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There are only 3 MLB parks considered to be less friendly to home run hitters than Safeco Field in Seattle. Those would be Angels Stadium (#28), Petco Park (#29) and AT&T Park (#30). Safeco Field is THE most home run unfriendly MLB stadium in any State of the Union not called “California”. One would never know that based on this series. We have had 12 homers in 2 games. 4 by Mike Trout all by his own little lonesome. In fact, the only run that the Angels have scored in the first two games of this series that were NOT the result of a Mike Trout home run, was an Albert Pujols solo home run. It’s possible that it might have been 13 home runs if not for Trout’s defensive heroics.
Angels end up losing 6-3 as 6 guys in the batting order go 0 for 23 against a team that rolled out a starting pitcher with an ERA+ of only 90.
By the way, has anybody else noticed this cute little ‘dirt kicking up’ graphic that MLB GameDay uses when a pitcher throws a pitch into the dirt?
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Also, I am not always wrong in my observations and predictions. Back on May 4th I wrote this: “There are two guys within the LAA franchise that cause me to do double-takes whenever I see them or hear/read mention of them...........The other guy is Jabari Blash. He is just a huge athlete with monster power who seems destined to entertain Minor League Baseball fans for his career. He just gives me the impression of being a .164 pro with 6 HR’s per season at the Big League level, but who will do stuff like this in AAA all the damned time..........” He entered the game yesterday batting .164. He ended the night at .125, but that just means he has another accidental single or two in him before he enjoys his flight back to SLC.
You woke up again, and came back here for more. So deal with these Still-Don’t-Have-Mike-Trout’s-Back-Links:
A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News
I would love to have our offense and bullpen turn things around to the point that the only reason these Angels fail to make the playoffs is because Ohtani got injured..........
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
How many different ways are there to write an article noticing that Mike Trout is entering his prime, therefore is amazing the world with his peak, never-before-seen, brilliance?..........
Matt Snyder loves Mike Trout. But he leaves out one major cause for why Mike is still underappreciated. In my Theory Of Everything, I blame MLB. MLB should be shoving this kid down the throats of even casual fans, everywhere. One could not ask for a better image than the finest all-around talent in decades, who is an unbelievably fan-friendly nice guy, and who does bad-ass things all over a baseball field on a weekly basis.
Manny Acta, bench coach for the Mariners, is not going to listen to all your Mookie Betts crazy talk...........(Yeah, this kind of Mookie Betts crazy talk.).............
That monster home run Mike smashed Monday? He did it with a knee so sore it required X-rays to prove it was OK..........
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Billy Eppler is gutting our farm system, removing the MiLB hit leader David Fletcher from Salt Lake City so that he can warm a bench spot next to Mike Scioscia...........
SportsIllustrated must be publishing their web updates quarterly now. They have noticed that Andrelton Simmons does not strike out much..........
Jo Adell is warming to his campaign with the IE 66’ers. So much that he is picking up national attention...........He jumped 7 places on the FanGraphs Prospect Watch (although that is not good enough to warrant consideration as trending up)...........
Everywhere In Baseball
When some random “baseball exec” is quoted as dissing on Bryce Harper as “overrated”, the editors of SportsIllustrated get totally freaked out at the thought of not getting to add Harper to the(ir) Yankees............
This is the Golden Age of Crappy Teams. Which is warping how the good teams need to measure success as the season progresses. It’s not enough to try to win every series (2 out of 3, or 2 or 3 out of every 4). It’s now critical to maximize the opportunity to collect W’s against the crap teams, THEN focus on winning each series against the legit competitors.............
Wow but didn’t Auburn have a bad time the other night. They gave away 2 runs in a game that ended 3-2 Florida, sending Florida to the CWS. That game-winning run just ruined some future insurance salesman’s “I played D1 baseball” bragging rights forever............
The Diamondbacks and Pirates got into a major beanball war on Monday, and Bob Nightengale revels in the good-old-days machismo. Yeah, Bob, the good old days.............But, really, Bob, if you want gold old day baseball, Mat Latos is keeping it alive and well in the Minor Leagues.................
The trade deadline is July 31. The season ends on September 30. So, for 2 months of rental, are there REALLY enough teams willing to pay Dan Duquette’s price of face-redeeming hoards of prospects just to borrow Manny Machado?............
How does one get credit for making baseball player trades in such a manner that the result outwits statistical fortune in winning 1-run ballgames?.............
Watch out for this trend as it continues over the next decade. MLB wants to own everything. Just think of how much of the sport you possess outside of MLB control, which is a factor in how you (and so many other generations of fans) have been a factor in building the sport...........
At the very moment that I was bummed by Cal State Fullerton getting bounced from the College playoffs, somewhere Jake Lamb was having a fantastic night...........
The Duffle Bag
Mark Trumbo has officially checked out of Orange County..........This is a magic trick, right?............Miguel Cabrera is back (again!) to show us what getting old looks like............Joe Maddon has forgot how to teach baseball..........That throwing of his glove out of frustration that Carson Smith of the Red Sox did to injure himself? It’s now going to cost him the entire season...........Never lose touch with the notion that baseball is supposed to be fun............Sara Grant, Denver Post Editor, must be mistaking the modern news business as her ‘safe space’...........