Last night was what we always want to read. "Ramirez to bullpen to Trout to Calhoun = victory!" And except for one pitch from Jose Alvarez, his first pitch, it was a brilliant night all around. That was after 118 pitches into the night from a staff, led by JC Ramirez, that just blazed through the Oakland batting order. Now, to temper my enthusiasm, I do know that Oakland has yet to defeat any team with a winning record. These aren't the Cubs. But I'll take my fun where I can get it. And I can take a lot of fun out of an Angels to a 2-1 win over the A's.
Enjoy some Hero-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
This is pretty cool. When the Blue Jays were in town, Jays second baseman Devon Travis heard that Albert Pujols was really struggling for the season. So Davis approached Pujols before batting practice of the opening game to offer him some advice. Basically, the message was for Albert to keep his chin up, and that things will get better. Oh wait. No. I read that all wrong. It was the other way around...........
Stats I never knew existed: "catcher pop time" and catcher arm strength". Whatever, Martin Maldonado has them in spades. Which might explain how it is that he can toss out 75% of runners trying to steal on him...........
Trout Porn.............
Coming out of Spring Training, I admit I was a little concerned about the return of Luis Valbuena and the impact on the production of either C.J. Cron or Jefry Marte. Now it's nearly May, and I am begging for Valbuena to come back............
I don't know who this JC Ramirez is, but I'm keeping him. (To be clear: THIS version only. Not the version that will show up in a few weeks.) A look closer and we learn that only Noah Syndergaard is throwing harder, and he now has a magic curveball............
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Everywhere In Baseball
By the way, I learned something fun last night. Sure, Oakland fans are old to this, but outside of Oakland who gives half a shit about anything concerning their team? Maybe you guys heard this on the broadcast last night, but my work is keeping me far, far away from having any time to follow games these days so I'm doing these blind. Anyway, the guy who broke up JC Ramirez' perfect game last night is Jaff Decker. That's "Jaff" as in "jeff". It's pronounced "jeff", not "jaff". According to his Wiki, "He was named in honor of his uncle, who died in military service. Decker's grandfather intended to name his son 'Jeff', but the hospital nurse recorded it as 'Jaff', and the spelling was passed on to his nephew." I want hard to make mockery of that name, but not now. No way. That's pretty cool. But probably a pretty big pain in the ass going through daily introductions...........
Looks like the buying team that includes Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush are the high bidders for the Miami Marlins. They still have to show they have the financial power, and then get approval form the other owners to join their club, but who realistically thinks anybody is gonna say no to Jeter? The fun part will come later, when a Derek Jeter is sitting in the owner's box as the Marlins run out to a 5 run lead late in Game 7 versus the Yankees. In Yankee Stadium...........But for the rest of the baseball world, well, we all went crazy nuts............
If I am reading this right, Ken Rosenthal is making the case that if MLB increased the punishment for head-hunting, it would be bad because it would take the matter out of the hands of the players. The ones doing the head-hunting.............
Sports Illustrated must have decided that if they cannot have Mike Trout, in their own time zone, they are just going to have to manufacture a Mike Trout of their own............
Addison Russell of the Cubs has some giant collection of Pokemon cards. (now I know where those things all went when they abandoned their mislaid brethren in my kids' closets.) And he goes through them and chooses which ones to have opposing superstars autograph when he plays against them. So, to you dear reader, which card is Russell setting aside for Mike Trout?.........
The MLB Player's Union has figured out how to keep their players from making fools of themselves on Twitter. That would be to give them an entirely new Social Media platform upon which they can make fools of themselves. Welcome, World of Baseball, to Infield Chatter...............
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The Duffle Bag
Sometime good things come to those who wait. When you are a Manny Machado. But sometimes not, when you are an Evan Longoria. And sometimes those are the same sometime...........Hot play of the day. Chris Coghlan leaping over Yadier Molina............Dave Stewart remains one of the least self-aware people I have ever read about............Isn't this why fielders are supposed to call out?............
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