TuesdoLinks: Mariners sink Angels' offense

Yeah, well, last night was pretty uninspired. Fortunately the sports world was looking the other way.

I suspect that there were more people in bars throughout Orange County watching the Rams flop against the 49ers than were actually in attendance at Angels Stadium to watch the Angels host the Mariners. But as bad as the Angels played, the fans in Anaheim got to see more SoCal teams scoring. The Angels actually scored one run. Twitter was loaded with baseball-related pwnage of the Rams which is rather ironic since there was baseball-related baseball available for real sports entertainment. And what few fans bothered to show up (and let's face it, few fans are showing up these days) did manage to have at least a little bit of fun...........

The only good thing to come out of the ball game last night was Ariel Miranda's restored reputation. So, not a total night lost.

Have some Elimination-Number-Five Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Bugle Call: The Calvary is on the way! Cory Rasmus and Geovany Soto are almost over their injuries and ready to return to the roster. Whew! Just in time...........

Weaving: Something I missed yesterday was a small tidbit toward the end of this OCR piece on Jered Weaver, and Weaver's future. "Weaver’s velocity has gradually increased throughout the season. He was averaging 82-83 mph with his fastball at the start of the season, and for the past month it’s been 84-85. He hit 87 mph and averaged 84.8 mph on Sunday...As a result, Weaver has won three straight decisions, posting a 3.97 ERA in those games. Three of the 10 runs he’s allowed in that span came in the fourth inning on Monday in Oakland, when he was pitching with a leg that had tightened up from getting hit by a line drive." Um...I'm not sure anybody should be making big contract promises based off those last 3 "decisions". Fletcher dismisses that craptastrophe against Oakland which would cloud the message, much the way that Fletcher dismisses the 20 game stretch before that where Weave had 16 decisions, 11 for losses, and an ERA of 5.79 with a slash line against of .320/.360/,546/.906. As for that bit about he velo increasing lately, yeah, it's true. Check out this chart from Brooksbaseball.net (a chart type I have never linked to in the past, but a good place for the curios to visit often). Weaver IS seeing a bump, but consider the context. He is 33 already. Anybody thinking his recent trajectory will continue to rise and push him back up to the 88mph range he held even as recently as 2012 is the kind of guy who bets the long shot in the last horse race on the card...........

Freaking: Billy Eppler has not given up on Tim Lincecum...yet. He is planning to keep in touch this offseason, and Lincecum may consider signing back on with the Angels next Spring..............

Trout Porn: Mike Trout is one of only 14 players in history to have at least 4 seasons of at least 9 bWAR (he sits at 9.4 bWAR at the moment). My curiosity thus inspired, I did my own BBR Play Index queries. Only 11 players in history have at least two 10 bWAR seasons, and Trout might just catch that this year. Only 4 players in history have at least 2 11 bWAR seasons (Trout has zero) and only one player in history - Babe Ruth - has more than one 13 bWAR season (3 total). In fact, only three players in history have any 13 bWAR seasons at all (Carl Yastrzemski and Rogers Hornsby are the others)...........Trout is also on the verge of some round numbers in counting stats. 3 more homers, 5 more SB's, 11 more RBI's, 3 more BB's will all be the old-time box score stats that would jump out to newspaper scribes. Of course, 2 more K's and he will have 125, which also has a ring to it. But his season low is 136 in 2013, so that is going to be a close one.............Also, an interview with Dan Szymborski yesterday, we got this exchange: "Big Joe Mufferaw: Mike Trout for Clint Frazier, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and Micheal Pineda. Fair?....Dan Szymborski: No."..........

Perfect Mess: The Rich Hill you don't get a perfect game story still has legs. All managers could find themselves between that same rock and hard place. In Dave Roberts' case, he has FanGraphs on his side, but mostly because they are pulling the pitch count card. They do put forth the actual decision, that it was a decision between two unknowns and not about any certainties (agreeing with what I wrote yesterday). But in there is an interesting comment from Roberts: "If it was earlier in the year, I would have let him go back out there." Um, no Dave Roberts. We already know that you would NOT do that. You, yourself, have already proven that. It's not up for conjecture............

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The Duffle Bag

With any luck, we may have finally rid ourselves of A.J. Pierzynski...........Yesterday I linked to a study on why it may be that home run hitting is way up. Today I link to a short review as to just HOW MUCH that home run hitting has increased. We are nearing range for an all-time MLB baseball-wide high............R. J. Alvarez, one of the precious prospects we sent to San Diego for Huston Street and Trevor Gott, is at risk of washing out of baseball altogether. He is doing a lot of bouncing around the past two months, and just landed back in the minors.............It's that time of year, and we are on the verge of a no-hitter or perfect game somewhere..............I've always been intrigued about this guy joining the LAA organization. He's a fire-in-the-belly kind of guy who relates to players. And he has had success as a skipper. But then I get real about the preferred temperament in Anaheim...........This guy goes a long, long way to sate the simple and obvious: the Mets signed Tim Tebow to make some easy cash. Period............The Braves top prospect just got here, and is already injured. Because Braves...........Right with ya', buddy!! Of the 20 professional sports teams that need to revert back to their old uniforms, the Angels come in at #8. I agree with the Ducks, too. And the Hawks. Those were cool............Man, Toronto can't even walk off a field after a win without some kind of dust up chasing them around...........Joe West is at it again. He won't let a manager send infielders to the mound to converse with the pitcher (typical stall tactic), and Joe Maddon objects. Joe West can't have anybody objecting..............Good work, there Sports Illustrated twitter person............

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