Thor’sLinks: Felix Fells the Friars

That was a very fine performance by the LAA pitching crew. Felix Pena ran through 6 innings and struck out 7, giving up only 1 run on just 2 hits. The relief corps of Cam Bedrosian, Jose Alvarez and Blake Parker rolled the final 3 innings with 1 other run on just 2 more hits. The Angels managed just enough offense to support that mound effort to snatch a sweep in San Diego. Take it away, Rene Rivera!

Angels take down the Padres 3-2. (Shhh! The Angels have now won 7 of their last 9.)............

Love some Do-The-Four-Step-In-Texas-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News

Shohei must have had a good time yesterday. He drove up from San Diego to Anaheim to throw a more intense bullpen session, then drove all the way back, and ended up pinch-hitting late in a game with an early evening start. Of course, silly you might be wondering why they couldn’t find an unused pitcher’s mound any place in the greater San Diego area?............

A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News

Well, we learned yesterday that Mike has more important things to think about these days than running around centerfield, or worrying about his sore hand. Brother-in-law and ex-Halo minor league prospect Aaron Cox died yesterday morning. At only 24-years old, this has to be a blow to both families..............

Coca-Cola is making a huge investment, buying into Mike Trout.............

A Little Bit Of Angels News

By the time this season ends, will Mike Scioscia end up being the leading MLB manager in bullpenning?............

Billy Eppler and his crew are getting busier and busier as we get late int he year and he wishes to shuffle his talent around. Guys are coming up, and guys are going down.............

Hey, don’t we need another left-handed pitching prospect? Perhaps somebody to be Ohtani’s new roomie?............

Torii Hunter, Jr. is on the rise................

Everywhere In Baseball

The biggest kerfuffle in MLB yesterday was chickenshit Jose Urena choosing to plunk young phenom leadoff hitter Ronald Acuna with the opening pitch of the game. Urena was ejected after his solo pitch. Acuna had to exit shortly thereafter in pain. Apparently, this is all because Acuna is good at his job..............Bill Baer over at NBCSports finds that Urena has some history of being a dick, and good reason to prove that Urena was acting with purpose.............Somehow, ex-MLB guy Keith Hernandez thinks that smacking Acuna with a pitch and risking serious injury is absolutely the right thing that needed to be done. Because, hey, your team keeps losing and this kid keeps succeeding. Or, maybe that’s because Hernandez, over 8,553 trips to the plate in his MLB career, got dinked 32 total times. Once every 262 times. Acuna has seen 289 PA’s, so the kid was overdue............MLB advises that because Acuna was HBP in his only PA, the streak that had Urena so pissy in the first place remains intact............

Umpire Phil Cuzzi is sticking to his guns that (a) he was right to be wrong about his K zone, and (b) he was right to be wrong about tossing Ben Zobrist for discussing how robots need to hurry up and displace Cuzzi............Cuzzi is correct that all the tools that are easily reviewed by we fans (and baseball players) are not the same thing that MLB uses to grade umpires. But that doesn’t mean that the parties grading umpires are independent judges using perfectly accurate data, either...........Joe Maddon had the perfect perspective in arguing with Cuzzi..............

The video game industry digging deeper into the sport of baseball can only help everyone’s fears about connecting to future generations. Except now we will find out that the next generation has decided that gaming is so passe..........Except for anything video baseball, of course. Kids will always love that...........

Speaking of which, fire up The Little League World Series!...........

You know, it occurs to me that an MLB broadcaster cannot be “taken to task on Twitter” if that MLB broadcaster is not on Twitter. Being on Twitter is not like death and taxes or anything. Just leave the twits to chirp at each other and keep on with your own real life..............

Here is a flip. For once the Yankees are taking their cues from the Angels. This time it’s the MFY missing the injury prediction mark concerning Aaron Judge’s injury timeout...........

In this click-bait review of every MLB team’s long-forgotten specific uniform, do you really need to work your way all the way over to find that of the Angels?.............

Adventures in Position Players doing the pitching thing. Sometimes it works out well, and sometimes it doesn’t......But it’s frequent enough by now that we actually have stats!............

Elon Musk is now pitching his snake oil around Chavez Ravine. 2800 riders per game, at $1 per ride each way, works out to be $5600 per game, or $453,600 per season. They didn’t disclose the projected construction or operating costs, but let’s pretend that building it all only costs $1 billion. That’s only 2204 ¹⁄₂ years just to break even at 0% interest. And you need to use 0% interest, because that annual revenue is still 1/20 of 1% interest on a billion bucks. That’s not the kind of returns that Wall Street wants to hear, and Musk is claiming that the service will be turning a profit............

Joe West is now the second-most experienced umpire in MLB history. Why is this supposed to be a good thing? Fans certainly are wondering...........

If you like lawyer things and you want to observe Scott Boras ending up on the wrong side of a decision, and you got enough time, click away and read on............

The Duffle Bag

Jason Grilli, once a Halo, knows that if you build it, they will come..............That’s right kid. That ball’s yours. If Jose Ramirez wants it, he can put on a Reds uni...........Attn. Rob Manfred: bat flips are our future!.............You go Sanchez. Show America why MLB is the bestest of fun............It appears that CBS Sports has hired a new social media intern, fresh from the chalkboards of MIT...........Dee Gordon, chasing history, but in a bad way............Andrew McCutcheon confesses what we have always long suspected. Ballplayers running into the infield when the benches clears is really just for show...............A Kyle Schwarber smash brings real meaning to the term ‘a can of corn’...........