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It was a plethora of plate trippin' in Anaheim last night. The Halos scored a season high 12 runs to defeat the White Sox 12-8 and sweep Chicago right out of Anaheim. Most everybody on offense had a pretty good time (let's ignore Luis Valbuena and Andrelton Simmons and Cliff Pennington going a collective 0 for 9).
Mike Trout launched a 3-run homer, making that 5 jacks over 6 games. That makes for 13 total on the season, 1 behind the MLB leaders Freddie Freeman and Aaron Judge.
Even more fun, Cameron Maybin is now 8 for 10 over the last two nights, scoring 4 times and driving in 2 with 1 walk and no strikeouts. On Saturday his BA was .187 and now it's .231.
Take-the-Day-Off-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
This is just too beautiful to ignore. My job is to go out into the fields and chase interesting butterflies with my my Inter-net and bring them back for you to look at. So I don't get to spend all these hours painting novel looking butterflies far more interesting than anything to be plucked off the wild poppies. Nothing I collect is as mercilessly gorgeous as this review of Tuesday night's game by Grant Brisbee............
MLB celebrated the fact that Bryce Harper has now hit a home run in every National League ballpark. It's something to have fun with but, other than being another data point in why HR's are such a big deal, it's not the kind of thing that makes a career. To answer the obvious question, Mike Trout has homered in every ballpark in the American League except Fenway (I mean, like, really? After 79 Plate Appearances??). And in the National League, he has yet to homer in the home parks of the DBacks, Pirates, Nationals, Cubs, Reds, and Phillies. He has yet to even play at the home parks of the Mets, Marlins and Cards...........
Mike Scioscia gave Kole Calhoun one day off. One day before everybody gets one day off. The reason? It was time for Calhoun to get a day off............
Yep. This is a window of opportunity for the Angels. Over the next couple of weeks they have a chance to pad the Win column.............
Let's talk pitching magic. Looking back, it appears that I failed to link to this interesting article over last weekend, showing us that the Angels are using some special alchemy to create productivity out of arms where little or none was thought to exist. And it ain't about moar sliderz. It's about less four-seam fastballs.............And Charles Nagy might be our Nick Flamel...........(Ok, so you don't have to look it up...meet the Nicolas Flamel you never knew.)............
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Everywhere In Baseball
This study is a good look at what the world of third base options are in the marketplace over the coming months. And how the Red Sox and Orioles are going to make a mess of whatever is on the shelves. So if you are thinking that Arte is about to have gobs of capital to just go out and purchase a Mike Schmidt, stop wasting the few brain cells you have left..........
Add Gregory Polanco to the springtime hammy ward..........That link by itself doesn't mean much to us, but I am tracking all the early season hamstring issues everywhere. It IS topical, with Escobar out and Pujols being tender..........And guess what? Looks like I am not the only one curious about this thing going on..............
Andrew McCutcheon has LA Angels Disease written all over him............
Matt Harvey has ex-girlfriend issues?............
Hey Mariners, rather than a flannel shirt, I'd be more impressed if you gave away Starbucks franchises. We don't have enough of those............
Jason Vargas is having a much better journey riding the path of the Jered Weaver Limb of Lethargy............
Best advice of the day: stop talking to Curt Schilling.............
How the mighty have fallen. Well, most of them anyway..............For the Royals, the fall has been very, very far............
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The Duffle Bag
Ladies and gentlemen, your Super Secret MLB Spy Cam team at work..........How is it that a guy who can do this, can also do this and this.............You guys know I love me the Fresno Grizzlies and all the fun they have. May they never, ever stop.............Forget the fact that it took forever to dislodge Kris Bryant's bat shard form the netting. Consider, instead, what would have happened if Kris Bryant's bat shard had not gotten caught by any net at all?.............(h/t UniWatch) Indiana University in a throwback game, and the umpires joined in with throwback ump suits, ties and caps.............Ah, yes. The previous LAD-Next-Mike-Trout............Just a reminder, baseball players, fans care a great deal about wins. And not all of us can be appeased with cupcakes...........I have this very sad belief that this sort of thing is going to become more common in upcoming years.
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Jordan Serena Destiny Watch
J-Ser was back out in RF last night. 4th inning spark plug! Uses bat skills to single. Uses speed to go first-to-third on base hit by batter behind him. Uses brain to score on following sac fly, to take the lead.....Serena would end up 2 for 3 at the plate with a walk, an RBI and a Run Scored against zero K's. And the 66'ers would defeat the Ports 5-3.
So, as you are learning, Serena really is a real baseball prospect. He is doing quite well after moving up to High A, where we see Matt Thaiss and Taylor Ward. Maybe not yet Top 30, but real. Unlike somebody else.............But then, let's get real. Making the pros is not what that other guys is really all about............
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