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There are days when I think that my life is hard, having to find some way to excite and interest a fan base when things are not actually going too well. In the offseason, I have no outlet to which I can point and prove that some other poor sap has it harder. But when the season is in session, I can always count on the official LAA home page to bail me out. Those web admins have the unenviable duty of trying to instill fan support and drive actual revenue every single day. And the players and managers are not helping one wit. So we get big ticket links to Albert Pujols getting a base hit because it also included the rare run scoring. Or there was that time when Shohei Ohtani struck out 5 whole, entire members of the Detroit Tiger semi-pro team. Or even that Mike Trout caught a baseball.
LAA web dudes and dudettes, you have every ounce of my empathy.
I would care more about how Andrew Heaney joined the parade of single-inning face-planting pitchers (Skaggs with a 4-run 3rd inning on Monday, Bedrosian tagged for 4 runs in the 6th inning on Wednesday, and Heaney with a 5-run 1st inning yesterday) had the Halos could have been bothered to score more than 1 run against a guy who came into the matchup sporting an ERA of 8.31.
Our Thursday outfield of Justin Upton, Chris Young and Kole Calhoun enjoyed an excellent day off, going a combined 0 for 11. Sound pretty bad, huh? Well, do you know what sounds worse? Justin Upton, the 2017 Detroit Tiger Player Of The Year who batted .294/.387/.587 with 17 home runs in Comerica Park last year, went 1 for 16 in this series. Calhoun and Jefry Marte both went 0 for Detroit......Ian Kinsler, though, he remembered how to play baseball in Detroit. Over the series he went 8 for 10. Which of you shall be the first to give him props?
Today is only June. In fact, it’s only barely June. So much time left to get this crap straightened out. So much potential with which to do it. But losing to a team that wants to lose will certainly be something that will will be brought back up in September.
Have some I-Shall-Pretend-That-None-Of-This-Happened-Links:
A Hell Of A Lot Of Shohei Ohtani News
I happen to think that MLB is doing a pretty credible job of marketing Shohei Ohtani already. But I would think that any argument encouraging MLB to promote him more might also consider how poorly the same institution has failed to market the greatest player of the game of baseball in our time………..
I missed this yesterday. Ohtani’s not returning after the second rain delay was the decision of the medical staff, not Ohtani himself. Considering that this is the same medical staff overseeing one of the largest pools of TJ devastation in recent memory, I applaud their erring on the side of caution. I also find it humorous that Shohei blamed giving up that first inning run on mis-judging whether or not he was ready, all due to the misery of Detroit humidity..........
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
Quiet Trout is still Glorious Trout..........Polite Mike showing respect for his elders...........
A Little Bit Of Angels News
I know this will be hard to believe, coming off a 4-6 road trip that was supposed to be the recovery from a 4-7 home stand, but the LA Angels still rank 7th throughout all of MLB in runs scored. They are 7th in total hits, 4th in home runs, which leads to 7th in SLG and 8th in OPS..........And that is about as much shine as I can put on that..........
Zack Cozart remains day-to-day with forearm tightness. Did you even notice?.........Blake Wood had successful surgery. Good for him and his family. But I see no reason to expect him pitching out of Anaheim in 2020, the time the then 34-year old Free Agent will be healthy enough to try..........
Ladies and gentlemen, Oliver “The Answer” Drake...........
Everywhere In Baseball
All this new-fangled information-rich baseball analysis is rendering managers less meaningful. So should we start talking about ending the Manager Of The Year Award and start considering the Director of Baseball Analytics of the Year Award instead?.........
A reminder that the MLB June Draft is right after this weekend. It starts Monday and runs through Wednesday. Be ready Monday morning with your popcorn……….And the draft is important, because the youth of the draft is where MLB money is rushing towards……….
Now that Memorial Day has passed, and MLB is still going through MLB merchandise selling sprees (free shipping!), guys such as Nick Francona are all over MLB to be far more transparent in how the proceeds of those sales are being distributed to the intended support systems for the causes being honored………..
Let’s have some UniWatch fun……….Grateful Dead Night unis……….The Trenton Thunder Pork Rolls……….
Just to be consistent, it’s not a no-hit bid until you get through the 7th inning. Thus Sayeth The Stirrups……….
We all want to see Vladdie Jr. in the Big Leagues. Badly. The guy is chewing up AAA and spitting it out with impunity. But Grant Brisbee reminds us that the sooner the Blue Jays bring him up, the sooner they will risk losing his MLB career services and the more money he might cost them to keep him around. The economics of Baseball work against the revenue-generating opportunities for Baseball……….
Let’s keep celebrating women’s baseball, because it’s my gig and I will do it if I want to……….Especially living members of the AAGPBL...........
Seriously, Joe Mauer, you need to think harder about elderly ex pro football players and the quality of their lives when you choose to mess around with concussion issues……….
The Diamondbacks just went through an LAA-level crapola of a May. Seriously. Dead last for May in BA and in OBP and in SLG and in OPS. And a lot of that had to do with Paul Goldschmidt. Imagine if we awoke from an entire month of baseball and discovered that Mike Trout had turned into Kole Calhoun?..........
“Oh damn. I guess that since we now have Giancarlo Stanton, we don’t get to have Bryce Harper or Mike Trout. Life is SO unfair!”...........
At some point this Jung Ho Kung return to MLB is going to explode in social media………
If this keeps up injuries are going to require their own Links section. Clayton Kershaw finally made it back from the DL this week, going 5 innings last night. And immediately after those innings he felt tightening, and was whisked back off to the hospital for an MRI of his back..........
The land rush to sports gambling has already begun, with sports broadcasters way out in the lead……….I wonder if the sports leagues are demanding any revenue sharing out of the broadcasting pie, too?..........And on the citizens’ side, here comes Delaware to the rescue. First legal bets can be laid down on June 5th. Maybe there will be a prop bet on whether or not Anaheim fans will like a distressed visor?............
The Duffle Bag
This is why baseball is more fun than football or basketball..........How about my choice, the Amarillo Dead Heat?..........Rules are for sissies...........Gloves are for sissies...........Accepting .500 baseball is for sissies...........