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Wouldn’t it be great to find that the Angels picked the Toronto series to snap out of their offensive funk as they now have to head into Yankee Stadium for the weekend? That 8 run outburst yesterday had a little bit of everything. Mike Trout and Albert Pujols hit home runs. Trout and Ian Kinsler both stole a base. Trout added 3 walks to his HR (although I am getting less and less fascinated by his BB rate). Shohei Ohtani was on base 4 times, going 2 for 3 with 2 walks and 2 doubles. Kole Calhoun did not strike out. And Zack Cozart came off his fantastic 3 for 4 showing in the previous game to...to.....to take the day off?
On the mound was Nick Tropeano, 7.1 innings with 6 K’s against 4 hits and 1 BB across only 92 pitches was particularly efficient. But we LAA fans gotta wonder.....
All in all, an 8-1 blowout on the way to the airport. And I am not going to miss being forced to watch Josh Donaldson glaring at everything and everybody on a baseball field when things don’t go the way he wants.
Have some Angels-Thunderstorm-Invades-NYC-For-A-Weekend-Links:
A Hell Of A Lot Of Shohei Ohtani News
The big news in Halo-ville is that Shohei Ohtani will not be pitching on Sunday in Yankee Stadium, facing off against Masahiro Tanaka as originally hoped by all of America and all of Japan. Maybe he will DH. Maybe not. It depends on when he gets slotted for his next start. The story that everybody is writing is that which comes from Billy Eppler and Mike Scioscia, that Ohtani’s workload needs to be managed and he needs some time off. But it should be noted that this is a stretch with only 1 off day between Ohtani’s last start and June 7th, and off days have been helping manage the roster and give Ohtani a full week between starts............Jeff Fletcher is guessing that it has more to do with needing Ohtani’s hot bat in the slumping lineup. (Well, yeah, we can concede that Ohtani’s bat is relatively red hot. He is batting a clean .300 for May.)...........
Random Stat: Shohei Ohtani is good at the baseball..........
My takeaway here is that Shohei is merely cruising to first base, having been juked by the infielders. But then somehow he turns on some blazing speed level and beats a throw from short CF, covering the entire 90 foot distance to 2B in that time......
I know I am late to this one, but for those who missed it there is word coming from a source inside the LAA Front Office that Ohtani will be on the All-Star ballot as a DH........
Oh what the hell. Why beat around the bush? Just go ahead and snog on some Ohtani Porn..........
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
With his 12th stolen base and 15th home run yesterday (a home run and stolen base in the same game being something that only the greats do with regularity), Mike Trout remains in the realm of a possible 40-40 season. Yes, Trout has yet to be caught stealing (mostly because Gio Urshela dropped Russel Martin’s great throw in the 9th inning on Wednesday night).
A reddit member points us to BaseballMusing’s optimal LAA lineup, and somehow Kole Calhoun still makes the cut..........
Jose Suarez, people. Jose Suarez, indeed..........
Everywhere In Baseball
This should not be a surprise to anyone with a sense of rational honesty. But a sports league went shopping for a friendly set of scientists to study their equipment and that set of scientists came back with silly results. MLB ‘experts’ have concluded that the official baseball has not changed, but how the official baseball performs certainly has changed. And they have no idea as to why. Their official stuff is here. But the outside world is only focusing on the fact of baseballs performing differently. Keep in mind that non-MLB sponsored scientific studies DID find more things different with the baseball............The plan of action? Form a committee. A committee to study whether or not to mandate humidors everywhere..........
Yeah, it might be true that the Red Sox might have had the best player in MLB with Mookie Betts if only a Mike Trout did not exist. Too bad for all those Red Sox fans that Mike Trout does, indeed, still exist..........
The Orioles appear to have opened for business on any Manny Machado trade...........
Another Oriole, Chris Davis, merely has come back down to earth and resumed being his normal self. Any crash to be attributed to him lately has to be taken with a grain or two of masking agents..........But Jim Palmer, now a broadcast commentator and a guy with major cred, is pretty much done with Davis..........
Bartolo Colon turns 45.....Let’s look at all the things that have come and gone in his 21 years of MLB.....And here are 45 fun factoids about Big Sexy..........Finally, let’s just go GIF crazy with the guy..........
A little UniWatch funsies:.....Kids all want to be Mike Trout, parents want to bubblewrap their kids, and Little League Baseball doesn’t want to see any more home-modified batting helmets...........For the fast-approaching inter-league series with the Dodgers, Mitla Cafe of San Bernardino has come up with a cool t-shirt promo idea..........The Portland Sea Dogs with the very best Memorial Day uni idea ever..........
Under Armour is losing their troubled MLB deal completely. Nike is taking over starting in 2020, saving Under Armour about $50 million in ramp-up costs............
That bit where Tampa manager Kevin Cash started Sergio Romo two games in a row? He is primed to do it again, except that this time it might be three games in a row..........
Maybe Houston, smack in the middle of oil country, uses a tar of a different source than other MLB pitching staffs?..........
Pitchers are now rehabbing to modern technology and information standards. You lose, Lyle Spencer..........
The Duffle Bag
The Yankees are having nearly as tough a time with air travel as I am...........This dude picked the worst possible moment to throw away his MLB career chances...........The Rangers stink, suck, crap all over themselves, and I am loving it. Good thing they have a shiny new stadium on order...........Carlos Correa has to hurdle Jose Altuve to make a play. But if you notice, the shift they pulled to put Altuve in danger was not necessary. That ball was hit right to where Altuve would play naturally. Had Correa put Altuve off to the DL, we would have had boo birds whining against the shift..........A brief observation: as of this writing the Dodgers and Angels are running 1st and 2nd in MLB attendance, helped in large part due to crazy weather elsewhere..........The Angels road attendance is pretty shitty, which should be surprising with all the media hype over Ohtani. But keep in mind that except for 3 games in KC and 2 games in Denver, this is the first real road trip out of the abysmal AL West..........