:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59647293/956245238.jpg.1525839577.jpg)
The Angels did not win last night, but don’t blame the starting pitching. You might not have noticed, but over the last 3 weeks the starters have only tanked a couple of times. The bullpen? Not as strong. Andrew Heaney went 6 innings and gave up only 2 runs. That’s excellent. Dylan Bundy? Not excellent.
No. The Angels lost 4-2. After Heaney hit the showers that Noe Ramirez guy gave up a 2-out walk followed by a 2-out single and ending with a 2-out double. And in the 8th inning Justin Upton homered after Mike Trout walked. And that was it. Zack Cozart stranding 4 runners in a close game didn’t help.
Deal with these Rocky-Road-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
The next bit of tchotchke ( <— that turned out to be a much harder word to spell than I expected) to be found in thrift and antique stores throughout SoCal in 3 years will be the Albert Pujols 3000 hit bobblehead, to be given away June 2nd in case you dearly wish to watch the Texas Rangers attempt to play baseball. But place your order now to reserve yours on eBay............
The highlight of the afternoon in Denver yesterday was Shohei Ohtani taking batting practice. All in attendance were stunned, dashing to their phones to express their amazement. Let’s take a tour.....Stop #1: shock and awe.....Stop #2: upper decks.....Stop #3: upper decks were merely insufficient.....Stop #4: Jeff Fletcher forced to MS Paint to express amazement.....Stop #5: Victor one up’s Fletcher’s MS Paint.....Stop #6: TBW suggests that FOX should make Ohtani’s BP sessions their own TV show.....Final Stop: Brent Maguire lobbying for opening up gates in Anaheim in time for home town fans to witness the show...........
Kole Calhoun. The dude who lost track of whatever magic he had in Tempe and has dedicated the 2018 season to making me look as bad as possible for believing in him............
We now return to Shohei Sundays...........
Justin Anderson: yet another Billy Eppler bullpen miracle............
It’s 2018. This is the 11th season of Major League Baseball that has seen Mike Trout at the Big League level. And, finally, the LA Times is of the opinion that this guy might not be a flash in the pan after all. He might actually be getting better............Not against Max Scherzer, though...........
UniWatch alerts us that although the official promo schedule says that May 12th (Twins) is only Fireworks night, the Angels will be giving away Orange Coast College caps?...........
In Biz News, Comcast is still making waves to threaten Disney from taking over all of the FOX Regional Sports Networks..........
Everywhere In Baseball
May 2nd was the Wednesday before the Angels rolled into Seattle for their 3-game series. It was the day that James Paxton pitched for the Mariners, facing Oakland. He pitched damned well, going 7 innings with 16 strike outs allowing zero runs on 5 hits. Then Paxton went into rest mode and the Halos beat on the Mariners. Then the Angels left Seattle and the Mariners went to Toronto and Paxton went back to the mound. Where he threw a no-hitter. Paxton has now struck out, over his last 6 starts, 10 Ks + 7 Ks + 6 Ks + 10 Ks + 16 Ks + 7 Ks. The Halos dodged a piping hot bullet..............
If you are the Mets, and totally pissed off that Matt Harvey refused to report to AAA to try and regain some form of competency, you then commit yourself to moving him out of the franchise. You look around the landscape to see where would be the very very worst place to dump him. Miami at 13 - 21? Baltimore, maybe, at 8 - 26? Oh hell no. The Cincinnati Reds are only 8 - 27. Harvey goes to the Reds...........
Roberto Osuna, Blue Jays closer, was arrested in Canada for domestic violence assault. He is on leave. And some t-shirt maker in China is enjoying a promo windfall...........
It’s official. The British are welcoming the MLB teams from New York and Boston to London. They will be hosting a pair of games in June of 2019. I suppose that MLB is sorry that we have no teams in Trenton or Yorktown...........
The Ian Kinsler 4-ball not-a-walk-anyway At Bat from last week inspired a full review of the oh-so-many times such things happen. My favorite factoid from that article would be this: “Baseball-Reference’s league splits page for 2018 reports that MLB batters this year have hit .000/.000/.000 with one strikeout on 4-2 counts. That strikeout came courtesy of the Angels’ Ian Kinsler...”............
Torii Hunter, unclear on the concept of launch angle............
Spin rates are now a thing. Well, spin rate increases, anyway. I’ll keep track of this for you. But don’t you hate it when FanGraphs posts a nice MLB chart but refuses to label all the dots so you end up not knowing where your favorite team lies?..........
One more factor in the rise of home runs? An increasing frequency of shitty pitches..........
Deadspin pointed out something that eluded me when I posted to that article reporting on MLB players’ favorite stat. Nobody said “home runs”..........So I wonder what Joey Gallo said?..........
Sports Illustrated, going long on their hope that Mookie Betts will finally be that East Coast guy who is better than Mike Trout..........
Yeah, as I feared. This is going to become more frequent. Thank You Jerry Dipoto, May 8th edition..........
The Duffle Bag
Bullpen carts. Long may the live again. Or (from UniWatch) maybe just get yourself your own. Or maybe two of your own.........$429,625 for a Sandy Koufax game-worn jersey. That’s a record for Dodger merch. But I want to know why the 625 bucks? Really? Was that necessary?? Couldn’t all parties just kinda round up or down or something?...........Tim Tebow ain’t the novelty he once was.....He still gets the hype.....even though he is not doing anything special...........