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Thor'sLinks: Angels trip at home

Mike Trout home run aside, it was a night when both the bats and the pitching underperformed. Better to have these happen at the same time than to have happen on separate nights.

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Let us pause in our run of minor miracles and remind ourselves that we are still a team with heavy burdens to be overcome. So we will allow the Rangers and their fans a brief respite from their misery. The Halos go down 3-8 as pitching falters and lumber slumbers.

We need a rest from all the celebration anyway.

We have Links to read:


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A Little Bit of Angels News

Danny Espinosa is not on board for a masterful glove. He is on board for a decent glove and strong bat. After a slow start, his bat is warming up............

This great start is doing a good deed of filling in the slow news elsewhere, forcing the MSM to take notice that things in Anaheim have not been going as poorly as they thought they would...........

The bullpen has minor tear in it. For the next 10 days Andrew Bailey, who has pitched 3 scoreless outings already, will be on the DL...........Notice that this comes right as FanGraphs heralds Bailey as King of Spin. My memory might be slipping, but I thought that the last King of Spin was Garrett Richards? Maybe all that spin ain't a good thing?...........

Analyst on analyst? Fun with ceremonial pitches, Angels/Ducks style..........

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Everywhere In Baseball

The Angels need to strike while the iron is hot. Grab the wins against these Rangers late in games while their bullpen sucks. It won't always be so............

It's pretty official now, MLB wants Chief Wahoo to go away............

No, it's no accident I put this next. The Atlanta Braves needed to stock up on foam tomahawks in advance of their home opener. But they managed to screw that up, losing a crate of the merchandise on the freeway and closing down a couple of lanes. And this was NOT the freeway already closed. The was IN ADDITION to the freeway already closed. It took a mess and made it even worse. That's just gotta make people happy............

Oh, and about that new Atlanta Stadium. Maybe I don't want a new stadium in Anaheim after all. Certainly not when the point of a new stadium becomes sucking coin from attendees and not baseball..........

How all MLB teams fared if you combine their records over the past decade? Yes, friends, you are part of one of the best runs in all of baseball..........

The next evolution of The Shift would be to shift into a 4th gear outfield? Could be. The shift already puts an infielder very deep...........

Phillies manager Pete Mackanin is an old guy who is old school. Which makes this old news. As old as it is, it's going to die off and go away soon enough...........Well, maybe NOT soon enough. Jeff Samardzija and Paul Goldschmidt are young enough to sustain things..........

Man, it's a pretty low achievement when you can crawl below the bellies of Rangers fans and become the worst in baseball, as Blue Jays fans are getting to be known............

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Season Update

The Royals were the last team to pick up a win in the 2017 season. They claimed it Friday night, at 10:22 PM local time in Houston.....

The Orioles were the last team to lose a game. That happened Sunday afternoon at 4:57 PM local time in New York City......

We are down to:
3 teams which have yet to win at home (the Blue Jays, Royals and Braves).
3 teams which have yet to lose at home (the Yankees, Twins and Braves).
2 teams which have yet to win on the road (the Rays and Pirates).
and...
2 teams which have yet to lose on the road (the Mets and the Brewers).

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The Duffle Bag

Department of Unfortunate Timing: Mere minutes after this, the Rangers went walk, single, triple, single, fly out, Jess Chavez lifted............Yeah. I think I would have Andrew Romine submit to a drug test after he hits a Grand Slam, too............A fun reddit subthread mind game. I like the triple play where no defender touches the ball...............Photo bomb!.............The Cubs WS ring. Looks like it could be 108 tiny little diamonds after all.............And the Senior Class Ring version of that Cubs charm seems to be extremely popular.............Riddle me this, J.T.: is this going to be that which you proudly show off to your grand kids one day?.............I'd be more impressed were the Cards bold enough to auction off Yadier Molina's chest protector than the ball...........Baseball is  back. And that is smoking hot...........

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