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For a good deal through the game yesterday, JC Ramirez actually out-pitched Houston ace, and Angel Killer, Dallas Keuchel. A big difference in the game was that Ramirez could not get past Josh Reddick, while Keuchel got past Albert Pujols with ease. Another big difference is that Ramirez was counting on the defense behind him. Keuchel had a different defense behind him. You won't see it in the box score, but Cameron Maybin and Jefry Marte did Ramirez no favors with their gloves. Well, they didn't do him any favors with their bats, either. And down goes the Angels, 5-1. For the offense, Tuesday was the outlier.
Welcome to the Lovable Loser Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Hey. Does anybody remember when Carlos Perez was a hot thing? He had rebuilt his swing, and he was a key part of a strong defense that was nailing baserunners trying to steal. And there was that amazing bunt. Yeah, that was so last March. In this month's news, the Angels just did a backstop do-si-do. Carlos' new swing is not working out, so he is off to Salt Lake City. Juan Graterol, the most traveled man in baseball, is back. Probably still has his old uni hanging in his old locker....Meanwhile, do you know who HAS fixed his swing? Nah. You don't wanna know. Stop it. No. Not going to tell you. You can't handle it. Really. Well, since you insist, that would be Jett Bandy. Bandy is hitting .323/.382/.677 with a 1.060 SLG.............
Yesterday we got the chance to read our own Jessica DeLine interview Mike Trout. Today we get to imagine how that interview might have gone in a fantasy world where Jessica had been allowed to keep on asking questions..............
A lot of hay was made yesterday afternoon with the Martin Maldonado called strike three blowup. Yeah, Maldonado was pissed. Hey wait a second. Let's take a closer look at that graphic. That sure doesn't line up with PITCHF/x, where pitch 6 is charted in the zone. Oh, now I know why that first chart looked odd. It's square. PITCHF/x is a rectangle. Could it be that PITCHF/x is still calling the low strike? Whatever the case, when these graphics are not on the same page you will fuel fan ire regardless..........
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Everywhere In Baseball
The Angels should have scouted that guy Dallas Keuchel before yesterday. That, or read FanGraphs..............
Shlomo Lipetz, the real hero behind the magic that was team Israel?...........
This is what you get when the MSM throws itself off the cliff of objective service to the community. Crap information more suited to Facebook goobery. Which can be fatal when it comes to handing over hundreds of millions of dollars to sports owner billionaires so that sports owner billionaires can build themselves a new stadium in which to play and make - and keep - gobs and gobs of money for themselves. I will take you to the top-level link, over at Hardballtalk. There you get a nice summary and quick, accurate, commentary. You also get a link to the better analysis which shreds the source article. And that analysis will link you to the fatuousness that just led a million or so people in the Baltimore area into the abyss of ignorance..............
The aftershocks of Starling Marte's PEDs suspension hit hard yesterday. The media had time to reflect, and come to inconclusion. Sam Miller @ ESPN is on the side of punishments not being stern enough. And Jay Jaffe @ FOX agrees. Jeff Passan @ Yahoo! takes us on a journey that shows us how such strong positions are unrealistic...........But the worst part is how PEDs use make everyone else a potential suspect, candidate for ostracization. Take, for example, Eric Thames...........
Ichiro exits his Safeco career is superb style............
We are all still in disbelief over CB Buchnor..........Opinion articles abound...........And Buchnor delivers, grossly blowing another call in plain view of planet earth...........
If the Dodgers are sincere in asking for suggestions on how Rich Hill can avoid his finger blisters, they are asking me too late for it to do them any good. The trick is to build a callous on the spot. That takes weeks and weeks and weeks of cycles of light sandpapering, then healing, then leveling..............
Fastballs are for losers. Or, maybe, is it possible that we are now more frequently tending to lean on pitch tracking data to classify a fastball as some other kind of pitch?
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The Duffle Bag
Mookie Betts finally struck out.......Miguel Cabrera knows how to make baseball fun again..........None of the people sitting in this section look like they grew up any good at sports..............This is the very best attempt at pitch framing in the entire history of pitch framing...........Erick Aybar developed a wicked knuckleball............Oh man, I love me my baseball Legos. I wonder of Carlos will get a minifig?............Oh wow, this Tigers boner looks so much like something the DBacks or Padres might have done..........Somewhere in the vast complex of the MLB rule book there must be some rules prohibiting anyone from interrupting an umpire while they are busy sniffing food trash..........
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