HumpLinks: EYJ Sparks a carom shot to victory

Sometimes this patchwork offense does something unexpected and scores a ton, and most times it plays to just what it is. Last night the "heart" of the order was #'s 5 through 7. Simmons through Maldonado. Tough to win with that approach. But last night the Halos did it, winning on a walk off 3-2 LAA win as Eric Young, Jr. singles off of Yankees pitcher Ben Heller's butt to drive in Andrelton Simmons in the 11th inning. AMong the happy in attendace might have been Aaron Judge, who was saved from the chance at 4 K's in one game.

Gotta love how Eric Young, Jr. loves to play the game..........

No sense anybody interfering with the Big Mo of MFY resurgence. Everybody gets on board. Lots more "helps" than "hurts", there.........

More of the Lost Weeks Links:

A Little Bit of Angels News

Mike Trout is thinking he night be back in the green zone (below)!..........

There is a lot more draft stuff below, but in reviewing the first round, Billy Eppler scores well..........Here is his full list...........(By the way, reading this review of the Day 1 results reminded me of why the Astros got 4 picks on Monday. Stupid Cardinals and their hacking. Effed those of us who had nothing to do with it. I had forgotten.)..........

Some official background for each of the players included in yesterdays haul..........

Mike Morin back, Brooks Pounders sent back down..........

LA Angels Social Media maven got schooled in the Law of Early Celebrations on Tuesday..........

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Josh Mayhood's Library of Mike Trout Hagiography

This section placed on hold indefinitely, in memory of Mike Trout's 2017 season. In the meantime, we provide The Jessica DeLine Trout Recovery Watch tracker. When will Mike be back?

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Everybody else is an expert, and I am not. But looking at who one of the everybody else's project to be pros out of the first round (before selections were made, of course) were the guys who ended up being picked #5, #15, #11, #2 and #3. Two things here. First, forecasting player futures is a mad science fraught with fail. And, second, the top half of the first round is the single greatest bucket of future players least fraught with fail. It's unfair, but we are going to be pinning a lot of our hopes on Adell, and spending a lot of time looking down this year's list..........

And then, comparing pre-draft guesstimates with actual results, some guys went higher than expected and other guys went lower. Again, it's all edumacated guesstimations at this point. Call us back in 2022..........

One thing worthy of consideration is that the top 2 selections were both black Americans. Add in the Angels selecting a black American at #10,and that's 3 of the Top 10 picks. That should bode well for marketing to black youth.........

Using the MLB Tracker and sorting based on last name, we find that Luke Heimlich, ranked a Top 30 prospect until his criminal past came to light last week, has yet to be drafted by anyone. And probably won't be. But there is still one more day of drafting, and there is still meat on the bone. (Don't drool too hard, the top ones remaining are there because everybody already knows they won't sign.).........

Monday was a particularly good day for CIF Southern Section athletics...........

College players project higher than HS players. But be wary. I have linked to recent stories about college players and TJ issues, and HS players being the recent trend for under-valued assets..........

Some wild history of past drafts. Hey, stuff happens!.........

Yankee fans have gone Judge-Mental. The NYT notices that the worn down Halos made Masahiro Tanaka look credible again, if only for one night. Which made the game close enough for Aaron Judge to homer late and create a W for the MFY. But recall that prior to that, Judge had K'd swinging, K'd looking, walked, and pushed a single through the infield. That's Danny Espinosa stuff. But in New York, that was "astounding"..........And ESPN now has Judge as a bit of Babe Ruth...........With Trout sidelined, it becomes easy to pretend he never existed. Recall that Mike put up a 10.8 bWAR his rookie season. That only 5 years ago. So it's kind of early to be predicting that Judge is having one of the best rookie seasons in history..........To his everlasting credit, the kid has a great sense of modern culture..........So when the end of the season comes around, somebody is going to be awfully embarrassed. Either the MSM for losing all rational objectivity and pimping the Yankees hard over Trevor Story version 2017, or me for refusing to get a good seat early on that bandwagon..........

I don't know which part of these congressman trying to block public monies for sports stadia at the national level is more naive. Is it the belief that all the billionaires of the NFL/MLB/NBA/etc. will sit idly by and not wrap themselves in the American flag and cry for the common person while they lobby the shit out of everybody? Or is it the faith in their skills at crafting a law that county/city attorneys will find impossible to circumvent?..........

Since when is it cool for players to be calling out teammates in the press?...........Players using the press to call out their coaches, however...well, that goes back forever..........

When teams are going through their tanking period, as the Padres are, do we need to re-write the idea of "The Mendoza Line"? What I mean by this is that as teams stuff their roster with guys who might otherwise be thrilled to bat .200 for a season in the pros, we will get lots of seasons worse, and almost whole franchise seasons. Won't that, over time, render the old standard meaningless?..........

Beautiful long form, as one lucky young lady gets bitten by the bug of baseball. (Small disclosure: the author, Jan Moffett, is a student at the same Eastern Kentucky University that the featured players, Trey and Troy Merida, are playing baseball now.)..........

CWS Update: Good luck to Cal State Fullerton. You are in the Bracket of Doom..........

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