HumpLinks: Rangers bean gettin' chippy of late

A rivalry is brewing in Arlington. After being the asshat and injuring Andrelton Simmons a little bit ago, Carlos Gomez got into it again yesterday, and again with Simmons. That, following a plunking of Mike Trout and as a prelude to throwing behind Simmons' head, was intermixed with the Angels getting in a few shots against Texas batters. Somebody from the MLB front office needs to pick up the phone before anybody gets really hurt. Or before Jered Weaver takes the mound.

But let's not blame that loss yesterday on all that. Nor on the shitty home plate umpiring where the strike zone inexplicably expanded well into the inside of the plate - precisely where batters tend to be standing and precisely how batter tend to get hit.

No. Blame our own guys. An Albert Pujols who leaves 7 runners stranded on base. An Andrelton Simmons who also leaves 7 runners stranded on base. And an Angels team that then manages to lose by a single run. The win was there to be had. The loss didn't even bump Billy Eppler up in the draft order. But hey, all games matter. Every single loss.

By the way, something I just learned last night. When a Hit By Pitch event occurs, PITCHf/x erases all the pitches thrown in that sequence from their history. Check it out. For example, you won't find Oberholtzer facing Andrus on PITCHf/x. And they show Oberholtzer with 14 total pitches. The official MLB box score for Oberholtzer has his tossing 19 pitches. Checking around, their recorded pitch counts end up not aligning well with MLB data when HBP events occur. Huh. I don't know what to make of that, except that it makes me wonder about their accuracy.

Oh well, have some Texas-Sized-Cheap-Shot Links:

Everywhere In Baseball

Bay Watch: Jessica has all the deal-eo on the minor league affiliate deck chair shuffle, with the LAA AA AffiliAte relocating from Little Rock, Arkansas and over to Mobile Alabama. For me, I'm mostly curious about the name. Alabama has 72 identified bays, but all their bears are black, and sightings are on the rise. So I suppose it's probable that every now and then one of those sightings is near one of those bays. I would guess they know how to defecate in those general areas as well, when the call comes through..........

Skaggs: Tyler is feeling pretty good. Played some catch. I'd feel pretty good too if I got to go play afternoon catch on the eve of Fall............

Doctors Orders: A.J. Preller got into a lot of hot water by filing false medical reports to MLB. So why, if this medical stuff has to be so accurate, does it also have to be so mysterious? Is Bryce Harper injured or is he not?...........

Sports Biz: One of the issues of import as we meander into the new world of cord-cutting, independent, viewer controlled, content-programming is the feedback process that informs those at the source of their relative value. People don't do professional sports as a mere public service. When folks put some event out there, it's important to understand who is consuming it, when, where, why and how (and how often). The old methods for tracking consumer usage fail to keep pace with the new technologies for consumption. So here is what is being done about it. Yes, you will be tracked. And, yes, by the same old institutions that have been doing the tracking and controlling all along. But that's Ok. Once we are all off the cable carrier world, the tools for tracking will be out of their control and somebody will Uber-ize the industry...........

Do you know what MVP voters love? Nice, round, numbers............

Jean Segura is still out there working hard and making himself a ballplayer...........

Clayton Kershaw is pouring petrol onto the embers of the Giants/Dodgers rivalry by calling out Madison Bumgarner. But then, the Dodgers seem to be ready and willing to troll MadBum with some mad skills, and this could grow into something fun. Especially with Puig doubling-down on the troll job...........

Tim Tebow, natural born athlete?.............

Theo Epstein had some special ways to deal with sudden celebrity............

Rangers fans struggle with solving the puzzle as to how to get out of the rain............

Oh, goodie. New merchandise to be purchased in celebration of the playoffs............

International Baseball. World-style. Pretty damned cool...........

Kids these days. Whippersnappers whipsawing into social media cuteness and tripping over historical shit storms.............

Breaking a burger stand during BP ain't so bad. Could have been worse. Could have been a beer stand............

Yahoo! Sports puts out an All-Minor League Team, and the Angels actually had somebody mentioned. Honorably, even. Michael Hermosillo (Inland Empire 66ers) for outfielder...........

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