MondoLinks: Ohtani Makes Fools of A’s

6 innings pitched, 6 K’s. 3 hits surrendered. That would have been a remarkable redemption for Shohei Ohtani after his ST deflated his hype. If only he were facing a real MLB team. Instead it was the Oakland A’s.

Screw it. Let’s pretend just or now that the A’s are some serious franchise, as though they have actual fans and a real stadium and all the normal accouterments. And that kind of success against a real MLB team in a regular season game that counts is just the kind of thing that makes for sparkly headlines everywhere, which is just what is happening now.

Angels win yesterday 7-4. Baseball is back so the world gets to get all freaked out over bullpen management and Blake Parker and everything. As an alternative, we could all just chill and let things develop for a week or three.

Let’s jump into all those headlines with Some Most-Excellent-First-Weekend-Links:

(And before we begin, let’s thank the FSM that there are coffee shops with free wifi, such as Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Because there are just not enough cell towers installed on our public beaches to sustain the needed bandwidth for authoring SNB articles. As advanced as we are, we are still in a relative stone age.)

A Little Bit of Angels News

Matt Olson could probably write a few Ohtani headlines………..

Ohtani’s first MLB career K. Marcus Semien to lead off the Oakland attack............With Shohei’s family present to watch..........How about 100mph??? Quick, who was the last LAA pitcher to do that?...........And, 240 press credentials? And none of them were HH? Don’t we have any members in Japan? WTF?............

Billy Eppler made a save out of the catching logjam after all. Odd man out Carlos Perez was traded to the Braves for Ryan Shimpf, infield depth………..The Angels, as ever, find nothing but positives with Shrimpf............

Ian Kinsler has been dumped to the DL, with Nolan Fontana being called up to take his place. That is one thing that makes Shrimpf an insurance policy..........

Mike Scioscia must be bummed. That uber-exciting first-round catcher Taylor Ward, is now a slugging 3B prospect within the organizational depth chart. As a guy who has whined for years about not having one off those, I am now fully on board the Taylor Ward bandwagon!...........Except for one small little thing: this Zack Cozart 3B guy is causing me to enjoy some damned fine happy dancing right frikkin’ NOW..............

Baseball Reference uses Mike Trout’s data profile to play their April Fool’s Day gimmick..........

Everywhere In Baseball

This is why our Kevin Maitan story remains a major positive. We got a guy with huge potential for relative peanuts. Maybe he doesn’t work out in the end, but it’s not like we are talking about Yasmany Tomas money............

The Twins and their bullshit unwritten rules can go shove it all up their tailpipe. They had a big lead, late, sure. But there is no mercy rule. They didn’t stop trying to score when they were up 6-0. So if the Orioles want to try and find any way possible to get back into the game, they get to. If the Twins want to put forth the shift with a 7-0 lead, they get to. And if Chance Sisco wants to bunt against that shift to show teams they need to play him honest, he gets to...........

Gabe Kapler is off to a very, very horrid start in his shiny new manager gig...........What you don’t get in that link is the followup news. The umpires knew damned well that nobody has advised Hoby Milner to get ready out in the bullpen and intervened on behalf off the pitcher’s health.....And MLB followed THAT up by sending an official warning letter.....When umpires and the MLB Front Office have to get involved, you know that the manager is completely lost................

Ouch, that hurts. Giants Rule 5 pick Julian Fernandez is not a TJ surgery victim. He’s a Rule 5, so he now has to stay in the season long DL and collect service time and MLB pay and eat into Giants roster slots all the time he cycles through the TJ process..........

It’s very true that MLBPA chief Tony Clark needs to do a better job of keeping the players’ total salaries at pace with MLB growth. No doubt. But when you write an article that excuses the players from paying attention because “...the players are mostly focused on their work. On pitching, on hitting, on the increased preparation required for games scheduled almost daily for six months”, you are wasting the Internet.............

Summer time book club reading material. A new look at sabremetrics. (Notice how touchy the reviewer is about the human element!).........

Injuries are piling up fast already. MFY outfielder Billy McKinney crashed into a wall (causing that Aaron Judge comment below). Sounds like a padding problem to me..........Delino DeShields fractured his hand during an at-bat..........And sideline reporter Kelsey Wingert got clocked in the eye socket by a foul ball...........

Ryan Braun to the Dodgers? For Matt Kemp?? Is this some kind of April Fool’s joke??.............

The Duffle Bag

Old man Ichiro robs a home run............Challenge #1 if you are an MLB pitcher who wishes to snag a no-hitter in your career: overcome your own manager’s idea of a good time. Trevor Williams had a no-no after 6 innings and only 85 pitches. And he was pulled anyway..........Suddenly everybody is going to have a whole new standard for defense when it comes to centerfielders. How else to keep Aaron Judge at the top of the heap when his competition is Mike Trout (not to mention Adam Jones!)..........Credit where credit is due. With Jeffrey Loria now gone, the Marlins are no longer lying about attendance............In reality, Justin Smoak was never really especially harmful to the Angels. To, it always just felt that way. Mostly because every time I looked up when Smoak was batting something like this would happen..........Oh yeah? Well, how well can the giraffe swing from his knees?..........(h/t UniWatch) Chief Wahoo will be erased from Cleveland Unis, but Cleveland fans still have a thing or the logo. This t-shirt design should offend nobody, right?............