HumpLinks: Shoe gives Rays fits

Zonkers! The Matt Shoemaker we have all been waiting for showed up against the Rays yesterday. Don't think of it as a fluke. The Rays are actually hitting better so far than the Angels. 7th-best in the AL. He, and a masterful showing by the bullpen, performed a total shut down on Tampa Bay. Cameron Maybin and Mike Trout led off with back-to-back home runs and the Angels won 4-0.  Plus, Trout drew another walk. That makes for 10 games in a row with at least 1 Base on Balls.

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A Little Bit of Angels News

So much Halo stuff I might not have room to fit it. Let's start with Mike Trout passing Troy Glaus on the the all-time franchise home run leader board. Glaus played in 827 games with Anaheim whereas Trout has been in 853. Up next is Brian Downing at 222 home runs across 1661 games, then Garrett Anderson at 272 home runs over 2013 games, and finally Tim Salmon as the franchise leader with 299 home runs over 1672 games..............

Grant Brisbee goes right after Jered Weaver's home-town discount contract with the Angels, now that the contract is spent, as is Weaver's career. Grant is empathetic with Weaver's outlook, but still not a fan of leaving money on the table. That's why Brisbee compares Weaver to the Zack Greinke contract. And that's why he throws Josh Hamilton in our face.............

Shotgun style: David Hernandez and life in the bullpen.........Bud Norris has learned to cut down left-handed hitters. Literally............Andrelton Simmons is totally on board...........Mike Trout is changing that notion around MLB about him and first pitches.............But Trout is doing this without filling his head with all the numbers that thrill you and me............Hat's off to Billy Eppler for the David Fernandez free agent win...........Cam Bedrosian takes another step forward.............

Josh Mayhood's Library of Mike Trout Hagiography

More Media aftershocks that are, without any possible shadow of a doubt, the direct result of Josh's now-legendary revelation that Mike Trout is having an incredible season. The first comes with the theory that this is Trout's peak year. This reminds me of Trout's early years, when projections kept insisting that Trout was sure to regress. They couldn't fathom anybody actually getting better than what he was doing. That thought broke the models. Well, if this is Trout's peak, that implies that next year - and all future years - he will be something less. More predictions of regression yet again. Maybe we should stop doing this, and just return to our seats and watch in awe...........And when you run out of your own superlatives to post about Trout, you turn to the superlatives of those who should know best, and see him with fresh eyes. Those would be his new teammates............But then things go a tad too far. Cherry picking a couple of data points and comparing them does NOT imply the stated results. Mike Trout having an OPS of 1.186 versus the rest of the team at 0.637 does NOT mean that Trout is 66% of the Halo offense. Trout's scored only about 15% of the team's runs. He has about 33% of the home runs, about 13% of their hits and about 19% of the walks. Bad use of numbers, BBP.............And yeah, if you don't like Mike Trout you have to hate baseball. Did you hear that, Detroit fans??...........Trout Porn Stat of the Day..........

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Something for LAA fans to think about: at some point there will new stadium facility and complex built to host the Angels. We can smell the faint odor of the "when" wafting in the air, even though the "where" remains as elusive as ever. It won't be very soon, which might come as worse news than not having a new stadium at all. Consider that without major economic calamity, business deals only tend to trend upward. And one of the baselines for stadium deals as of now, 2017, is already very very horrendous. So the future is either something potentially even worse than that, or global economic meltdown............

Using Trout as the benchmark to compare Bryce Harper's future Hall of Fame chances, an interesting angle pops out. It's all about Harper staying healthy enough to play a large amount of games each season, something he has yet to prove he can do. "So what might injuries cost Harper if they persist? Perhaps seven home runs a season, with Harper averaging 24 home runs his first five seasons but 31 homers per 162 games. This might sound inconsequential and like something that will even out over time. Seven homers a year for 20 years, however, is 140 homers. It’s the difference between more than 600 home runs and barely 450."...........

I'll put this here. Aaron Judge has a Double Bubble gum superstition. That makes him a baller. Baseball players have enough superstitions to create their own religion.  Meanwhile, I did a little math. If we use the 2016 season of Mike Trout as a fair representation of a typical season for a star player, since we don't have a full 2017 season yet, we find that Mike Trout hit a home run about 5.24% of his AB's when playing at home, and about 5.32% of the time on the road. So far this season (going into yesterday's games), Aaron Judge is hitting a home run about 5.13% of his AB's on the road, but 16.92% of his AB's at home.  If we take those Trout 2016 AB counts for home/road splits, and combine them with Judge's 2017 actual splits, that would work out to Judge hitting about 14 home runs on the road, and about 45 home runs at home. Almost 60 total home runs. Yankee Stadium is Judge's personal Coors Field...........

Ervin Santana had himself a pretty dominating outing Baltimore yesterday. It was his second 2-hit shutout of the season. And he is starting whispers of CYA. Sure, it's early, but he is in that group with Chris Sale and Dallas Keuchel so it is a worthy recognition............

This is truly fun. Boston, only a fraction of the way into the season and only 1 game out of the playoffs at the moment, is all ready to start eating their own. First up: conjecture about firing John Farrell. Even funner, there is a sliver of a chance that that could possibly make Gary DiSarcina their interim skipper............

The Angels success with their pitching staff, moving them away from fastballs, is part of a larger trend throughout baseball............

Now is the time to find out if a non-sports skinny bundle truly is something that the viewing audience will sustain. After all, the concept speaks tot he very heart of the consumer costs that drive up cable bills and help motivate cord-cutting..........

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