HumpLinks: Troutless Halos Ward Off Punchless Padres

It’s fun to be playing a team that is so bad they make the Angels look like the contender they were supposed to be.

David Fletcher was 2 for 5, but Justin Upton was 3 for 5 and yet another home run. I would have used his photo for today, too, but there was this Taylor Ward kid in his first MLB game getting a base hit in his first ever MLB at-bat, and an RBI to boot. Ward ended up going 2 for 3 with a walk, driving in 1 run and scoring another. Welcome to The Show, Taylor!

In case you missed it, Ward is wearing jersey #3. That number has not been worn since way back to the time when Ian Kinsler was on board. What a way to close the books. (Prior to that it was Danny Espinosa. And then you walk back through a lot of names, some famous, until you get to meaningful contributors in Mickey Rivers in 1970-1971, and Rick Reichardt in 1965-1970. Admittedly, Orlando Palmiero gave us 3.7 bWAR over the late =90’s and early 00’s, but it took 8 seasons to do that.)

Jaime Barria was back on track going 5 innings and giving up only 1 run against 7 strikeouts. Mike Scioscia then burned through 5 relief pitchers over the final 4 innings, so we need to watch that. And Shohei Ohtani came in as a late-inning pinch-hitter and dew a walk, then stole second base. Oh, and an Eric Young, Jr. RBI triple! Always fun.

All this is happening without Mike Trout. Amazing, isn’t it? Thank you, San Diego! Angels win 7-3...........

Dig these We-Should-Do-Padres-Baseball-All-The-Time-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News

There is nothing further to report on Mike Trout. He remains non-uniform. In Halo speak, that means that something major has happened but we will not be getting wind of it.............

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Just a reminder: Mike Trout is wasting Kole Calhoun.............

Since the Angels physically moved Taylor Ward to San Diego on Monday, but did not select him in order to activate him until Tuesday, does this mean that Ward was AWOL from the Bees?..........Ward took jersey #3. That was pretty quick. #3 was Kinsler’s jersey number...........

Taylor Skaggs and Andrew Heaney are candidates for AL Comeback Player of the Year Award? Shouldn’t they just hang onto the next couple of years for that one and hand it to the entire franchise for 2020??..........

I don’t want to wish ill on anyone, but I sure hope that newly acquired Odrisamer Despaigne gets flipped to some other team soon so that I don’t have to type ‘Odrisamer Despaigne’ all the time..........

Everywhere In Baseball

Yasiel being a Puig again. It’s a good thing that the Dodgers are not down in third place and fighting to climb back into the playoff picture. That would be really stupid for Puig to get himself suspended if that were the case...........

Brandon McCarthy is trying to work his way back from the DL in time to pitch again come September. And a few weeks after that, Brandon McCarthy will be retired.........

Baby Vlad is chasing a .400 season. Too bad he ain’t good enough to play for the going-no-where Blue Jays. (Thank you, Tony Clark!).............

Ronald Acuna is blowing up Baseball. We should pay attention. We haven’t seen this kind of miraculous young talent since Mike Trout. But we really need to get Acuna on the Phillies before they go thinking about stealing Mike away...........

Ben Zobrist casts his vote for robo umps. He gets canned for it, but at least his vote is out there! But everybody else? Catchers, pitchers and hitters are all gonna hate it..........

Trevor Bauer picked a shitty time to end his season. The Indians are a playoff team.........

Robinson Cano is back from his PEDs sabbatical. The Mariners get to resume enjoying whatever they can get out of their juice machine. But his contract will always be out there dragging them down..........

The hardest part about living in New York City is that you are surrounded by Yankee fans. And even the Yankee sports media can’t handle it. They, too, tire of hearing from fans whining that the playoff format within which we have lived for years is unfair to the Yankees...........

Thus ends one of the longest-running memes on Halos Heaven..........

A really nice historical photo essay on Baseball in Mexico..........Speaking of Latin ballers, Derek Jeter is instituting beyond baseball educational programs for his minor leaguers, including Spanish lessons...........Equally nice, an interview on UniWatch with the artist who specializes in historical baseball players..........

One thing Jeter is not going to try and change, though, would be sharing the merchandise revenue for MiLB teams with the MiLB players who promote them. Last year sales were $70.8 million...........

Sometimes a team is too tough to watch even for the broadcasters paid to watch professionally..........

A reminder that the Little League Word Series kicks off tomorrow. Going on now is the Pony League World Series, which is for 14-year olds. The worst season I ever had in youth baseball was as a 14-year old. I was Jeff Mathis bad. The year before I finaished one base hit away from a perfect .666 batting average. But my 14-year old season was an abomination. Across the entire season I recorded only 17 official at-bats, and struck out only once, in my final Plate Appearance of the season against a knuckleball pitcher. But my OBP was Troutian. I could draw walks and HBP like none other, and I ran the bases like a mad man. I think I led the league in walks and stolen bases. But I can’t tell you how strange it was that I would smack a deep line drive to some outfield gap only to find some ignoramus playing totally out of position and right there to make the play. It wasn’t the shift. It was a lucky mistake. Well, the reason I relate this is because that was the year - 1971 to be exact - that some of my friends and teammates made the 14-year old Orange Pony All-Star team, and ended up winning the whole thing. I picked the wrong year to suck..........

Bow down before your new media overlord. DirecTV will soon become the largest single streaming service on the planet..........

The Duffle Bag

Baseball is a team sport. So is being a baseball fan............How about an old-timey grab with an old-timey glove?............Or how about an old-timey grab the truly old-timey way, with your cap?.............Nice catch, kid, but next time think about catching it BEFORE it nearly takes off your mom’s noggin............Share and share, alike...............Wally Joyner is living large, my friends..........Cute find, reddit user...........