WeekEnd HaloLinks: Halos bust out of NY, land in Boston

Well what do you know? The Angels outscored the Yankees in their own back yard and took the series from what used to be the AL East leaders. Yesterday they came from behind and crushed them, 10-5. Now the Yankees are virtually tied with Boston, and that is where the Angels find themselves next. This season just gets happily more weird every week. I love it.

More of the Lost Weeks Links:

A Little Bit of Angels News

The big news yesterday was that the Trout camp wanted a lifetime deal way back when and Arte, instead, just went with the 5-year. I am pretty sure this was mentioned even back then. but now that Trout is a GOAT it becomes a big deal. The glass-half-full way to think about all this is that Arte was doing both himself, AND Trout, a favor. Arte did himself a favor by hedging his bet in case Mike failed to become the most unbelievable talent in 60 years. And Arte did Mike a favor by allowing him to reset his market should he truly become a GOAT. And we win because it's a sing that Mike wants to stay and run back to the Phillies. Who could ask for more than that?..........

To sabremetricians, Wins don't really mean much. To baseball players, and scribes, and managers they can mean a lot. Until, it is, that we encounter a case where a pitcher does well but the Wins don't come. Then, it's more about how the pitcher pitched well and 'gave his team a chance'. And, unwittingly, everybody becomes a fan of advanced critical thinking skills............

A well-timed article on Cameron Maybin, noting his success and the improved discipline resulting in walks. And then he draw 2 bases on balls, scores three runs and tosses in a home run...........

Matt Shoemaker is medically testing just fine, but he is not in the clear...........He is coming back to Anaheim for more tests and Bridwell will take his next turn..........

I missed this interview, mostly because I gave up on the official LAA radio channel a couple of years ago. (If it's good now, somebody tell me and I will give it another chance.) But Mike Scioscia credits the Angels defense for their surprising level of success in spite of all the injury challenges. I dunno about that. They rank 9th out of 15 in the AL in Fielding Percentage. But then, Sosh was, is and always shall be a catcher. And there his squad ranks 1st in all of MLB when it comes to defensive runners caught stealing..........

Speaking of catchers, BR raised an eyebrow in the direction of Martin Maldonado. Already this year he has matched his bWAR garnered throughout the entirety of the rest of his career...........

The Street has finally been re-opened. You guys didn't like Mike Morin anyway...........

Wanna see something fun? Check out Kaleb Cowart's box score last night............

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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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Well, when a team is deep in the rebounding mode as a franchise, as Atlanta is, they can afford to play against the odds. Why else would they be working to move their All-Star, MVP vote-getting first baseman all the way across the diamond and experiment with turning him into a third baseman, as they are doing with Freddie Freeman?............

If you believe hard that pitch tracking is empirical, then  it can be useful in understanding when a pitcher or batter gets a call that is favorable or unfavorable. And you can add then all up and combine them and sort them by team. And you learn that the Dodgers are loved by plate umpires, both when they are on defense AND on offense.  Now, old-timers know that I have my problems with the technology still, but any way you slice it this is wrong. Whatever might be in error with this stuff, is in error in the same direction for all of these measurements. So we can all believe that the Dodgers are getting away with murder..........

What's this? Latin players schooling a Latin player on respecting the game because the latter Latin player was having too much fun?.............

Anybody still remember April, when Eric Thames was the first Aaron Judge? Regression is a bitch...........

Anybody remember back in March, when Kyle Schwarber was going to be the next Barry Bonds? Let's put that one on pause for now..........

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Hollywood is a master at making heroes, especially out of real heroes...........

Derek Jeter's run at buying the Marlins is out of gas, short on cash. But wait, they say to Jeter, there is another..........

The reason we have more home runs and strikeouts? It's all YOUR fault, you silly fan. Just ask Commissioner Manfred. "...our fan research suggests that people like home runs and they actually like lots of strikeouts."..........

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