Thor'sLinks: Halos Pheelin' It!

Oh man, isn't winning fun? This I could get used to. As I was sitting there waiting for JC to Ramirez us with some Philadelphia home runs, I got the surprise of a Mike trout home run (!), and then a C.J. Cron home run followed immediately by a Kaleb Cowart home run. All the the scoring in the entire game happened in the bottom of the 3rd. Angels crush the Phillies 7-0, winning the series with one last game to look forward to.

Just a sign of two troubled franchises in 2017, but both the Angels and Phillies started pitchers who were originally slated as bullpen arms for the season.

Have some Looking-Good-For-Phillie-Fans Links:

A Little Bit of Angels News

It's set. Skaggs returns on Saturday. But we need a few weeks before we sigh any relief. We have already seen guys last just a lap or two before re-straining something. But, at least for a first pitch on a Saturday, that would be ONE GUY BACK!..........By the way, this puts Jesse Chavez back in the pen as long relief...........

All this news about Skaggs and Heaney and we forgot about Alex Meyer. Meyer was put on the 10-day DL, retro-active to July 21st. 10 days after that would have been  July 31st. That was 3 days ago. So what happens after 10 days on a 10-day DL? According to the Angels, he has resumed throwing............

Unconfirmed, so we need to do a lot of Googling and watching of the news to find out if some news source can track down the truth for us. But this reddit report claims that ex-Angel Don Baylor is in hospice care suffering from bone cancer................

at 608, Albert Pujols is still 9th on the all-time career MLB home run list. But he is 1 away from 8th (Sammy Sosa) and 4 away from 7th (Jim Thome). Ken Griffey, Jr. at 6th with 630 is within 2018 reach. But Willie Mays at 5th with 660? Nah..............

Love love LOVE this article, a nice review of where we are with robot balls/strike umpiring. Did you know that the current system flipped from optical to radar this year? Did you know that the new system is less accurate than humans? Did you know that we could still be 10 years away, based on cost, motivation and the Umpires Union? Did you know that we might need to redefine the zone to conform to what the technology can do? There are answers here, and a lot more to know and think about. And, yet, it's not FanGraphs dense material Do it. Go read................

Let's spend some time enjoying Marcus Stroman of the Blue Jays, shall we? He is their own version of Rougned Odor, so the Jays fans have nothing to whine about. Stroman is a hot head, and there was a beef Tim Anderson of the White Sox. Stroman even took it to twitter long afterwards.....But during the beef, as it was happening on the field, Stroman was the target of a little jab from the Blue Jays' own broadcast crew. As we have seen from the Red Sox and David Price/Dennis Eckersley, this can be a real problem for hot head players.............

It's August. The NON-WAIVER Trade Deadline has passed. Now we are in the WAIVER-WIRE Trade Season. Yeah, trades are still possible......Here is how August trades work......The first thing to know comes from Victor. Every name can go on the Wire......Hell, even David Price. (Ok, so they are making a joke there.) It means nothing. Words to live by......There are actual good candidates that can come onto the Wire......And names are already popping up there. Names you know. Names such as R.A. Dickey and Jim Johnson.......Names such as Justin Verlander..........

By the way, wasn't it just a couple of weeks ago that we were linking to a Billy Beane article that quoted him as saying how important it was for the A's to hold on to their stars from now on, as they bolster their case for a new stadium? Yeah, about that..........

The Royals chose to stick with their roster, going all in on 2017 and looking to leverage the new compensation plans built into the new CBA when they lose all their guys. Pay attention, because that new CBA already just had a major impact on the trade market. That explanation in there about the Tigers losing all their leverage with J.D. Martinez is killer..........

Pete Rose is finally going away? Oh, please tell me that this is so!.....First, the Phillies are cancelling Pete Rose from their alumni celebration. One of the things that was to happen at that celebration was the giveaway of Pete Rose bobbleheads. 35,000 of them. And now all those need to be destroyed. Except the ones that will get snuck out of the back door and sold on eBay.....Finally, we get word that Rose might be at risk of getting fired completely from his FOX Sports gig........

Paul Lukas, UniWatch guy, finally has the long-lost story behind the famous Houston Astros tequila sunrise uniforms. Fascinating read (to me, at least) that reminds me of those old behind-the-scenes narratives of some amusement park ride...........

Ervine Santana just keeps rolling along. Yesterday was his 5th complete game of the season. For the curious, no other TEAM in all of MLB has more than 4. And, better, 3 of those CGs were shutouts. Oh, and another thing about yesterday. Ervin got a clutch 2-out bases loaded single to drive in the Twins' first 2 runs.............

Hideki Irabu was once a glorious promise, having broken the Japanese reserve system and becoming an important part of the George Steinbrenner Yankees. But then the reality of The Game Of Fail took hold and everything disintegrated. Everything. All the way to the very end, which is how this story begins............

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This is why I live in California. Any place where people will stand in line for 45 minutes to eat at Taco Bell is hell..............The Red Sox fans have voted. Eckersley is good. Oh, and Price is still a dick..........ANd Eckersley, wiht the upper hand, wants nothing further to do with Price...........I don't listen to sports talk radio, so I missed the chance to hear Linda Cohn call bullshit on the Cubs trying to buy out of their guilt over Steve Bartman..........Five years later and they are still looking for a one-day kidnapper. Haven't they heard of Unsolved Mysteries?...........Chris Sale is having a great season, but he's still got nothing on a Pedro Martinez who, yeah, would have loved the K-happy hitters of today...........The eclipse is coming! The eclipse is coming! The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes get it.....The Columbia Fireflies get it..........Mo'ne Davis is still pitching heat.............The Oakland A's twitter admin is out scouting for rotation candidates to replace the loss of Sonny Gray............Obvious man Clayton Kershaw knows the obvious.............