more difficult..........This FanGraphs article on sliders is brought to you by the memory of Mike Butcher...........Adam Eaton knows how to Make Baseball Fun Again...........The Braves really are a hot mess. They actually had to play a game with a 24-man roster because their execs tried to call up a guy who was ineligible..........Here we go again. Recall that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled rookie Ross Stripling in the 8th inning while he had a no-hitter going. Ex-Dodgers manager Don Mattingly just did the very same thing, at the very same inning, to Adam Conley.............I'm certain that both kids will one day look back on their career from the rocking chairs of their retirement homes and thank those skippers for protecting them..........Players don't pick their uniform design. They are far more concerned with getting to wear one at all than what kind of fashion statement it makes at UniWatch. So good on the DBacks with having sport with their uglies..........Axe handled bats are taking over the game. They help the batter keep the bat aligned in their swing...........Oh brother. Sure, Curt Schilling is a jerk. ANd, sure, ESPN just fired him. But ESPN re-writing history so they don't have to mention Curt Schilling???ESPN, this only makes you look dickish..........

_______________________________