TuesdoLinks: Halos Muck Up Make-up

The Angels clearly did not like that early flight to Kansas City for an early game. The Royals ran out relief pitcher Brad Keller, a kid converted to a starter and in only his 5th career start. Prior to this month he had never thrown more than 3 innings. Prior to yesterday he had not lasted more than 6 innings. Yesterday he went 7, allowed only 2 hits and 2 walks against 6 K’s against a Fletcher-less lineup. Gotta protect Luis Val-no-buena striking out over there at 3B).

Mike Scioscia did plugged Fletcher into the game veeery late as a PH for Kole Calhoun in RF (I have to wonder if Adalberto Mondesi would have tried going 1st to 3rd in the 8th inning on the ball hit to RF had Calhoun been playing that position and Fletch had been playing 3B.) Anyway, who woulda guessed? Fletch immediately made it to 1B on HBP, stole second base, went to third on a Maldonado infield ground out, and then watched helplessly as Chris Young did his Chris Young thing of striking out, and Ian Kinsler ended the inning with another infield grounder. The old Scioscia lives on, indeed. All it takes is exciting and eager youth to bring it back out of him. It kinda gives me chills in the spine to think about all the talent coming up in our farm system and what kind of shredding they may take trying to break through once they get to SLC.

This LAA roster looked a lot more formidable on the day that this game was supposed to be played, so luck remains a cold and cruel bitch in 2018. Halos lost that weather, then lost that roster, and lost the make-up game yesterday with a feeble 0-2 score, 3 hit outing as Luis Val-no-buena ends the baby rally in the 9th with Fletcher in the hole.

Tyler Skaggs went 7 innings and gave up a single run, scattering 7 hits against 8 K’s. The halos need to apologize to him for wasting his day.

Slurp up these Wither-Young-Talent-Links:

A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News

When you have a trailblazing two-way player such as Ohtani, and Ohtani is going through rehab, the Angels become the trailblazing two-way player rehab experts...............

A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News

SportsIllustrated must be feeling a little bit ashamed over one of their writers dog-piling onto the lazy lump of ‘wasting Mike Trout’ articles. So they give us Trout Porn to make up for it (gotta scroll down).............

I want Trout to get over his finger sprain and out of the DH. I want him back on track for his best season ever. Because it’s only the second in a row of what should be a half dozen possible greatest seasons ever played..........

Trout’s finger sprain definitely cooled his jets for the week. (Haven’t we all sprained a finger at least once? Anybody sprain a finger that did NOT need a splint, yet still have that sprain more than a week later?) But that didn’t keep Mike Trout Monday from rehashing an old stat of awesomeness..........

Mike IS cleared to throw again, though..........

A Little Bit Of Angels News

We got prospects. And we got Prospect Updates. Baldoquin is still not moving any radar needles. I know, right?.............Kevin Maitan is batting .325 with an OPS of .786 with Orem across 9 games so far. That is 4th-best on the team..........

Everywhere In Baseball

International bonus money went down this past year. Blame new CBA restrictions, where current MLB players negotiated away financial opportunity for non MLB players. But don’t blame the Angels, as the article wants to do with Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani was the one who chose to come over early and take the under-market contract..............

Feel blessed, fellow Halo fans! We are now close enough to the end of the Albert Pujols deal that it is no longer considered the very worst contract in all of MLB..........Of course, there have long been contracts that

It’s good to be $1. Top overall pick Casey Mize signed for $596,300 under slot value, and STILL racked up a record $7.5 million bonus..........

Justin Verlander is now on the Jered Weaver back-end-of-the-career arc. Soft fly balls all over the place..........

As I type this, the Cubs have 1 more win than the Angels. And they also have a decrepit bullpen. And they also play in one of the few legit divisions. And they are highly mercurial, just like the Angels. And unlike ours, their outlook is not to panic. I helps a lot to be playing in a league where that many wins puts you up in the WC race..........

When compiling a list of one’s ultimate fantasy Home run Derby contestants, you know you have problems as an event organizer when so many marquee players announce ahead of time that they will top out and the best guy you got left is tied for 6th-best HR tallies on the season..........

Today’s argument for why we have a need for the universal DH rule..........

Rhys Hoskins plays for the Phillies. They are in Philadelphia. Where Philadelphia fans live. Rhys Hoskins needs to toughen up. Mike Trout needs to pay attention.............

Hrmm. Best Weeks of the Season and Evan Gattis ain’t even in the Top 15...........Nut notice the featured players of the article, Paul Goldschmidt and Mike Trout. This month alone those two players put up efforts on successive weeks that have been among the very best in this millennium..........

Game 1 of the CWS has been moved to tonight. Postponed due to bad weather............

In Media News: Pay attention to this one. Coming to all corners of the connected sports world near you will be Stadium..........And now that AT&T and Time Warner are One, AT&T could be going after the Cubs in a big way..........FanRag is dead. Well, dying at least. Jon Heyman survives, moving up to new parent FanCred. Which goes to show how networking is powerful. Go Boras!............

The Duffle Bag

Oh rapture. David Ortiz now in the FOX Sports studio all the time. With Pedro Martinez on MLB Network, and John Farrell on ESPN, is there any outlet left without a red Sox POV to smush in our face?..............The only good thing to come out of social media is the honesty of a franchise social media maven trolling another franchise. Case in point, Tampa Bay Rays smoking the MFY. And without remorse.........We live in a world where some people are looking for a cause to feel outraged, and leverage the modern media power at their fingertips. I, for one, welcome my Staten Island Pizza Rat overlords. But then, that’s me. I seek the humor in things.........Athletes take off their clothes for ESPN. Also, some baseball players..........I always hate to read about how a baseball player will find some slight to give them “extra motivation” and power them to success. What, you could so that all the time but cannot be bothered?............Any bingo chart where Mike Trout ends up as the bench-warmer for the Durham Bulls is obviously jacked up..........LAA Farm System at work, people...........When announcers have the balls to be honest...........Curtis Granderson pulls the hidden ball trick...........