WeekEnd HaloLinks: Nolasco a Tobasco Fiasco

I really needed to see that game yesterday in person, or on TV. Runs early, runs late, and fairly quiet in between. I've watched the video highlights and it wasn't a summertime shadows thing.

Ji-Man Choi and Ricky Nolasco started out the early innings in a fierce battle, with Choice driving in run after run by slamming home runs, only to watch Ricky Nolasco give those runs back by allowing home run after home run. Nolasco came out ahead, giving up three while the Ji-Man came this close to his own 3-homer night.

When both combatants went silent, the LA offense scrathced back to tie the game and send it to extras (squandering a bases load, one out situation in the bottom of the 8th where they could only score 1 run and tie the game). Wen ended up with a 10th inning and Mike Morin, doing his second outing about 20 hours apart, danked his turn and gave up a pair to let Oakland avoid the sweep.

A basic observation that will always bother me, brought back up after Kole Calhoun's at-bat: bottom of the 8th, bases loaded, go-ahead run 90 feet away. What's the point of trying to hit a baseball so hard you fly out to the center fielder?

Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Ding, Dong, the Ric is Dead: Let's see, how am I supposed to do this? Carlos posted the news on HH at 12:02 PM yesterday. But he linked to Mike DiGiovanna of the LAT as his source. DiGiovanna put up his article at 10:55 AM, and credited some unnamed source "familiar with the situation". Keith Law posted a tweet at 9:34 AM. So maybe Law is the person that DiGiovanna quotes as the person familiar with this, who tells the world that Ric Wilson is no longer in charge of LAA scouting (which would include driving the entry draft each year). Color me intrigued. We have read that Billy Eppler has been ramping up the staffing of the scouting department as a whole. We all know that Wilson's draft's have been sub-standard even beyond the handicaps imposed with the loss of 1st round picks, and I am not alone in observing odd outcomes that might be attributable to bad advanced scouting in-season. Behind the GM, the Scouting Director is the most influential touchstone when it comes to the roster makeup and talent pipeline for a franchise. This is a very big deal, and could result in a huge sea-change for the organization. I say "could", because there are no rules that mandate the next person behaves significantly different than Wilson. That is merely wishful thinking on the part of us all. I say that because of what Eppler says about the move: "We’d like to keep him in an evaluative role in amateur scouting, but we felt this was the best decision from an organizational standpoint. Ric is a tremendously loyal employee and a phenomenal human being. He helps bond scouts together. He is a picture of optimism, the definition of a company man." Not far enough away...........

Cam Shaft: FanGraphs jumps on the Bedrosian Bandwagon, seeing the future in Anaheim. Just in time to alert everyboy to pay attention as Bedrosian blows a save...........

Machine Shop: Albert Pujols, Lord of the Second Half...........

Spare Parts: In Minor news, Todd Cunningham cleared waivers (a nice euphemism for "nobody wants Eppler's leftovers) and has accepted a future of bus rides in and out of Salt Lake City.....Craig Gentry went through the same..er..process and chose not to go to SLC. Gentry chooses the route of Free Agency, which is what we normal human might call "unemployed". I can't find out where Danial Nava sits at the moment...........

Prior Art: Mark Prior was a phenom. And his pro career lasted only 5 seasons. In his second season, 2003, he threw a total of 3,013 pitches across 185 innings in 27 games. That's an average of 111.59 pitchers per game. His high was 131 pitches. He threw more than 120 pitches 6 times. He threw less than 100 pitches only 4 times. This is not the middle or early part of the last century, when pitchers might have been brought up throwing that much (and even those pitchers were not immune to arm destruction). And then he got to the post-season, where he threw 133, then 116, and finally 119 pitches. Those two lower tallies were because he only pitched 7.0 and 7.1 innings, respectively. By 2007 he was out of baseball forever.  But Mark Prior is not having any of the claims that 2003 had anything to do with his flame out.............

Home(run)coming: It was a fine day for newly relocated players to greet the home run fence with their new teammates. Jay Bruce homered for the Mets to defeat the Yankees......Jonathan Lucroy homered to help lift the Rangers over the Orioles............Hector Santiago surrendered a monster home run to Jason Kipnis, his second batter faced as a Twins pitcher.......Santiago also gifted a 3-run homer to Carlos Santana just 2 innings later.....Of cours,e we all have our very own Ricky Nolasco giving up 3 home runs! Start with Max Muncy, Nolasco's second batter faced under the Halo. Then Ryan Healy in the 3rd. And, finally, Danny Valencia in the 4th.....And none of this would include the day BEFORE, when Joe Smith surrendered a homer with his second batter faced as a Cubbie...........

Horror Stories: Few things impact sports in a more negative fashion that non-sporty Hollywood hacks trying to use sports to tell their morality play, and failing cheesily...........

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The Duffle Bag

This guy Napoli. LAA sucess story, LAA failure story. Killing it............Angel fan caught on video heckling Billy Butler, FTW.............Clint Frazier, recently traded to the Yankees and considered Mike Trout, Part II, is bow qualified to chase star power. Social media star power but, hey, a kid has to start somewhere...........Sometimes Instant Replay corrects mistakes, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes, in both cases, it just relocates the point of arguments in baseball............Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of the Ryan/Ventura brawl..............Salmon, as in not Tim, as a lovely parting gift???.........Jim Bowden goes spitballing again, Forecasting a way that the braves will be the next stop for Yasiel Puig..........I'm beginning to think that this San Diego Padres owner Ron Fowler had a past life, probably as a factory worker well before industrial safety and labor laws became all the rage.............Yesterday was also the anniversary of Joel Youngblood. You never heard of Joel Youngblood, trust me................

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(Yesterday's chart went down for the count in the very frist round, with homercles nailing it. Jered Weaver's career lines. Today we go back to something far more complex. The little red diamond is LAA. The purple line is very important.)

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