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Nine games. Three each against Minnesota, Seattle and Oakland, in that order. Down Simba and some fraction of Shohei. It would be a most excellent time to shake things up and get hot. I have fun plans for the weekend, but they can made a lot funner be blowing up the Twins.
Have some Let’s-Do-June-Right-Links:
A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News
Good job, MLB. Not having strict regulations on the baseballs and not paying attention to the equipment has now made all the media following Shohei realize that you guys are knuckleheads............
Ohtani’s blister remains a mystery..............
Feel very sorry for AL hitters trying to make a living against this sick stuff from Ohtani..........
A Little Bit Of Angels News
If you are looking for a bullpen fix, it’s gonna cost you some of those shiny Minor League toys you covet. But there are guys to be had right now...........
Who is this Fletcher guy? And has he ever played SS? Or 3B?..........
When forced to think about it honestly, the Angels are causing problems with voting for the 2018 ASG..........
RBI’s may be somewhat unbalanced as an argument for individual prowess, but at least it has been consistently so for many decades. So when Albert Pujols ties Stan Musial for career RBIs it truly will have some level of symmetry............
I really really dig watching EYJ play baseball. He hit .264 last season. How refreshing would that be today?..........
How about some Draft recaps? Here is the whole AL roundup from FanGraphs which has some good things to say about the Halos..........Justin Russo wants you to notice what FG has to say about Cristian Reyes..........Then there is this draftee twitter roundup from Taylor Blake Ward and Brent Maguire?..........#4 Kyle Bradish at work...........#14 Drevian Nelson, signed...........THat #21 Cristian Reyes incoming action..........#23 William Rivera with the lumber...........#34 Paul McIntosh will not be signing...........Finally, hear from Billy Eppler himself as to how his team did...........
The six-man rotation in action, when broken down, continues to line up with our pre-season study and conclusions/prediction...........
Ippei Rookie Cards can be yours!..........
Everywhere In Baseball
No, Corey Seidman writer for NBC Sports Philadelphia, it isn’t stupid MLB that wasted such an excellent throw to the plate by Dylan Cozens. It was the bad leg reach by Andrew Knapp to block Albert Amora that wasted it...........Buster Olney figured it out even before the news was announced.............
Oh my. Logic and reason for why the NL should adopt the DH. This will go over big.............
Nice job, Tampa Bay. Nothing like fritzin’ with the spirit of the law in order to exploit the letter of the law and screw a player - the actual CONTENT of your product - out of 6 years worth of additional money. That’s the kind of thing that will make the Players Union extremely friendly when the CBA comes back around. What has happened to guys like Kris Davis and IS happening with Baby Vlad are shameful. But what the Rays did was disgusting...........
Home runs are down? Don’t blame Mike Trout! That big guys striking out a lot over in New York, though, And that guy in Baltimore certainly is dragging the curve down over the past couple of seasons..........(Seriously, in 2017 Aaron Judge + Giancarlo Stanton + Chris Davis = 137 home runs. So far they total 35.)...........
Buster Olney is up to more tricks for playing with the rules to speed up ballgames.............Maybe he was inspired by the Dodgers?...........
Teams aren’t waiting around for the deadline to start working on franchise improvements. The Royals and the DBacks swapped Jon Jay for prospects..........The Yankees are in the mood for more pitching + The Mets are in the mood to trade away a couple of front line pitchers + Giancarlo Stanton (and his massive contract) has been less than impressive for the MFY = Why not send Stanton from the Yankees to the Mets and get back a Syndergaard or DeGrom in pinstripes? NYC keeps Stanton on case he pans out, and NC gets a WS dynasty in the Bronx............
But as Stanton remains a Yankee, the Bryce Harper market dries up significantly enough that the Nationals remain a prime player to retain him............
Seeing somebody coming out of the Boston organization being busted for PEDs smells normal. Seeing somebody coming out of the Cubs organization being busted for PEDs does not. And both things have happened...........
Canada understands OTT sports broadcasting..........
This is fantastic! State politicians are actually falling for the idea of taking money from taxpayers and handing it over to sports leagues for no other reason than the sports leagues exist! Yep, that’s pretty much the logic behind “they deserve something, because they produce the product” in sports gambling legislation. And I especially like the logic of wanting to forfeit billions of State revenue well into the future, in order to save a few millions in legal fees today...........So hurry up and bet, before MLB figures out how to steal the money you are putting down...........
The Duffle Bag
Hmmm. I suck, therefore I quit..........Cool family moment among the Bregmans of Houston...........Coolest names of the 2018 draft...........Boston fans are stealing the LAA fan invention, “The Light Wave”. And, true to Boston, they manage to screw it up...........Backdoor in Anaheim finds that the Halos are pretty cool people, and so are their families..........