TuesdoLinks: For one night: Ch-ACE-in

Jhoulys Chacin and Justin Verlander both took perfect games through 4 complete innings last night, until C.J. Cron singled to open the bottom of the 5th. Before that moment, the game was going to echo just how little was going on around baseball as a whole. But if that kept up, we would have had more than enough to chat about today. All the baseball world would, in fact.

But things relaxed after Cron's single, with the Tigers responding with a few base hits of their own. Chacin held tight. Verlander did not. Just prior to what would be Detroit's final chance to score for the night, Verlander ran into the buzz saw that is the LAA batting order bottom feeders.

Angels 5, Tigers 1. We are primed for a good series...

Summer, as a meteorological and astronomical period, won't be here for another three weeks. Those people are all killjoys. Summer, as a cultural thing, is now upon us. So wake back up this morning to your official cultural summer with what little we have of Hangover Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Main Street: Billy Eppler had a busy weekend. Huston Street returned to the lineup, and Mike Morin was sent to Salt Lake in exchange for Chris Jones. Deolis Guerra was DFA'd but fret not. Nobody is going to want him, either, and odds are he will be joining Morin down with the Bees..............Nothing personal here, but I sure hope we won't be seeing much of Chris Jones and his 6.32 ERA in the minors..............

Freaky: Tim Lincecum, the guy MSM still fears showing off in an LAA uni, remains on track for his June 12th start against Cleveland (that's a Sunday game). The trick here is that he is thrilled to have a credible fastball once again. He is up to 89, much better than the sucky 87 of last year. To which I say, "whew!" So gald that ain't Jered Weaver or anything.............

CWS: Here we go, boys and girls! Cal State Fullerton made the 64-team College World Series, opening in the Starkville Regional  hosted by Mississippi St. We have 3 local teams in the CWS: CSFU, Cal State Long Beach, and UC Santa Barbara. CS Fullerton is bracketed with Mississippi State, Southeast Missouri State, and Louisiana Tech. Pool play opens this Friday, June 3...........

Graphic: Have some fun with this interactive chart tracking the history of MLB. I am going to drop you directly into the Angels plot, but use the UP and DOWN keys to see all teams through all-time. Note the teams in the early days that went extinct. As for the Angels, notice the general trend upward from the year 2000. Also, if you click on the chart you will expand team you are focusing on, and then be able to slew season to season and see outcomes...........

Gagged: It's so hard to refrain from using the success of the Seattle Mariners to rub the ability of Jerry Dipoto into the faces of the Mike Scioscia and Arte Moreno's reputations. They are playing .600 ball, something they haven't sniffed since the 2003 season. They could end up winning around 15 games more this season than last. And the wheeling and dealing of Jerry Dipoto in the offseason, probably the biggest number of transactions by any MLB team and including the hiring of Scott Servais out of the LAA front office to be his field general, is a huge reason why. Dipoto could well end up a serious Executive of the Year candidate. But the problem, to me, is that Dipoto really didn't have that potential here. It's not like he could have done the same if only he had some missing authority or more sufficient backing. Fundamentally, Dipoto didn't have as much flexibility here. He inherited a piss-poor farm system with which to work. He didn't have a strong scouting system in place, including zero presence internationally. And, yeah, he had those contracts stringing him up by his thumbs. So, no, Dipoto is making the most of the opportunity he has now and good for him. But keeping him here would not have resulted in any of the same magic..............

A Bad Look: Let's not forget that the Cardinals organization got caught red-handed with their fingers in the Astros' cookie jar. To excuse it away as the act of one independent FO employee is to choose to ignore the confession on record, where he told other FO employees of what he was finding. So this is a huge deal: corporate espionage of one franchise against a brother franchise. The punishment for this breach of trust and behavior should be severe. But it's the Cardinals we are talking about here. A protected species, apparently. If & when MLB rules on any sanctions, it ain't going to be at any point that will cost St. Louis any of their draft day plans. This is important, because the Cards have 3 of the first 34 picks this year. They represent ~3% of all teams, but ~10% of all fist round picks. And first round picks, as we all know, are where the best chance at gold lies. Say, for example, the punishment turns out to dock STL their top 3 picks. This could be within the realm of possibility. This year those would be rounds #1, #1 and #1. Next year those might be rounds #1, #2 and #3. That's a huge difference and MLB might be protecting that. Which would be bullshit.

Memorial Day in Memoriam: Major League Baseball has more than a few players who served in the military. There is a very small and very select group of young men who lost their lives in war. But this link is about a young ballplayer who survived WWII (as a member of Army Special Forces, not doing promo tours) and lost his career, probably a Hall of Fame career. Read about Cecil Travis. And then start googling around and read even more.............

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