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It's gonna be a lovely Spring Training weekend. A good time for overreactions. So what other team is currently poised to proclaim the possibility of an undefeated season? None of 'em, that's who.
And let's get honest here. This ST winning thing is fun, but it's going to get distracting real fast. There is more serious things to figure out that will require sacrificing a chance to score more runs that day than the other guy. Don't start doing stupid shit like crowing about an undefeated ST. It's not going to mean going 162 and 0. Don't get stupid. Nobody goes undefeated in the Grand and Glorious Game of Failure.
Have some 161 and 1 Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Wins just keep coming. As does Luis Valbuena. Valbuena, C.J. Cron, Ricky Nolasco and Yusmiero Petit were all strong is another come-from-behind win over the Giants, 5-4.........
Albert Pujols has started running and defensive drills. He is still questionable for Opening Day, but the way that Valbuena and Cron have started off, who's worried yet?...........
On the subject of Albert, once he gets back on the field he has some milestones. 600 home runs will come fast. 3,000 hits might come next Spring. But go tot hat link and read that paragraph explaining why Arte signed Pujols to a big contract very slow. If you absorb it, you should be able to stop whining about the remaining money on that deal. At least until the next time you see Arte sit on his thumbs and missing out on a solid, available, needed, upgrade in order to prevent going over the tax threshold..........
So you are not a fan of the Angels, and tire of the greatness of Mike Trout dominating the AL MVP discussions year over year? Well, you need a game plan then. FanGraphs tries to do that for you, and they are pretty good at these kinds of things. First off, you need the Angels to miss the playoffs to have any chance at all. And then you have to have your candidate totally blow Trout away in a couple of performance categories, something that is highly unlikely given Trout's pure talent level. Finally, you need your candidate to end up close enough, overall, that you can count on voters handing it to your guy, maybe just out of boredom. And it's that last one that is actually the most likely thing to happen..............
For any of you who were following the discussion over site traffic in the HumpLinks thread this week, Rahul's Wednesday article about a Mike Trout Trade trumped us all on Thursday. Thor'sLinks was close. But at least we can say that Thor'sLinks didn't piss off Victor!
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(Subsequent twitter conversation between HH and Victor intentionally left blank because it does not fit my narrative!)
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Everywhere In Baseball
All the new rules have been rolled out for this year. The most interesting thing in my mind is that MLB calls out their pitch mechanics rule in clear response to the Carter Capps video that went wild throughout the MLB blogosphere a few weeks ago...........It's important to note that this does NOT inviolate the single hop motion of Jordan Walden (should he ever make it back), nor the Capps motion before he got injured. Word from San Diego is that Capps was not going to use the double-hop in games anyway. It was just something he was doing to work himself slowly back into game shape. Uh. Right......In this more extended review of the Capps Rule, you can get yourself educated on the whole foot-drag-that-creates-a-line-in-the-mound-dirt thing. Find and memorize the paragraph that begins: "With MLB having formalized its stance here..."..............
The other rule change that is interesting to us Halo fans is the one about base coach positioning. Let's call this one the Larry Bowa Rule? Rules 5.03 and 4.05 are impacted, with 5.03 being the one changed. Bottom line, coaches have to stay within the painted lines of the coach's box except to signal base runners once the ball is in play, as long as they don't interfere. I cannot recall exactly, but I seem to recall a Rangers' base coach positioning themselves so far down the line towards home plate that Mike Scioscia actually complained. I probably have all the principals completely screwed up there............
Sosh really doesn't like that 30 second clock. The technology they use are a little too slow for his needs. That tells me that we have better tech in our own living rooms. And probably better staffed.........
Justin Verlander is up for drug testing of every player, every day. I am not too sure that Verlander really understands the ongoing race in the world of modern chemicals: "the dopers remain about five to 10 years ahead of the testers"............
David Price is to Boston what Josh Hamilton is to Anaheim. But without all the personal drama.........Just to keep score, Price is going for a second opinion. He is going to see one Dr. James Andrews. Dr. Andrews has a track record for second opinions that generally ends in very bad news...........By the way, David Wright of the Mets is not too very far behind..........
An interesting study into what makes Dallas Keuchel successful: getting hitters to chase pitches outside the zone. And, just as interesting, not only are batters adjusting and reducing the success of his strategy, but so, too, is the changing strike zone. Thus, if the zone gets moved up again as recent reports suggest, maybe he stops being so dominant over the Halos as he has been?..........
Jerry Dipoto is still trading. This time maybe he fleeced the Dodgers? Or are the Dodgers doing some roster dumping?............
The Cubs are impressed with how hard Jason Heyward worked in the offseason to take the coaching and fix his swing......Jason Heyward is 0 for 11 so far this spring...........
Coaching is also cluing in to modern data such as StatCast info, and realizing that launch angle is a critical path to success. Read here how Pirates' manager Clint Hurdle and his hitting coach, Jeff Branson, are hard at work communicating this to their younger players. It's the kind of thing that makes Murray Chass go apoplectic with denial...........
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The Duffle Bag
When I was young Sports Illustrated was THE dominant, THE most compelling, and THE most trustworthy source for news in the world of sports. These days, except for that annual thing they do with naked female models, they are irrelevant..........Mookie Betts is almost - but not quite - as good as Mike Trout in second year contracts numbers game, too...........Sling TV is adding more CSN regions to it's streaming offerings............Bob Melvin totally owned Randy Johnson. Just ask him. He knows that the official records are wrong...........Mets' prospect Luis Guillorme is THE Spiderman!..........A Mexican baseball team misplaced their manager? How does that happen? Mexico, I guess............
OT: The Internet is fast going totally insane. People getting into a shit fit argument over the sex of a comic strip cat? We are all doomed.
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Halo-Oppo-ly
Week 4 of our Chance/Community Chest cards!
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