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Ian Kinsler gets all the credit, going 3 for 3 with a home run and 3 runs batted in. But hats off to Luis Valbuena for his two home runs while also getting 3 hits with 3 RBI. We last saw a 2-HR game out of Valbuena back on August 19, 2017 (a game Mike Trout also went long twice).
The fun part of the game was that slots 4 through 8 in the order went a combined 12 of 21 with 4 home runs, all 9 runs scored and all 9 runs batted in, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts (both for Pujols) and 25 total bases. Killer.
Oh, and by the way, Nick Tropeano lasted 7 innings, took down 5 K’s, and gave up 2 earned runs on only 2 hits (home runs) 5.1 innings, took down 5 K’s, scattered 7 hits, and gave up 2 earned runs on solo home runs.
Question Of The Day: how come Maldonado gets banged by StatCast for a “pop time” of 1.89 seconds when he doesn’t even “pop”?..........
Angels win 9-2. And they pick up a game on BOTH the Astros and the Mariners (LOL Scott Servais on all his 9th inning defensive changes, and closer Edwin Diaz, all adding up to a 4-run Rangers frame).
Wednesdays are our new Ohtani Days. Until they are not again for reasons beyond fathoming.
Have a handful of All_Is-Well-In-A-Very-Weird-Way-Links:
A Hell Of A Lot Of Shohei Ohtani News
It’s my daily gig, and I will pick on nits if I want to. MLB.com points out that “Torres leads all rookies with 1.7 wins above replacement (WAR)”. Ok, so that would be bWAR...fWAR has Torres at 1.3...Over there on BBR, Shohei Ohtani - also an MLB rookie - has 0.9 bWAR as a Standard Batter and 0.8 bWAR as a Standard Pitcher. Even on my abacus 0.9 + 0.8 = 1.7, and 1.7 is the same as 1.7. Oh, you can quibble and say that Ohtani does not have enough PA’s to be “qualified”. Guess what? Neither does Torres (seen here)........(And, for the record, Torres is at 1.3 fWAR while Othani is at 0.9 fWAR for batting and another 0.9 fWAR for pitching. That means that, all in, Ohtani’s 1.8 fWAR trumps Torres’ 1.3 fWAR.)..........So, no, no matter how you try and slice it, Torres does not lead all rookies in WAR. At least not as of the time the MLB article was posted.........
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
And let me keep picking on them nits. Still with Torres, who was named MLB AL Player Of The Week last week. That would be because chicks love the long ball. Head to head with Trout, Trout’s week (here) pretty much bested Torres (here) in every category except one, home runs. Torres had 5 while Trout had a measly 3. Those extra home runs drove in a few more baserunners, too, but we know getting on base ahead of Trout ain’t Trout’s job. Those HR’s gave Torres a slight edge in WPA, but Trout crushed Torres in BAbip, RE24 and DFS. And, of course, there are Torres’ lone base on balls versus 7 for Trout. But chicks don’t love the free pass..........
Stop. Breath. Focus. Think. No, really think. You have already enjoyed more great baseball out of one player than all the Yankee fans in history ever enjoyed out of all of Whitey goddammned Ford’s entire career. And more than every Pirates fan who ever lived got to enjoy out of every single ounce of everything that Willie Stargell ever did. Every Tigers fan and everything Hank Greenberg, ever? Nope. Trout has already put them in his rear view mirror, and he still climbs. Minutes away? Vlad Guerrero and Ichiro Suzuki, no less. On the same lap ahead of him, and within sight, are: Justin Verlander, Harmon Killebrew, CC Sabathia, Jackie Robinson, Mark McGwire and Shoeless Joe Jackson.........
Pure Trout Porn. Only one guy has ever done what Trout has done so far this season. And this season is the only time that it has been done..........Also, Mike keeps finding ways to get even better at getting on base. Now if only we had guys batting behind him who were good at batting when Trout was out there on them bases..........And Trout keeps getting better on defense............We need to keep this awareness in mind. Because we get this kind of stuff every year..........
I candidly admit that I expected more from the broader range of LAA players (those not named Trout, Simmons or Ohtani) by this point than we have have gotten. If the other 24 guy ever start gettin’, this team will have a lot goin’ on.........That might probably be a superior strategy than trying to squeeze even more out of Ohtani..........
Wha..? Andrelton Simmons might possibly be the best person playing the position of shortstop in MLB? What sort of black magic is this?..........Maybe somebody should read every now and then..........
I missed the actual game, but I went back and checked the PITCHF/x stuff. I don’t know what Mike Scioscia and Martin Maldonado were barking at. From what I can tell, plate umpire Mark Ripperger was having a real shitty game with the outside edge, calling a lot of strikes way out there, but that true was for both teams. He also was having it all the pitchers way at the bottom and inside edges (which is what pissed of Maldonado), but only the Tigers pitchers figured out to throw to those locations on purpose and take advantage. Sosh and Maldo have only themselves to blame for not exploiting the zone being called that game as well as the Tigers..........
In news of The Eternally Unhealthy LAA Staff of Pitchers, Matt Shoemaker has undergone arm surgery to repair whatever it was they they could not figure out.....And Blake Wood shall undergo TJ surgery. A-frickin’-gain. This is what happens when you finally get through every pitcher on your staff with one TJ surgery. You start to get repeats..........
Tim Salmon will be on hand to help rep the Halos in the upcoming June draft. Note to Eppler: one of these years I wanna go. Just sayin’...........
Everywhere In Baseball
So when MLB speaks up and admits that the umpires on the field during an important play got a rule wrong, and the reviewing crew studied the play and came to the same wrong conclusion, what happens to all those officials?.... Fortunately, I am not the only one who has noticed.....And how does the conversation go when a Clint Hurdle - who obviously knew the rule better than the umpires with whom he had to deal - goes back to those same umpires to exchange lineup cards the next day?..........And there is Joe Maddon, still an oddly huge fan of macho demolition derby at home plate..........
David Freese leading the way of getting chippy in Pittsburgh..........
Shohei Ohtani might not even be the best pitcher imported from NPB into this year?...........
Robinson Cano’s last game this season was May 13th. Since that time the Angels have lost 9 games and won only 5. So outside observers are marveling at the odd coincidence of the Mariner’s strong move up the standings in spite of Cano being sidelined..........It’s probably more to do with sacrifice bunts..........
How about some serious PEDs science, brought to you by Welington Castilo?..........
Singles are for sissies. And those who just plain know how to hit.............
Unhealthism seems to be in the air. Mookie Betts is still hurting..........Noah Syndergaard says hello to the DL again..........Brian McCann joins Betts and Syndergaard. One more and they can play pinochle..........Oh, wait, no. There he is. The 4th. Ronald Acuna while I was away..........And maybe Josh Donaldson will join them?..........
Don’t think I didn’t see that Vladdie, Jr. convo that kicked off last Friday. With the link to the article where Ismael Cruz is quoted as saying: “It was the first time that I know of that a team threw the whole international bonus at one guy.” I just wish to point out that on July 2, 2015 it was announced that the Blue Jays had signed Vladdie, Jr. for a total cost of $7.3 million, Canadian. $4.7 million Canadian went to Junior. In US dollars, that would be $5.6 million total and $3.6 million to Junior. 7 months before that, on January 6, 2015, Dipoto gave Baldoquin even more. $8 million (US) to Baldo AND $6 million to MLB in taxes. Dipoto and his skeleton international scouting crew were fixated on Baldo so hard they spent all their time and all their money. More than twice as much money. More than twice..........
The Duffle Bag
Beware of the distractingly evil power of the dual-thumbed idiots with access to the Internet...........Alex Gordon is really pissed that modern GM’s are no longer falling for that old contract year bump baloney like they did in the 90’s............So all that NYC citizen glory of post-911 has been spent, eh Rudy?.............Oh crap. I keep failing to publish my alternate universe of promo schedules. One of the ideas were these things. My plan was a series of games where a set of different players were handed out on set game nights and ten of each were autographed by the player represented..........Oh man, this is a tough one to read...........Foul ball off own face. Spit up blood. Oh, yeah, you struck out............I see these at antique malls all the time...........How can a guy who throws a baseball 90 times to home plate every 5th game be so inept at throwing the same baseball to any other base?..........
