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I have been getting tired of all these off days, but after yesterday we face 1 day off over the next 30. My tune will be different 5 weeks from now.
But here, on what should be a slow news day, there sure was a lot of waking up around Baseball to the level of play that Mike Trout is accomplishing right now. His last week certainly exploded all his stats and he cannot keep up that rate for an entire season. But all he has to do is throw out a week like the last one every month and league will need to create an entirely new tier of recognition just to give other good talent some breathing room.
This is the prime we were hoping for. And we are lucky enough to have stellar talent surrounding him now.
Have some Living-Large-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Trout Mega Porn: Mike Trout, back in 2017, was performing as a blaze of glory before he got hurt, denying us the chance to witness one of the greatest single seasons ever. It was the first of those prime years we were drooling for in anticipation. Well, as we now see, Trout is back to those mouth-watering level of amazing. So amazing, that Mike Trout Monday needs to take a breather from superlatives and just bask in the brilliance. We, too, should coat ourselves with some SPF15 and enjoy the glow............Trout is making contact at astronomical rates. So there is that. But then there is one reply “These are the kind of stats that push me away from baseball”, and I want to find that old white guy and whup his ass back to the porch..........Oh, and aren’t Trout projections fun right about now?..........Especially that 14.1 WAR..........And that Buster Olney projection series gave us this Keith Law observation..........Finally, you could deduct both of Trout’s MVP winning seasons, which would also give everybody else two more whole seasons, and he would still be the most productive baseball talent in MLB since he came onto the scene...........BBR reminds us that, according to JAWS, Trout is already on the verge of matching the average JAWS rate for Hall of Fame Center Fielders. Already. He is still only 26. Only 4 (Qualified) CF’s in all of MLB right now are younger..........But don’t get too high on Trout. It’s not as if his slash line of .545/.667/1.136 with an OPS of 1.803 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs and a stolen base and an outfield assist for the past week could compete with Francisco Lindor.....Or even Didi Gregorious............
Shohei Ohtani has just become even more threatening as a pitcher. He discovered (re-discovered?) his slider, and it was devastating against the Mariners...........And he left some believers in his wake up in Seattle...........
How the Angels are sticking to #5 in Power Rankings says more about the rest off MLB right now than it does about the Halos. There are 5 teams just below them which are under-performing right now...........
Welcome to the franchise, Max Cordy...........
Everywhere In Baseball
Somewhere out there is a Solomon capable of untangled this tangled life of Luke Heimlich. I do not pretend to be that person.............
Maybe all that pine tar also has some magical power to ward off pitching injuries? How else to explain how the Astros’ rotation is not only performing at Beast Mode, but stays ungodly healthy, too?.............
I have good news to report, and I have bad news. First the bad news. Pretty soon the US Supreme Court is going to uncork the bottled genie that is sports betting in this country and our society is going to rapidly evolve into individual simpletons throwing their money into the pockets of syndicated betting corporations. Here, in long form, is the backstory on how such syndicated betting organizations came to be, and dominate. It’s a fascinating set of intertwined tales that will probably soon result in some Hollywood producer running over his own mother in his race to sign an exclusive movie deal..........Now for the good news. This one little paragraph within that entire article seems to be the vaccine from the coming betting plague for our sport: “Benter has few regrets. One relates to an attempt in the early 1990s to create a model for betting on baseball. He spent three summers developing the system and only broke even—for him, a stinging professional defeat. America’s pastime was just too unpredictable.”..........
The Rangers are sniffing around Matt Harvey. Paired with Tim Lincecum, that would make a majestic 1-2 punch. In a beer league. Or Arlington. As if there is a difference..........
I we get lucky, the Red Sox and Yankees will spend the next few day beating each other up. Quite literally.............
Thank you Jerry Dipoto, this week’s edition. I worry about how that might become way too frequent in the coming years............
I thought I had this right, and I did. I am not imagining that more and more frequently, managers are pulling their starters without any care in the world that said starter has a once-in-a-lifetime, life and career-changing, opportunity within his grasp............
Ballplayers may love the stat of OPS, but my admiration for Brian Dozier (wRC+), Brad Ziegler (StatCast Hit Probability) and Paul Seward (FIP) just went up..........
We could tell stories all day about the fans in the background of baseball games. I would do it instead of Links if I had copyright access to broadcast material. So I am envious that Meg Rowley of FanGraphs actually got to do it for once.............
This is why NBA is doomed. Catering to hyper sports fan only serves to feed an addiction that builds a new level of attention-deficit. Eventually you have to hit a wall that cannot be crossed without threatening the integrity of the sport you are serving. You can no longer feed the latest level of demand for stimulation, and you have burned out every other level of fan along the way. By the time that MLB figures this out (by watching what happens to the NBA), a lot of mess will have been made.........
You can read this takedown of local journalism due to aggressive capitalism if you want. I did not, even though it applies to local sports journalism, too. I just want to stare all day at the lead photo of Coors Field with a storm approaching...........
The Duffle Bag
Ha ha! Derek Jeter is so bad at tanking that he cannot even pick the right year to try and be bad.............Why do these guys even need to advertise? Are they the last outhouse of baseball that fails to read my shit and know how perfect I would be or that gig?.............Juuuuuust a little short............It’s rare that you see a pitcher end up celebrating giving up a home run...........Don’t be messin’ with the ducks!...........Why doesn’t MLB mandate this for all teams as part of the annual Jackie Robinson celebration?..........
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