HumpLinks: Mariners drop anchor on Halos bats

I keep smelling it. Any day now. We are going to get at least a no-hitter, if not a perfect game. It's in the air. Too many offenses are folding these days. Too many times we are getting too close.  Some pitcher is going to snag a place in the record books. Last night it was almost the biggest turnaround in starts I have ever seen. It almost happend to the Angels.

Let's see. 5 2/3 perfect innings. 6 no-hit innings. 5 strike outs in a row at one point. 3 hits allowed total, against 0 walks. 9 inning complete game shutout. That was Taijuan Walker of the Seattle Mariners. The Same Taijuan Walker who just 10 days earlier didn't even make it out of the 1st inning, giving up 6 runs on 6 hits (1 of which was a home run) and gathered up a mere 2 outs.

Have some Offensively Silent Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Trout: Yesirree. If the Angels did not have Mike Trout, they wouldn't even be as good as the Twins. With a payroll $60 million higher than that of Minnesota, and with practically nothing in the farm system, Mike Trout's value goes well beyond his accomplishments on the playing field. Without Trout, Arte Moreno would not even be considered a respectable pro sports franchise owner...........Folks are starting to notice that Jose Altuve and Josh Donaldson are taking themselves out of the AL MVP race. Now it's Manny Machado right behind Trout..........

More Trout: Looking back at this great play by Trout last night, do you know what's missing from these StatCast metrics, which are not that impressive in and of themselves? The very small amount of time that Trout had to get all this done. I count 3 seconds.

Scioscialism: Mike Scioscia inspired an idea that we hope does not inspire Mike Scioscia. Think of it as the Gregg Popovich style to playing time. Play your top lineup 3 games and sit them for the next 2. Repeat. Supposedly, a sure fire way to win 90 games a season..........

Anaheim: FanGraphs updated their park factors, and Angel Stadium is still a pitcher's park. "If you hit a fly ball over 100 mph, you have about an MLB average chance to ride it out of this yard. Angel Stadium gives away no cheapies, however: only 10.9% of 95-100 mph homers have left the building to date..."

Black Days Ahead: Bud Black had had his time hanging out among old friends. But soon the season will be ending for various teams and managers will start to get fired, and Black will grab his bag and wander off to some opponent...........

Live Baseball: Some of you are already looking forward to getting this all behind us so that we can reload over the offseason. Well, two things. First, there is actually not a lot of opportunity to wiggle much this winter. The Free Agent pool will be weak. The farm system is still nearly empty. The Weaver/Wilson moneys coming off the books will have to spent elsewhere, and Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols will still cost $50 million for 2017. And the starting rotation will still be in shambles, adding to the holes in left field and second base. That's a lot of chips on the table, and not a lot of cards with which to play. But, second, once the offseason is upon is live baseball has come to an end! There are few things as lonely as a quiet Saturday evening in December realizing that no, there are no baseball games being played. Anywhere. Every offseason this hits us. We can't wait for Spring, for baseball. Well, it's here. And it's more than worthy of our attention. Enjoy it now. Pokemon Go will be there for you when Aunt Cathy wants to brag about her ambrosia on Thanksgiving Day..........

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The Duffle Bag

Mark Trumbo hits a lot of homers, but sucks at most everything else. Only one other time has a player hit for at least 40 home runs and ended up with less than 2.0 WAR. That was last year. And it was Albert Pujols. Yeesh..........

Are you a Bobby Grich fan? If not, it's only because you are still young and ignorant. Grow the eff up already. Buy the book and start learning a thing or two..........

Vin Scully is done. Not even the playoffs are of interest to him. That's kind of classy when you think about it. Had he called the playoffs, at any time the Dodgers would be on the verge of elimination everybody would be thinking about Scully and not the team...........

"Dad, it's a baseball. Can't we just go out and play some catch?"..........

Chicago sportscasters blow up the asshat Joe West. Sportscasters don't have to worry about fines coming from Joe Torre..........ex-MLB pitcher Kerry Wood chimes in, too. Not a fan of West, it appears. Again, now free from punishment by Joe Torre.............

The Wally Backman/Mets split is looking more like the act of a sour boss, trying to use the office staff to spin the story against the underling. The official reasons for his firing are not supported by the actual game logs (check the comments)..........

I pound the keyboard on behalf of the Angels more than even the MLB-assigned reporters. How come I ain't on this list?..........

Welcome to America, Ubaldo Jimenez...........

Just the Best Fans in Baseball, practicing The Cardinal Way...........

19-year old Julio Urias of the Dodgers has a pickoff move to first base that is even quicker than the cameras!..........

File this under the department of no good deed goes unpunished. After snagging the final out in a win against the Yankees. Dodgers outfield Yasiel Puig tossed the ball to the fans. The ball smacked one unlucky fan right in the mouth, knocking out one of her teeth. I expect we will hear from lawyers now...........

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