TuesdoLinks: Halos Power, Rangers sour

Remember when the Angels won most of the games they played? Those were fun. Seems like only yesterday when that was the kind of thing happening in Anaheim.

Quick show of hands: how many of you jump over to a Rangers thread at a time like when Mike Trout bashes a 3-run homer and ices the game, just to watch the implosion??? Yeah. me too. Good times. Gotta take them when we can this year.

Heard early last night on the television broadcast, Gubi using LAA math (paraphrasing): "...Jett Bandy as thrown out 39% of base runners this year...having thrown out 12 of 19 runners attempting to steal..." Well, that 12 of 19 would actually be 63% and that would be galactic in amazement. Going intot he game Bandy did have a 39% success rate throwing out base runners, but that's because those 12 runners were safe, and he threw out the other 7.

Have some On-A-Roll-Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Trout Porn: We all know that Mike Trout's teammates are letting him down. Lots of ink and lots of photons have been generated whining and documenting that fact. What you may NOT know, is that in the history of Major League Baseball, there has been only one other time where the a young superstar outplayed his teammates to a greater degree. That would be Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, back in the years of 1907 - 1912............

Shoe Shine: Matt Shoemaker was named AL Player of the Week. Pay no attention to the fact that last week each team only played 3 games..........Meanwhile, down at Salt Lake, Tyler Skaggs was Named Pitcher of the Week for the Pacific Coast League..........

Moving and Shaking: The Angels sent A.J. Achter to the DFA choo choo train. With Geovany Soto still aching (headed back to the DL), and Carlos Perez staying down at AAA to work on his bat, the Angels are using that Achter slot to purchase the contract of Juan Graterol and back up Jett Bandy.  A look into his background shows that, at 27, Graterol has spent 11 years in the minors and this is his first call-up to The Show............Nick Tropeano was pulled early last night, while dragging down the entire team with an ineffective start. Turns out that he suffered some kind of elbow injury. His elbow will be tested today, but his head needs to be tested immediately. It's clear that he had nothing from the very beginning. He was down 3 runs off 2 home runs 17 pitches into the first inning. So what the hell was he trying to save by gutting through anything in a season like this?............

Shhh: Please ask no further questions. That is all. The Shelby Miller catastrophe that the DBacks fell into (kind of their own making, of course) seems to involve something "yucky and mysterious" with his game preparation process. So Arizona has sent Miller down to AAA to clean things up. Man, when teams leave news at that, you know it's too personal to share. And that "yucky" comment opens the door wide to all kinds of speculation. Even at that level, it's TMI for my blood..........

Timing: Wow. This would be huge. MLB and the Players Union are having more discussions around shrinking the season back to 154 games, and nothing has jumped up yet and called B.S. to block it. Now, it's a hell of a long shot still. Owners have a lot of money at stake across those extra 4 home games (roughly 5% of the regular season) and the broadcast revenues that come with those 8 games. I don't know if there are any bounty bonuses in player contracts so I don't know if players risk losing any money other than some kind of pro-rated discount for shortened seasons (which, stupidly, Union Chief Tony Clark doesn't seem to understand). But those two sides both volunteering to lose money seems like kind of a big deal. As for stats, in this era I don't think it's that big of a deal. Mostly, it impacts counting stats and there are very few of those that people really pay attention to anymore. And some of those (Wins, RBI's) are drifting towards the dead part of the ocean as it is..........

Jurisprudence: Oh, here we go. The ex-Cards front office Director of Scouting Chris Correa, the confessed to being the guy who hacked into the Houston Astros' computer system to steal their draft info during the 2014 First Year Player Draft has been sentenced to 46 months in the pokey. While the Cards openly insist that this was all a rogue operation, and nobody else was charged, and Commissioner Manfred sticks his head in the sand, don't forget that during his statement Correa explained that his info was shared with other in the Cards organization and nobody is denying that others were involved. It's just that the Feds are not charging anybody else and those other people have not been publicly identified. And the net of all this is that the Cards, generally drafting directly in front of the Astros, knew what the Astros were looking for, and why. they were in a place to exploit extra scouting info AND block a potential competitor (and piss on ex-employees now working for Houston). But thanks to craftily deliberate pace of Manfred and company, the Cards won't lose any of their precious 3 first round picks of this past draft...........

Burn It Down: The Twins jumped into the Trade Deadline window, desperately in need of being sellers, by firing their General Manager Terry Ryan. Ryan is the guy who architected their success just over a decade ago, then left, then came back and built the team that almost made the playoffs last year. But they suck now. Right down there with Atlanta and Cincinnati, who are trying to suck. The Twins explain everything. On twitter...........

Speed Kills: Aroldis Chapman has a chance to get out of New York and land with the Cubs, so he went balls to the wall last night. Hell, I would do the same thing if I had that skill. "Aroldis Chapman put that to the test repeatedly on Monday, as the Yankees' flame-throwing left-hander threw the five fastest pitches recorded to date by Statcast™, including one that registered 105.1 mph. Chapman locked down his 19th save in 20 chances as the Yankees defeated the Orioles, 2-1." (Oddly, BrooksBaseball has his max velo at 105.7.) Holy balls. 105mph. Now, if only he could get a pitch like that closer to the strike zone............

PED-dling: MLB player Rick Porcello is unhappy with how poorly the MLB drug policy is working at ridding PED use from the sport. He thinks that the penalties should be higher, without also thinking that maybe testing should be even better than it has become because there most likely are treatments for which there remain zero risk..........

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The Duffle Bag

Matt Harvey underwent his potential career-ending surgery on Monday. Only time will tell if we see the man back on a pro mound. remember, we care not just because care about our fellow human beings, but also because we chastise Arte Moreno for denying the career of Harvey by being a signing bonus cheapskate.........10 First Half Trivia questions that should trip you up. Number 8 will make you cringe.........The Yankees are on the verge of burn-it-down mode. Should that happen, stand back. There is no telling what impact that might have on the strategic thinking out of Arte Moreno and John Carpino. But as for what that might look like for the Yankees, we have a clue...........Yeah. I agree with this. Eric Hosmer is not going to get $200million out of anybody. But then again, a new CBA will be in place for Scott Boras and owners are crazy people..........Very slick play, Mr. I used to be an Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics competitor............I want Jason Hammel's doctor as MY primary care physician!.............Gack. Mike Trout was seen chasing Pokemons in the LAA clubhouse. How they got there is anybody's guess..........R.I.P. Melvin Durslag..........Minor leaguer Anthony Gose has figured out who to blame for yelling at his manager and refusing to show up for the next game, earning a demotion. It's the fault of the media..........

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(Yesterday was telinuauthour FTW. Not his first shot, but his corrected shot.  The chart is the Left Field OPS contributions for all MLB teams in existence from 1961 to date, with the top (green) line being the best in baseball, the bottom (red) line being the worst, and the middle line (light blue dashed) being the Angels. In 1984 the Halo LF roster combined to be the best. In 1976, 1983, 2015 and 2016 the Halos have been the worst. And the levels of suck we are seeing this season (.572 at the time the data was pulled) have not been seen in Major League Baseball since 1976 when this same franchise closed the season at .565. Also, just to note based on thread comments, those spikes are not JUST Bonds, They are also Albert Belle. So you people are starting to toughen up. Time to amp up my game...)

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