Great. In the first two games of one simple road trip, the LAA bullpen blows their amazing scoreless streak AND stupendous reputation. 11 runs. 2 losses. No reason to fear them any more. That 7 run 8th inning last night was 20 minutes of endless misery broken up by nothing. Angels lose, 10 - 4.
Ricky Nolasco was, surprisingly, un-horrible. All told, things were 3-2 Cleveland going into the 8th. But then things, er, changed. Cam Bedrosian warped back to 2015. That didn't work. In came Brooks Pounders, who was caught in Bedrosian's vortex and sucked back to 2016 KCR. Still didn't work. But, on the upside, all the damage was done and there was no need to come back out in the 9th for any more embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Albert Pujols: 0 for Cleveland. As in ZERO for 11 with 10 runners Left On Base. Not that this one was his fault, but he sure ain't helping matters any. Fittingly, the Angels are now 1 full "Albert Pujols" games out of a Wild Card spot.
Enjoy these Stuck-In-Reverse Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
For those who missed the snippets on Sunday, here is more about that kid who went bonkers after catching Mike trout's home run. The kid is extremely impressive. He needs to have an account around here. Hell, he needs to take over my job.............
Andrelton Simmons is now among some pretty heady company. With Carlos Correa on the DL, he will soon be the AL fWAR leader by a long shot, and is running down Corey Seager for the MLB lead...........
Three ex-Angels on this FiveThirtyEight recap of the most egregious HoF voting "one and done's". Because, you know, bed times for baseball writers.........
Josh Mayhood's Library of Mike Trout Hagiography
Even though he iust still just warming back up and only playing like lower case trout, Mike is still vaulting over historic names of the past..............
The next generation of Cleveland knows a Face of Baseball when they see one..........Hey, on this subject, let's do MLB a favor! Here you get to witness my business brain at work, in high gear. It's what I get paid for in my normal life. First click over to this USA Today article where Ted Berg is having fun with the MLB Millennial Challenge. Note Point #2 "Allow people to use phones at games"...........Now go back to the first link here and look again at Mike Trout being mobbed for an autograph. Do you see ANY of those people - especially the kids - holding out a cellphone or tablet? NO! They are all holding out baseballs and paper notebooks and cotton caps. That shit is rotary dial, people! MLB can add to their existing MLB app a little applet that fans can launch. And players can approach the stands with a special stylus the MLB issues that the player can then use to tap the fan's app screen and register their 'hit'. Getting a Mike Trout 'hit' might unlock special merchandise. Imagine you are the only kid in school who has an actual autographed Mike Trout batting glove that you paid only $20 for, and nobody else can get it because they don't have a Mike Trout 'hit'. Think about the opportunity for cool factor there. Getting 'hits' from some special set of players (5 pitchers, all starting infielders, every starter on the League's All-Star team, it's endless) unlocks free super cool prizes. That's MLB getting the next generation to attend games and use the MLB app in order to launch the MLB applet to get to MLB stars in order to get privileged MLB merchandise. Why the hell do I have to be the one who sits here and thinks up all this shit for MLB???............
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Everywhere In Baseball
Once upon a time Yu Darvish and his agent sat down with their negotiations counterparts within the Rangers organization and hammered out a new contract. And in that contract they listed 10 teams to which Darvish would veto any trade. Now, when a trade would be most likely over the life of that contract, 4 of those forbidden cities are in the playoff hunt...............
Remember that bit Tuesday night where Yunel Escobar dogs a fly ball, missing out on a near sure-thing inside-the-park home run and (instead) getting thrown out at 3rd base? Yunel can thank his stars he does not play for Phillies manager Pete Mackinin. Skipper Pete did not like Odubel Herrera's failure to run out a dropped 3rd strike and benched his ass for lack of hustle..........
25 years ago we were gifted A League Of Their Own. We still have a long way to go..........
Topps and New Era are getting together to sell us a mash-up of baseball card and cap. These don't do it for me, and I can't locate the LAA version quickly enough but, then, so I will leave it to those of you so inclined..........
John Lackey is still a big fan of plunking batters. Hell, he is all for throwing at guy even when he knows for absolute certain that accidents happen.........
The Angels trade mostly with Atlanta. But Atlanta trades mostly with Pittsburgh. But Pittsburgh trades mostly with Cleveland. And on it goes..........
And the Trade Dealine, jsut a few days away now, is a big deal. It can explain a lot, as history as proved.........(By the way, there is a very cool interactive trade partner chart in that link that is far more informational than the link just above this one.)..........
John Farrell - career 7.3 bWAR pitcher and now BoSux manager - stands behind David Price - career 33.3 bWAR pitcher now with the BoSux - in defense of accusations that Dennis Eckersley - career 62.5 bWAR pitcher and Hall of Fame Inductee and now broadcast analyst for the BoSux - doesn't know shit about pitching in the Major Leagues..........
Sabermetrics fights to gain acceptance in Japan. Sound familiar?..........
Now we can use Stolen Bases as a barometer for how well Bryce Harper will play in a season. The saddest line in the whole thing, for a guy like me who has only seen the man in his decline, is this: "Perhaps if he could steal like Paul Goldschmidt, or efficiently like Pujols in his prime, that would be different." I am not doubting that he was, but it's hard for me to visualize Albert Pujols as an efficient base stealer. Sigh..........
Jose Altuve is having a great season. And it is made all the greater because guys like Mike Trout, Freddie Freeman and Carlos Correa got knocked off the podium, while Aaron Judge has tripped, fallen, and is yet to get back up (.171/.340/.317 since the ASG)..........
On the one hand we have the Nolan Ryan's of the world, thinking that today's pitchers are pussies for worrying that their arms will fall of if they throw 9 inning games 30 times a year. On the other hand we have the LAA pitching staff, half of whom have seen their arms fall off. In the middle you have a revolution launched by the Nats in that one-time big controversy surrounding the shut down of Stephen Strasburg..........
Interesting. We know that Pay TV subscriptions are bleeding losses. And we know that point streaming services are signing up new consumers in droves. But did you know that those two rates are not the same? Pay TV is losing far more than point streaming services are gaining? Where are the missing consumers going?..........
Yet another next Mike Trout, is the next Ain't Mike Trout...........
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The Duffle Bag
We got ourselves the 2018 MLB All-Star Game logo, and the most imaginative thing about it would be the MasterCard advert..............Baseball fun with Coke bottle displays..........Echos of Canseco..........ex-MLB-er Danny Tartabull, deadbeat dad, finally sees the law catch up with him..........This is one way for MLB to connect to the younger generation: have them actually go outside and play the game..........Someday Bryce Harper is going to make a really fun manager. He already has the arguing skills down really really well...........
OT: Look into the future, and brace yourself..........This ain't just some futurist pulling ideas out of his ass. There are serious people with serious funding working furiously to make this shit happen. I know. I'm sitting in the middle of some of it and see it happening.........
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Jordan Serena Destiny Watch
Out in San Bernardino, No Serena. His replacement, Kyle Survance Jr. went 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts and 3 LOBs. (Jahmai Jones went 0 for 5, by the way). The 66ers managed to overcome that and defeat Lake Elsinore 4-3.............
Up in AA with the BayBears, Matt Thaiss 1 for 4, Taylor Ward (DH'ing) 1 for 3, and Jose Rojas 0 for 3. Mobile loses to Jackson 5-1...........
Down with AZL, Jordon Adell went 1 for 3 (now batting .340), while Nonie Williams was 1 for 4 (batting .219). More important, Andrew Heaney had another rehab start. He went 4.2 innings and faced 17 batters. 7 strikeouts and 0 walks, 3 hits and 0 runs. Very nice. The AZL Angels bested the AZL Cubs 4-1...........
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