HumpLinks: Angels perfect the way to lose

I cannot imagine how infuriated we all would be had last night been a playoff game. Instead, it's just another loss. Just another chance to focus on individual highs and lows. 5 1/3 perfect innings from Nolasco. 2 hits each from Simmons and Pujols. 0'fers from Calhoun, Trout, Cron, Cowart, Ortega, Perez AND Pennington. Simmons getting tossed out on the base paths. Again. Twice.

If it was a playoff game, all those negatives would be etched into history. All the positives ignored. Except for those 5 1/3 perfect innings from the backup to a backup to a backup to a backup Ricky Nolasco. (Actually, far more than that if you go back into the back end of his prior start.) Surprising. Promising. Exciting. Intoxicating. Elusive. Lost. It was thrilling while it lasted  - innings 4 and 5, anyway. Even innings 6 and 7 were fantastic. And how many of you were asking whether he was about to run out of gas, and was Scioscia going to be ready with the hook before that 2-run lead was threatened or damaged? And wouldn't all that be great to chew on in a playoff game?

Instead it's just another game. No WAR for Trout. No Perfecto for Nolasco. Simmons upped his BA. Most everybody else lowered theirs. Game 138 in the books. Next.

Have some Move Along, Nothing To See Here Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Shoe: Matt Shoemaker has been released from the hospital and is due to return to SoCal today. That is amazing. He had his damned noggin opened up just hours ago. I wonder if he is going to have any headaches with the pressure changes?..........

Cam: Also doing well in the LA Angels dedicated hospital ward is Cam Bedrosian. Arm surgery complete. Blood clot gone. All shall be well. Someday...........

Heaney: Andrew Heaney hasn't been doing much playing of the baseball, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been busy. Based on his charity efforts, Heaney has been nominated for the Roberto Clemente Award...........

MVP Talk: MVP season is heating up again, and the only people who care to reference WAR are those who care to support the cause of Mike Trout. Supporters of every other candidate will dismiss WAR as too obscure. Well, here is something for you to use in response: You think WAR is complex? Try Batting Average. BA equals total hits of all kinds DIVIDED BY total number of Plate Appearances MINUS (total Base on Balls PLUS total Hit by Pitch PLUS total Sacrifice Fly outs PLUS total Sacrifice Bunts PLUS total Reaching Base by Interference OR Obstruction PLUS total times an inning ended before his turn at the plate is over PLUS total times batter was replaced by another batter before his turn at the plate is over). Yeah. How simple is that? Everybody thinks it's simple because it is just hits divided by at bats, but that's only because somebody else has done the hard work for us all in figuring out the at bats from total plate appearances...........

Padres Poopy: David Ortiz, who has only played in 3 games at Petco Park his entire career before this week, is not scheduled to do much playing in this last visit ongoing now. But that is not stopping the San Diego baseball fans, who have Mike Trout just 90 minutes up the freeway, from throwing out Chants of "We Want Papi!" echoing throughout Petco Park...........

Freese Frame: David Freese has become King of All Baseball in Opposite Field hitting. His 2016 numbers are off the charts among all who are qualified to be counted. That's pretty interesting. More interesting than the fact that last year, with the Angels, he was only 18th. And the year before, with the Angels, he was 24th. The year even before that, with the Cards, he was 34th. In other words he has been getting better and better, on a trajectory that is astronomical, and we didn't even notice..........

Babes in Arms: One-time inning-limited Stephen Strasburg is re-entering the Nats rotation and expected to give them a big boost in their race through the playoffs. Up in New York, the decidedly not inning-limited Matt Harvey, who boosted the Mets into the playoffs last season, will now only sit and watch his NYM's cling to playoffs hope. But notice the closing idea in the final paragraph of that second link. Mets fan are happy with the trade-off of playing in the World Series last year in exchange for the potential of Matt Harvey the individual never pitching again...........

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The Duffle Bag

The Braves see "no risk" in signing Tim Tebow to a AA contract. This is especially true since the company that owns the Braves is the same company that owns the Braves' AA affiliate...........Dansby Swanson picked a fun way to hit his first MLB home run. (BTW, real fine outfield play there Washington. I think that's Bryce Harper the right fielder running all the way over to shallow left field to back up Turner the center fielder..).............Baserunners still have not all gotten Howie Kendricks' message concerning the laser cannon of Yeonis Cespedes...........I'm not sure I am following this radical idea that occurred in Tampa Bay. The Rays terminated their relationship with a coach because the team is under-performing. Are such things possible?............News flash to BoSux fans: Yoan Moncada ain't having a Mike Trout career start..............Ok, so Pujols got off to a slow start. For a long time there he wasn't even supposed to be healthy as of Opening Day..........Most chill pitching prospect of the week...........

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