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Go back and look at my Friday Linkage. Note the sub-header. "It's Mother's Day weekend. I predict a Mike Trout home run." And how do you do. On yet another Mother's Day, Mike sent his mom a very special present. A 1st inning solo home run, one that ignited the Angels to a 4 run day in support of an Alex Meyer 1-run gem, to give the Halos a 4-1 win and a series split with the Tigers. For the record, that was the first Mother's Day home run of Trout's career. But that was his 3rd consecutive game with a homer.
Captain Mayhood used a title Saturday night that prompted me to take a look see. "Angels pitching gives up a lot of homers..." made me wonder how bad that really was? It seems bad. So I looked. It's bad.
Just right off the top the Angels pitching staff has, to date, given up more homers than any team in MLB. By way of comparison, last year they finished 7th worse. But back in 2015 - before the 8th Plague of Broken Wings - they finished 17th overall, 10th out of 15 in the AL.
The sad thing here is that our pitchers perform in one of the most pitching-friendly parks in all of baseball. Back in 2015, the staff leveraged that advantage to finish tied for 2nd-least home runs surrendered in the AL. That fell apart last year, for all the well-known reasons, and the Halos staff finished 6th worse. But ahead of them were the Tigers (11th most hitter-friendly park in MLB), the Rangers (5th), Twins (9th), Mariners (27th) and Yankees (10th). So throughout all of MLB, only the Mariners had stool at our Misery Bar.
Right now the Angels have given up not only the most home runs, but the most home runs AT HOME. Think about that. The most home surrendered at home in all of baseball, where the park they pitch in is the 28th out of 30 ballparks in the pros in helping pitchers shut down home runs.
Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Let's take a moment to give it up for Alex Meyer..........
After going 0 for 32 across 11 games, Danny Espinosa hit a double in the 4th inning Saturday night. Yesterday afternoon he homered, again in the 4th, off Justin freakin' Verlander. Could this be the start of one of his hot streaks?...........
Yunel Escobar has now had his turn as hammy problems. Unlike last week with Mike Trout, there will be no pussy-footing around this time. Mike Scioscia thought, for a second, that Escobar could hang around as Trout did but that turned out to be wrong. So Escobar hits the DL officially and immediately. And this makes things a little easier for Jefry Marte, who had been just been sent to Salt Lake to make room for the newly returned C.J. Cron. Escobar be gone and Marte be back..........
Victor Rojas with a touch of Trout Porn...........
On the darker side, former California Angels third baseman Doug DeCinces was found guilty of insider trading over the weekend, and now faces a prison term that could lock him up for the balance of his life. He was found guilty on 14 counts, up to 20 years each, and he is already 66 years old. Average lifespan for an American male is something like 76...........
We might as well turn the page on Garrett Richards. If he comes back this season at all, it won't be until the season is over............
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Everywhere In Baseball
Yesterday in New York it was Derek Jeter Day. New York (and a lot of media) was hoping that meant it must also be Derek Jeter Day in America, like we should all be hanging out Yankee flags or something. Thanks to Designerguy, we had significant push back from at least one corner of the world..........
The Brewers are catching on to their new primary catcher, Jett Bandy. Actually, an upgrade to Jonathan Lucroy. It was only a matter of time before the Angels, after working hard to corner the market on catching prospects, started to become a source of catchers for all of MLB.........
The Cobb County Council of Clowns was so eager to get in bed with the Braves that they forgot to forge a proper contract with the Braves. Now they find themselves on the hook for $1 million a year to cover traffic control for the entire complex, which is now pretty much a daily traffic hub for all the various facilities built around the baseball field. Just add that to the $475 million the Council volunteered onto the shoulders of the local taxpayers without voter approval..........
If it's true, as MLB is claiming, that the juiced baseball has been disproven, then we really are in a conundrum to explain the home run surge. Not that folks aren't trying very hard.............
The Cubs lost a game Saturday night. In that game they lost a run to the new slide safety rule. The Cubs were pretty pissed. Joe Maddon, still pissed, is going off on the notion of safety correctness............
Aaron Judge is still getting some serious love. For me, the jury remains out. It should not be a surprise that as has now been taken away from Yankee Stadium, and/or forced to face better pitching as the season moves forward, his BA is dropping from Mt. Olympus and his home runs have dried up..........
Chris Iannetta fails to duck, and things go poorly for it.............Going the opposite direction, Max Scherzer gets drilled..............Maybe that NY City Councilman needs to amend his bill, and those nets he wants actually need to go up between home plate and the pitcher's mound............
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The Duffle Bag
One can imagine that one minor league team in particular would be panicking at the thought of one of their players being promoted...........The Nationals are extending Bryce Harper. One year at a time. I love it. It's a slow burn to Yankee fans who think that it's only a matter of time before they purchase Harper away from the rest of baseball...........Padres baseball. Because tanking is the owner's way to make baseball more fun...........Derek Jeter was honored with a honoree plaque as part of his jersey number retirement. And on the plaque is somebody clearly not-Jeter...........Byron Buxton: Catch of the Day. Give him props for commitment.............Home run balls are dope. Dope..............
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Jordan Serena Destiny Watch
J-Ser was back on the field this weekend. He went 1 for 3 with a walk on Saturday, scoring the winning run on a Matt Thaiss single in the 5th. On Sunday he went 2 for 4 with an RBI and 1 stolen base. He is now batting .343 since coming up to the 66'ers with a .378 OBP and an SLG of .514.
Another composition from our future hero. Practice makes perfection..........
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