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The last time that Nick Tropeano went 7 innings was May 18, 2016. That was against the Dodgers, in a blowout win. No, wait. Let me restate that. The ONLY time that Nick Tropeano EVER went 7 innings was May 18, 2016. Since then he has had TJ surgery and missed the back half of 2016, then ALL of 2017. And he went back onto the DL this year in June. Since coming off the DL he has had only one start. Yesterday was only his second start, and it came just 5 days after his first.
So, sure, with a 4-run lead on an afternoon where it would be in the 90’s out on the field and with 60% humidity in the air, and the home plate umpire Gerry Davis just had to remove himself before he passed out, let’s run Trop out and see if he has 7 innings in him. That sounds like a prudent course of action. That home run by first batter Avisail Garcia? An accident. That next home run by the very next batter Danial Palka? Another anomaly. Neither of those guys have any real power. See? Look. Leury Garcia just struck out. Everybody sit back down. Nicky Delmonico is up and he has but 1 home run all year...erp...make that 2 home runs all year. Well, shit me.
Hey, that’s OK. In our next at-bat we have this Francisco Arcia kid old man. It’s his debut game. So he’s due. He’ll get us those runs back. That’s how smart I am.
How about a shout out to Justin Upton for getting a base hit even though there were runners - not just on base, BUT IN SCORING POSITION! TWICE!! Those are only the second and third times that has happened since the All-Star Break.
And for more fun, a Walk-IN Little League home run for Andrelton Simmons. Technically, it was ruled a triple and an error, but I would have ruled it a single, then a two-base error (fielding) on Leury Garcia, and then another error (throwing) on shortstop Tim Anderson.
Angels win a barn-burner, 12-8. And now we get another one of those seems-like-every-other-series matchups with Seattle, now losers of ten out of their last sixteen. Three games at home with a solid chance to knock the Mariners out of 2nd place and their playoff spot before hitting the airport for Tampa Bay and Cleveland next week.
-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News
Shohei hosted the Japanese National Volleyball team yesterday, who are in town for matchup tonight against the US Women’s team at Tustin High School. And I am like, really? A high school for a venue for two national power houses?.............
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
Somebody in the MLB Front Office got a memo, and MLB is pimping Mike Trout. Just checkout this headline: Must C: Trout thrills fans............Yeah, Albert, what’s it like playing alongside a living legend?..........
Mike has a couple more IBB’s yesterday. So milestones are starting to come into view. He just became the AL’s 4th ever 20 IBB + 20 SB guy.....And he is closing in an Vladdie’s franchise single season records..........He also just claimed his 5th 20/20 season as a pro..........
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Maldo Moves. Imagine going to bed one night with the memories of having been backstop for some guy named Deck McGuire, on a team plummeting towards last place in a lost season, and then waking up knowing that you will soon be catching Justin-fucking-Verlander and are odds on to be in the ALCS at least, or swimming in champagne while dancing with the WS trophy as a very strong probability, Thus is the interesting life of Martin Maldonado. The only down side is that there are something like 10 head-to-head games left in this season where Maldy might be challenged to try and throw out a Mike Trout stealing second base.............For his part, Maldonado leaves as a class act. Go have fun, Maldy, but leave us in peace with our wounds, please..........
In other news, Billy Eppler tried to slip Oliver Drake through the waiver wire yesterday. Didn’t work. Toronto claimed him. One less middling middle reliever to blow things up.........Adios Ben Revere. You guys probably forgot we had him, what with all the Jabari Blash excitement..........
If Eppler has hung out the For Sale shingle, it didn’t take long for Boston to rush to see all the puppies in the window..........
Yesterday you people were chatting about Jeff Fletcher and his relationship with the franchise and fans. I blame social media. The dark side of twitter is having to deal with a steady stream of ill-informed aphorisms. “Bad decision to trade within division. IMO.” No, Mark Scelfo, that ain’t your opinion. That’s what you heard on TV back when you watched Game Of The Week on Saturdays as a kid. Probably from Joe Garagiola or some such..........
Everywhere In Baseball
Stop me is you have heard this before. Stephen Strasburg is hurt again. Man, this is a guy that every franchise would have drooled to have, but the only team that gets to keep him warming a bench spot is the MLB DL’s.............
Some people cant help but dive deep into the physics of breaking a bat over one’s knee. I don’t care about the math. None of the math makes it hurt any less..........
Aaron Judge’s assualt on America’s MLB strikeout records is taking a sabbatical. At 387 career K’s (in a little less than 2 season’s worth of games) Judge is just 47 away from Tony Gwynn’s career total of 434 acquired over the course of 20 years......Joe Dimaggio, in a 13 season career spread over 16 years (interrupted by 3 years of military service) struck out only 369 times, so young Aaron is going to treble up on Joltin’ Joe.....Yona Moncada, Joey Gallo and Giancarlo Stanton will now have to go it alone as they chase Mark Reynold’s all-time single season mark of 223.
A Tale Of Two Cities: Seattle has lost the emerald luster of a magical lucky hot streak.....And the Oakland is now making the AL West green with envy as that magical hot streak has migrated south to bless the A’s..........
Credit where credit is due. If Khris Davis fails to win AL Player Of The Week, something is crooked. The guy already had 6 home runs over his last 4 games. 4 of those HR’s came in the first 3 games of this week. Last night he added a game-opening RBI single, giving him 11 for this week so far with a weekend to go............
Go ahead. Just try and convince me that any other American sport creates a fan such as this fine young spirit...........
Position players pitching, the amazing extension to the bullpenning revolution over which we are standing at the brink. Expect Rob Manfred to get his panties all twisted about this and proposing rules changes by 2020..........
Why wait for the deadline to shake everything up? Trades are happening all over the place. This certainly is a lot more frenetic than last winter. Bigger news than the Astros plugging their catching depth hole was the Yankees adding J.A. Happ to their starting rotation. We are done with the MFY this year so I don’t care. but maybe this makes Boston freak out, which I would like to see very much. (Which is why I love seeing the Orioles mess with Boston over rain delays. See more on this below.)........ Right after benefitting the White Sox and shutting down the Halos for two losses, the Brewers took Joakim Soria clean out of the American League. (which might block the Matt Harvey rumor).........And the Cubs did the same with Cole Hamels...........A full tracker is here..........
All this horse trading is only going to end up making this worse for the divide between the haves and the have nots. Economics, tanking, New World FO strategies, they are all changing the game far faster than Rob Manfred can deal with. Pitch clocks are a misdirection. What we need is a punitive system. We don’t have a junior circuit, so relegation is off the table for those who choose to go to the extremes at the bottom, but there should be some other option out there that removes the incentives not to compete, which have been validated by the Cubs and Astros............Imagine, for example, how a team as loaded with talent as the Nationals could cause competitive balance problems if they choose to become sellers and dump top talent into what would then become a buyer’s market..........For example, how about the Nats trade Bryce Harper to the Astros???...........
So when Disney puts those 22 Regional Sports Networks up for sale, as required by the DOJ, who would be the buyers? That is one sticky question..........
The Duffle Bag
The Orioles found a way to really really piss off the Red Sox: call a game after a rain delay and erase home runs by 3 of their guys.............No sense is trying to be more clever than this straightforward headline: Fan hit by metal debris from Wrigley scoreboard — but at least he was wearing a bucket on his head..........A mystery baseball card Santa Claus is at work in Greece, New York...........(from UniWatch) The Midland Rockhounds, which is a Minor League affiliate of the Oakland A’s, no less, loves the Halos. So much they are doing a Midland Angels throwback event...........Major MLB scout dumping on the super crappy Orioles. Imagine how the fans must feel. This is one of our historic franchises..........Instant Replay can’t fix stupid. Not when Instant replay IS the stupid..........