:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60015841/971860360.jpg.1528676965.jpg)
Mike Trout might be coming back. Two home runs last night was strong. Blame the rest of the team for those being solo shots. I don’t know if his timing is fully back since he missed badly on a 90mph meatball just two pitches before his 2nd homer. But he deserves the faith.
And I don’t know who that was on the mound in the bottom of the 4th. Not Andrew Heaney. That collapse was the ballgame right there, because the not-Trout and not-Pujols bats were anemic yet again.
I know some of you were barking about the strike zone. I dunno. I see LeBlanc getting away with 3 pitches well outside the zone, but what I don’t see is Heaney trying to take advantage of that same gift from that same umpire.
Whatever. The Halos spotted the Mariners the opening game of the set 5-3.
Take these Gotta-Get-Our-Sh!t-Together-Links:
A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News
Yesterday was a freak out day in terms of Ohtani news.
The Morning Editions: Ohtani to have TJ and lost until 2020!!..........It all starts with Pedro Gomez, speaking from his vantage point in the press box of Dodger Stadium......That was chum in the water.....The Bleacher Report picked it up and we were off to the races.....”It’s not good.”.....”Major Buzzkill”.....”Baseball’s best story just took a very dark turn”.....TheSportingNews just erased their entire wrong reporting.....
The Afternoon Editions: Nothing has changed concerning Ohtani health reports and TJ surgery has not been deemed necessary. Yet.....Mike Scioscia had not heard about any change.....Billy Eppler shut it all down hard when the reports were brought back to him.....So like machine gun fire, we got rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat just gunning down the earlier story....And we end up with ‘He’s out. UPDATE: He’s not out. We will know for sure when the Angels announce something for sure.’..........
OK. This story line was pretty ridiculous. But you have a single $100 casino chip. Knowing what you know about the integrity and accuracy of LAA player health reporting, where are you going to park your chip? Do you park it on red (Ohtani avoids TJ) or black (Ohtani needs TJ)?...........The Angels are suggesting that you put your chip on red..........
But, any way you choose to bet, Ohtani has already changed the entire casino............
The downside to being a two-way player is that you burn your rookie status pretty quick..........
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
When the team you privately root for is not the team that enjoys Mike Trout, it’s never a bad time to take advantage of your player/executive media access and stir up the pot with the Mike-Trout-will-someday-be-a-possibility-for-my-secret-team game..........
Trout had a bad week. So bad that the MLB field he had threatened to lap in fWAR is, instead, catching up, because Trout is jogging backwards to meet them.....So for his weekly review, let’s review his fluffy little dog. Mike could destroy me on a baseball field, but the Cairn Terrier in my house would use his little fluff ball for teeth cleaning. (Keeping score in the Stirrups household, that terrier has fallen 2 possums, 1 squirrel, 4 rats and a bird. Also, he has sent one of my other dogs to the emergency room 3 times for nearly $1000 in vet bills. All in 20 months time. And, yet, he’s adorable. My son, his owner, warned us that while we babysit him we need to keep him away from large dogs because he is quick to go into attack mode. He wasn’t kidding.).........
Last night, history made. Remember, Bryce Harper was supposed to have been the better prospect............
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Jaime Barria is back. Like, duh. But this time we might expect him to stick around.............
I thought we already announced 5th round draftee William English agreeing to a deal?..........
Everywhere In Baseball.....Because Baseball Is The Greatest!
You people who have been sitting across the street from Wrigley Field for decades watching the game from rooftops without being forced to suffer commercials? Yeah, you. Those of you who helped make the lore of the Lovable Losers what it has been as a national media darling. The U.S. Supreme Court has no love lost for you...........Oh, and for the rest of us, the U.S. Supreme Court is also happy to allow Baseball to carry on as a Congressionally protected monopoly..........
Eternal blessings to the player who demonstrates that easing up on the power in order to gain bat control and plate discipline can actually make you a more productive hitter. In this case, that player would be Scott Schebler..........
Eduardo Escobar had a pretty good week. But he was having a better week before the Angels arrived in town. his slash line actually dropped through the LAA 3-game series..........
If you are a member of the MLB Competition Committee, and somebody asks you the question: ‘Are you in favor of outlawing shifts?’, and you answer ‘yes’, you should be permanently removed from the MLB Competition Committee. But, sadly, we do have such people who sit on such a committee and they are sitting around thinking about such stuff even as you read this..........
But look, Committee Member person, if you wish to study how the game itself remains competitive going forward, consider phoning Nick Elams. I really like some of his ideas. Especially using a robo ump to create a variable strike zone. Computers can do that, quite easily. Encouraging batters to put the ball in play is a most excellent idea. It’s what the sport was always supposed to be about...........
If Giancarlo Stanton to the Yankees makes it more likely for Bryce Harper to stay in Washington, wouldn’t Manny Machado to the Phillies make it more likely for Mike Trout to stay in Anaheim?..........
Forbes: ‘Jeter who?’..........
This one’s for you, red. Baseball and Project Main Street, to raise money and awareness of ALS everywhere..........
The Duffle Bag
Wow. Almost as long as I have been following Major League Baseball at all, this guy has been working as the A’s equipment manager..........IHOP changed their name for a day, as a promotion. The Phillies social media mavens chose to troll the restaurant chain. And I now have a GIF that will be useful to mock the Phillies every year that they hit their ‘failed to make the playoffs again’ date..........Tampa Bay Rays social media mavens did much better with their troll job. Target; Blue Jays. Accuracy: bullseye..........Young boys learn early that size really does matter..........Let us not mis-interpret the definition of the word ‘trot’..........