WeekEnd HaloLinks: Another Half of Trout+Ohtani!

Here we go. CTRL+ALT+DEL on the season and reboot for the second half. Nothing to lose, no matter how many losses, really. In some ways, it’s all lined up for good times. I wanna have fun, and do a couple of months of real live baseball while we got ‘em. Whose in?

Let’s get back in the saddle with a plethora of Welcome-To-Anaheim-You-Fruit-Of-The-Tanking-Houston-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News

Shohei Ohtani had his planned Thursday checkup, and came out of it cleared to start throwing again. It’s a usual and customary progression plan, with an end possibility of Shohei re-taking the mound this season.........

Could Ohtani get back to the mound in time to re-open the buzz for him to be a RoY consideration?...........

Shohei is doing just fine living a normal life in SoCal............

A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News

Those who have never lived through an earthquake here in California might not be familiar with the reality that the main event is never the only event. The way things actually work, there is the shock, and then a series of diminishing aftershocks. Aftershocks can last days. This is where we are with Manfred/Trout now. Diminishing aftershocks. Twitter is serving as a platform for fans to mull over the silliness of the Commissioner’s instinct: Bam! Pow! Zap! Smack! Crush!.........Scribes put even more thought into it. And the more reasoning that goes into the concept.....the more that those who have access to all sides have to think about it.......the weaker that Manfred’s theories look...........And then there is Jeff Fletcher, who is the guy who actually asked the question that triggered Manfred’s unforced error. The fundamentals underlying why Manfred’s take was so wrong completely eluded Fletch. And it looks like he remains...er...eluded..........

Hahahaha!! SportsIllustrated asked the All-Stars who they hate to battle. Only Ross Stripling hates to face Mike Trout. That’s because Trout has hammered all these other guys right out of All-Star consideration (sort by HR)! For his part, Mike Trout said Chris Sale. Chris Sale? This Chris Sale?...........

Mike doing more than his part to connect with the next generation of fans............

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Kole Calhoun is doing just fine with his new stance, and it shows.........It should be one of our interesting stories of the second half...........

Just a friendly reminder, everyone. With this back half of the season and the race to October, we are now on the last lap of Mike Scioscia’s 10-year contract..............

Everywhere In Baseball

Rob Manfred is opening up about expansion. The current list of ideas are Portland/Vegas/Charlotte & Nashville. Or, internationally, Mexico/Vancouver/Montreal. Now, I feel for Charlotte and Nashville. But isn’t the major problem with realignment proposals that there are not enough teams West of the Mississippi to create meaningful regions and travel fairness?........

Ted Williams, Mexican-American from San Diego. Did you know that?............That documentary includes never-before-seen color film of Williams’ last career MLB game...........It’s funny. I am an old guy, but not old enough to remember Williams as a ballplayer. I knew him as an ex-ballplayer. And that was only because I really only knew him as the spokesperson for Sears sporting equipment. Fishing and hunting gear, mostly. Busloads of commercials. “A man’s man” sort of public image...........

At the same time that MLB can’t figure out how to engage the next generation - after turning off the main channels of social media connection to those generations - British baseball fan Joey Mellows is working hard using social media to try and rope in baseball fans from back in Britain...........

Does Jon Heyman not know that people use the Internet clothing optional?..........

The last 3 ASG’s have been on the coasts. They have been the 3 lowest viewed games, too (the 2018 game held even with the 2017 numbers). They need to get the venue back to the Central time zone...........

It seems to be turning into a traditional in Washington to have players complain about how the manager is handling the pitching staff............

Oakland hashing up the playoff race? Nah. It’s Oakland. Their shit don’t work in the regular season. (Newbie baseball fans are not forgiven for failing to understand the meaning behind that last sentence.)...........

Sports is getting gambling. So sports gambling is getting TV coverage............

SportsBusinessDaily seems to stuck in their TARDIS. Either they are 18 months behind today’s date, or they are from 3 years in our future. The current CBA is in place. It was put into place in 2017 and runs through 2021. So, while I get that the Players’ Union woke up and realized that they shit their own bed when it came to the basic economics in this last deal (worrying more about personal luxuries, remember?), any looming tension in talks is still years away for those of us living in 2018............

Cleveland went big. They acquired “closer” Brad Hand and “setup” Adam Cimber from the Padres, at the cost of Francisco Mejia. Who is Mejia? Think Jo Adell, but even better of a prospect. For two bullpen arms. Considering how volatile bullpen pieces can be - remember that this is the same Cleveland bullpen that was the MLB bullpen beast just months ago and now has the same pen as the biggest weakness - this looks like a deal where I give Eppler 2 points for NOT doing it..........And then we have the Padres, about to be a huge thorn for the Dodgers in the NL West............

The Dodgers, who took the rental risk plunge when they picked up Manny Machado, actually surrendered more to Baltimore than I expected. Prospects are merely prospects, but the O’s got more potential back for 2 ¹⁄₂ months of Machado’s work than they would have got last Winter, so good for them. Not having made the trade last Winter, the window will always be open for conjecture that they could have gotten more. We will never know that. But I hope we do learn that the Orioles return to being the team that plagues Boston and New York real soon.............

The Duffle Bag

The future home of Rangers losses is making progress sucking up the civic dollars away from Arlington public improvements.........Josh Hader made the All-Star team, so his friends and family got copies of his ASG jersey and went to Washington. Then, as the Hader crap blew up the Internet during the actual game, off came the jerseys!.....And more............The next time you hear or see or read something where athletes and journalists look down their noses at fan-based sports blogs, just remember that there exists WFAN...........