TuesdoLinks: Angels offense working overtime

Since shutting down their 11 game losing streak, the Angels have gone 13 and 6. 8 of those wins have come when the Angels have scored 5 runs or more. Those games have included the Yankees, Blue Jays and Tigers as opponents, so it's not as though it has all been exclusively against MLB chumps. Yesterday's 10 - 7 victory is an example of that offense. albeit against the Oakland A's. Beating a lowly team like Oakland doesn't make the Angels look like contenders. No, it just makes us LAA fans extra-ordinarily giddy. It is Oakland, after all.

I might wish to point something out to doubters.

In the 23 games from July 22 through August 15, Mike Trout's slash line was .271 / .427 / .514 with an OPS of .941. The team was 4 and 14, scoring a total of 63 runs, about 2.74 runs per game.

In the 19 games from August 16 through yesterday, Trout's slash line has been .471 / .750 / .750 / 1.500. The team has been 14 and 4, scoring a total of 93 runs, about 4.89 runs per game.

Now, it's not all Mike. Pujols has been hot and Cron has come back, etc. But if you are the kind of person who needs simple data points in order to come up with simple conclusions, there you go.

Jeff Fletcher does his cut-off on August 1st in his attempt to promote Trout and pretend that there has not been a second half swoon. But that is just conflating part of his hot streak with his swoon to mask the swoon itself.

On the other hand, Ted Berg tweets a perfect solution to our annual Mike Trout MVP debate. Just name the damned trophy after him and get over it. PieTBNL's reply is pure gold...........

Have some Dig-It-While-The-Diggin's-Good Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Bobbing: As I wrote yesterday, I ain't no doctor but when I hear things like Skull Fracture and hematoma, I have to believe that these are not good things at all. And I don't believe that there is anything "routine" about this sort of thing. Sure enough, Shoemaker required emergency surgery since his admission to the hospital.  That hematoma stuff got out of hand and doctors had to open up his Shoey's head and stop the bleeding. He is now recovering. The plan is to fly him down to SoCal late this week. And still I am holding my breath. I ain't buying Billy Eppler's claim that all this was "fairly routine"..........Good move by Tim Mead, going public and thanking all the emergency crews for their assistance in getting Shoemaker safely off the field and into the hands of the medical experts at the hospital. I think that is an important consideration, because when things like that happen to people in times and places where such support is not available, those people perish from just that kind of accident..........

Weaving: Yesterday Jered Weaver did what Jered Weaver does: Run out of smoke to obfuscate those mirrors by the 5th inning. I think Weaver needs to re-sign year-to-year, with the understanding that he is moving to middle relief. The guy is only good for one time through a lineup. Twice on the good days. Yesterday he gave us his changeup, 76mph. Note how it barely overtook a stray dragonfly. Dragonflys have been clocked up to 60mph...........

Trout Porn: Just an update. Mike Trout is now the all-time bWAR franchise leader for Position Players at 47.1 versus Jim Fregosi at 45.9. He has the most Offensive bWAR at 45.3 versus Tim Salmon in second place at 44.3. He holds the op 4 Single-Season bWAR records for Position Players, including this season and the top 5 single-season bWAR records in Offensive bWAR. He has the highest OBP for both Single Season and Career. He has the highest Career SLG and the #4, #5, #9 and #10 Single-Season SLG marks. He holds the #1 Career OPS mark, and the #2, #4, #6 and #9 Single-Season OPS marks. He is #8 Career Runs Scored and #1 Single Season. All that and he has yet to crack the Top 10 in Career Plate Appearances, Career At Bats, or Single-Season At Bats. He just barely makes the Top 10 Single Season Plate Appearances. Career-wise, Mike is #8 in Runs Scored, #10 in Total Bases, #4 in Triples, #4 in Home Runs (22 more than Albert Pujols), #7 in Bases on Balls, #6 in Strikeouts, #7 in Stolen Bases, #1 in Adjusted OPS+, #1 in Adjusted Batting Runs, #1 in Adjusted Batting Wins, #7 in Extra Base Hits, #1 in Offensive Win %, and #1 in Power/Speed. This is only his 5th full season..........

Zack Zucks: We Halo fans should all still remember how Zack Greinke moved on and dumped us like the ugly second cousin he was forced to dance with at the wedding. We traded 3 players to get him from the Brewers when we were 4 games out, and we got 13 starts out of him. The Angels went 7 and 6 in those starts and never were able to overhaul the A's. They finished 4 games out of the Wild Card, too. And the Dipoto made signing him his #1 priority, costing us a Torii Hunter who refused to wait. And costing us the Josh Hamilton debacle when all the other Big Splash upgrade options were taken. Greinke took the bigger payday from the Dodgers and left us with nothing. Well, just a couple of seasons later Greinke did the same thing to the Dodgers, jumping to the Diamondbacks. The D'Backs are paying Zack an even greater hoard of cash. But now the magic is gone. Greinke has become the D'Backs' Hamboner. If things don't go well next season they are likely to dump him, even eating major salary. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are not missing out on any chance to pummel Zack now that he is on the othermound...........

Tebow: Rumors have been circulating that the Braves and Rockies are interested in signing Tim Tebow to a minor league deal So somebody asked the Braves about the veracity of those reports. The Braves admitted that they are interested, as long as it's the kind of contract that lets the Braves cut all ties should Tebow so much as sneeze in an amateur fashion. I have yet to find any response tot he rumors out of Colorado...........

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The Duffle Bag

I give this kid a full 5.0 on a 4 point grading scale for effort. He came up empty, but not for lack of committing 100% of himself to the attempt. He scores a 0 on the result. Except for the fun fact that the ball clobbered Chad Smith in the noggin...........Yesterday was a National Holiday. And we didn't even get any special game merchandise out of the day. No Rosie the Riveter caps or nuthin'............By the way, I know our season is long lost, but it's still real baseball. I, for one, am going to miss all this come November. So join Trout, stay positive and have some fun..........But, let's get real, this IS the time in the season for Pointless Baseball. I think the author is on to something, though the proposed timing is wrong. If going to a stadium just for the food, the beer, the wave, the Jumbotron, the fireworks, and the mascot races is enough to provide three hours of entertainment all by themselves, why not host those things in the offseason when the stadium is sitting there to be used?...........Wilmer Flores changed his walk-up tune to the theme song from "Friends". Because he loves the show. It helped teach him English. I suppose if I chose my walk-up song for that same reason, I would have chosen  the theme song from "Cheers".............Chavez and Ravin pitched at Chavez Ravine yesterday. That's different...........

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