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Losing 2 of 3 to the Astros is not shameful these days. Losing 2 of three while being outscored by only 2 runs across 27 innings, when you don't have the full services of Mike Trout AND your starting rotation is shredded (again) is damned amazing. And 2 of those games were when facing the Astros' top 2 playoff anchor starters. The Astros got 2 of the 3 W's, but it's the Angels who got my respect.
Have some reasons to be hopeful Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
How about a weekend homestand with little of no Mike Trout? Still day-to-day with hamstring tightness.............Friday night and Alex Meyer? Not so good. He's 27 years old. He showed some flashes in Spring. We need to to click now.............Saturday night with JC Ramirez? So good. Ramirez went 6 innings and gave up only 1 run, earned, although he surrendered 8 hits. He matched up against Lance McCullers, Jr. and the game went to bullpens, with the Halos coming out victorious in 9th on an Andrelton Simmons walk-off............. Sunday with Matt Shoemaker? Sorry, folks, but Shoey had his worst outing in a month and gave up 5 runs on 5 hits (2 HR's) across 5 innings as the Angels dropped the rubber match.............
Over the weekend the Angels traded away one of my pun-potential prospects, Jordan Kipper. I hate it when that happens. They sent Kipper off to Baltimore in exchange for a guy named Damien Magnifico, who becomes one of my pun-potential favorites. I love it when that happens..........
I changed my mind. Troy Scribner is not ready for Anaheim. All too easy to blow away.........
Echoes of Taylor Featherstone as another LAA infielder gets a ball stuck in the webbing of his glove. Fortunately for Yunel Escobar, it was the 3rd out............
Hmmm. If you had to pick 5 teams that could be contenders, but might lose that chance due to injuries with their rotation, what are the odds that you would have a 2017 LAA team on that list? Yeah. Pretty good odds. Pretty damned solid odds, actually.............
The Angels are taking a look at out-of-work Doug Fister. Times are tough, sure, but if Nagy cannot get Meyer up to speed why assume he can do that for a Fister who tossed a 4.64 ERA and 1.425 WHIP last year?...........
Comebacks will do this for a team. The Angels score 20.7% of their runs in the 9th innings.............
Ok, so there is a measurable difference to Andrelton Simmons and his approach at the plate. Note in the link the call out to our own Rahul Setty's work earlier. Now all we need to understand is why these changes are not resulting in Simmons doing anything to move the needle off of average:
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Everywhere In Baseball
The Big News in baseball is all about Matt Harvey. Harvey, who was scheduled to start Sunday, was suspended by the Mets without pay for 3 games. Nobody is saying what Harvey did, but it has something to do with club rules and is rumored to have been an issue that runs back to last season. The world was saying that he didn't show on Sunday, and that was the reason, but Harvey's suspension started on Saturday so that is not right......What might be right is in the NYT coverage, where it is told that he went golfing on Saturday and was too sick to show up to the park for the Saturday night game. The story is that Harvey came down with a migraine. Possible, I suppose, if it was 3 hours on a hot afternoon in the sun and the beer cart was staying close for the entire round. That's the rumor, anyway. Paul Lo Duca tweets that those rumors are wrong..........Harvey and his agent, Scott Boras, will be filing a grievance against he suspension...........For some odd reason Ken Rosenthal is particularly butt-hurt............Buster Olney has simply moved on, encouraging the Mets and Harvey to join him.............And teammate Jose Reyes is simply pissed off, which would be odd if Reyes has no idea what happened...........
On Saturday Clayton Kershaw went about as nuts as anybody I have seen from the mound when he didn't get a call he wanted. He walked back his antics after the game, mostly because he knows he is going to need these umpires to sustain his ongoing career. But Kershaw was right. It's pitch #4. Stuff like this has Joe Maddon on board with robot umpires.............
Ryan Braun becomes a 10 & 5 player this month but doesn't see that changing anything with his trade status. I agree. $80 million in contract money left for a guy who is 33 now and hasn't been healthy, or a stud, since 2012? Who'd want to lose prospects for that?............
Last year's Next Mike Trout, Trevor Story, is not off to as hot a start as he had last season. So let's analyze the shit of itand see if there is path back to having something to hope for again?...........Oh well, there is Giancarlo Stanton. Maybe him? Oh, I guess not. Stanton is now merely ordinary?..........How about Edwin Encarnacion?..........Eduardo Rodriguez?......Shit. I guess we just have to go back to Aaron Judge, I suppose............
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The Duffle Bag
The Mets might be taking the idea of "stiff" clubhouse discipline a little too far..........Someday the Red Sox are going to run out of people from Boston to eject from Fenway............She said yes. In his defense, seeing as it's only a MiLB game, it was far more intimate an event than most of what we see.............The Angels are raising the next generation of fans for Commissioner Manfred, and doing it without Twitter..........Remember what I said about breaking the bank to get something amazing for a summer concert series? Uncle Josh points out that there is an historic precedent.............Rare footage of Chicago Black Sox throwing the World Series.............Perfect. Kyle Seager hits Rangers fans right in the nuts with his game-winning home run...........Mother nature really wants the Royals to stop trying to play baseball, and she keeps using bees as her weapon............Dear JC Arenciba: the answer to your question is because umpires are to be invisible, and their judgement is supposed to not be discussed...............Didn't the Giants suffer a bus fender bender a few weeks ago? They really new a new contractor.............A League Of Their Own reunion............(h/t UniWatch) Ok. These Mud Cats Star Wars Jerseys are close to winning me over. (I find Star Wars jersey takes to be too comically like cheap Walgreens halloween kits for kids.) Take off that character image and replace it with any machine and I am on board. (UPDATE: I got my second gen Fresno Tacos uni last week. Goes well next to my first gen. Very cool.)...........
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