WeekEnd HaloLinks: Halos make Sox bullpen pay Price

Hey Tom Verducci! You know that article you wrote just yesterday whining about how tough bullpens were shutting down the back-end of baseball games and ruining the sport (among many other things)? Well how 'bout THEM apples, dude?

After 8 tough innings, EIGHT OF WHICH WERE DOMINATED BY THE RED SOX STARTING PITCHER, the Halos got the chance to do something exciting and put baseball in the sports spotlight: a bases loaded walk-off infield grounder fielder's choice airmail throwing error to home plate come from behind and win a game miracle. Karma for the Mondesi-Shoemaker debacle a couple of nights ago.

I still say that all these people spending their time trying to change the game and make it "better" should switch their attention to the sport of cricket. Oh, and another thing, Verducci goes off and implies how having to play so many games each year is shortening the 20-year career of 40-year old David Ortiz. Well, FiveThirtyEight is finding that the same slow pace of play that Verducci (and Buster Olney) want to fix are actually helping the older players.

Have some Boston-Loses-Angels-Win-Baseball-Perfection Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Banan-A-Peal: In Major League Baseball, if you want to protest what an umpire did, you go to Joe Torre. But Joe Torre is the guy who also manages all the umpires. Unsurprisingly, Joe Torre never disagrees with the umpires he manages. He may disagree with a tarp or two, but not an umpire in-game decision. Mike Scioscia never had a chance. Not that Mike cared too much, he seems more concerned about how the game is called at some future point in history. "... I respect their decision. Hopefully it will foster some conversation in the future about that play and we can maybe get it a little bit cleaner.".........Well, Sosh, don't hold your breath. It's a long standing problem with lots of prior controversy. Mostly, it appears, because the baseball umpiring world has collaborated and agreed for quite some time now that they aren't going to rule according to the rule book, but according to what they have decided to do. And since that's the way have always done it, nobody has any valid beef...........

Trade Winds: We are now down to hours before the non-waiver trade deadline hits us. It happens Monday. So if something big with the Angels is gonna happen, it should be over the next 72 hours. All the usual names are still being mentioned (although I find it intriguing that  the Cards would be a buyer). And, of course, the waiting game is tough on the principals. The new name in the mix is not a player, it's an inquiring GM fishing in the pool of Anaheim: Jerry Dipoto...........Else where in the game, some big names are popping up in the rumor mill. Chris Sale, Juan Bautista, Jay Bruce, Jonathan Lucroy...........

Mysterious: Do we have mystery teams this year? I haven't read about mystery teams. At this late point in the trade season, we need mystery teams. Who would be the best mystery teams?............

Trout: The other night I watched Mike Trout dash to his left to try and snag a fly ball and missed catching it by what looked like less than the length of the glove. The doors opened to the Astros after that and I made the comment int eh game thread that Mike should have left his feet. It looked totally catchable had he made the commitment. Of course, camera angels and all. But, wait, maybe I was on to something. Trout's defensive contributions seem to be in sharp decline this year. Fari warning: defensive stats still kinda suck. so pay no attention to how this does not jibe with BBR. And pay no attention how the data points in the article don't align with the data points on FanGraphs..............

Ommmmm: Hey, as long as Andrew Heaney has gone through the process of proven science, he can add all the extra stuff he wants to try and recover. Meditation? Go for it...........

Fans in Action: We have a roundup of clips for you today. Here is a lady making a nice bucket snag...........Here is fan interference, ending with a kiss..........Here is a Pirates fan, going all in...........Here is an entire section of fans, now playing catcher..........Rays' 1B Logan Morrison decides to join the fans in the expensive seats............From the game last night: Future fans use their thundersticks for their padewan training.............A star is born...........And talented dude makes full use of that glove he took to the game............

Hambone: It's that time of year again. Josh Hamilton promising to be ready for Spring Training...next season. By the way, want another laugh? Hambone has the ability to opt out after October, presumably so that he can snag one last mega contract while still healthy enough...Yeah. That'll happen............

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The Duffle Bag

Chris Sale stories are still not settling down...........Angels sign off on Big Papi. Can we move on now?...........Vernon Wells and Chris Iannetta have partnered to put out a new $100 per bottle cabernet.  People not named Arte Moreno know that this is the stuff that costs $3 at Trade Joe's...........Wanna own Mike Trout's autographed lucky Ford Ranger pickup truck?..........Josh Reddick needed to stay in bed yesterday. Or maybe that's what he is doing this morning...........Joe Morgan's house is for sale. I don't know why the author is so upset about carpet around bathtubs. Yeah, it was an 80's interior design mistake. But apparently the author didn't get to see the worse idea: carpet around toilets...........How's this for a curious statistical pairing?

OT, but worthy of celebration: 24 years too late, but Disney is finally embracing a sequel to The Rocketeer!

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(homercles opened the LInks convo yesterday by pegging that easy Mystery Graph. LAA franchise winning percentage year over year. Be careful now. I have you thinking by default that something with 56 values, or something that starts in 1961, must be an LAA historical team stat thing. I can use that this kind of behavior to my advantage. Let's do something pretty for the weekend. Hint: the colors are meaningful...)

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