:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/61044785/1024913090.jpg.1535421664.jpg)
Nobody saw more action last night than Mike Scioscia. 6 pitchers saw exactly 1 inning of work apiece, with only Taylor Cole getting to return to the mound for 3. That’s a lot of paperwork for Skipper Sosh, so it’s a good thing that the offense wasn’t too bothered to be involved and not much keeping track of things like baserunners and run scoring was necessary.
They did eke out 6 singles. Well, let’s be more transparent. David Fletcher was responsible for 3 of those ekes, Andrelton Simmons snagged 2 more, and Eric Young, Jr. smacked 1. Everybody else did pretty much nothing worth mentioning.
Angels lose 3-2 and Anaheim sleeps again.
We-Are-Down-To-An-Elimination-Number-Of-14-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News
I missed this yesterday, but Shohei joined Babe Ruth and Jimmy Ryan in the MLB record books. So we have Ohtani pitching great in game sims, and launching scuds as a DH. Why do I feel as if it’s only the LAA coaching staff that is having all the fun of watching Ohtani as a two-way player?.........
It was a big day for Ohtani. Deadspin dumped on all the doubters (who, let’s be honest, are the envious among the other 29 teams that Shohei jilted at the Alter of Franchise Selection) and declared that, yes, Ohtani is the real deal.............
Matt Clapp of The Comeback went back and dug up the old doubting-Thomas scouting reports, and laid them bare naked in wrongness..........
Then, Ken Rosenthal wrote up for The Atlantic a piece that pokes Shohei right back at the top of the RoY discussions..........So MLB Network didn’t want to be caught idling (again)...........
And Baseball Reference started to slobber over Ohtani factoids again..........
And then he took a seat on the bench. Because Colorado starter Kyle Freeland throws baseballs using his left hand. And those 60 At Bats in 2018 have proven that Ohtani will never be able to hit left-handed pitching, right?.........So that will teach him not to get pissy about shitty umpires. (h/t to reddit for that one).........
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
Stuff..........
A Little Bit Of Angels News
We can’t even lay claim to Most Average Team in Sports. But we got damned close..........
We we CAN lay claim to is having the 2018 edition of the Halos requiring the largest team photo in history. And, no, Sosh is the same size he was last year............
You blinked, and Taylor Cole was recalled. He donated 3 innings and zero runs, only 1 hit against 2 K’s...........
Hmmm. So Noe Ramirez was the first player in LAA history to record a save one night, and then start the very next game. That implies that this has happened for other teams already?..........
Patrick Sandoval is blazing his way through what used to be the lost wilderness of the LAA farm system. Now that system is respectable, and Sandoval blazes anyway, and in the general direction of Anaheim..........
La Verne is yet another suburb that melts into the SoCal landscape, one of those places known only because or our rampant need to paste signs proclaiming that 2975 E Foothill Blvd. is stupendously more exciting than 175 W Foothill Blvd. (those two are, in fact, just feet away from each other). It sits about 16 miles north of Angels Stadium, and was the focal point of a 4.4 earthquake last night at 7:33PM. That constitutes what we consider to be merely a ‘light’ quake in our terms. So it’s California, and the show must go on..........
This came up in the comments section yesterday, so I went and played a little game. David Fletcher had a brilliant ST, but didn’t make the 25-man roster for Opening Day. This was much to the dismay of yours truly, but then I am not the future Hall Of Fame manager who makes such decisions. between March 29th and June 12th, Luis Valbuena saw actin in 52 games and had 173 At Bats. He batted .231 / ,287 / .364 with an OPS of .651. He was worth roughly 0.0 fWAR. On June 13th Fletcher made his MLB debut. In 212 At Bats he is batting .269 / ..311 / .363 with an OPS of .675. he has been worth 1.4 fWAR. True enough that they play different positions and this is not a reliable flip, but had Fletcher found a way to snag those Valbuena AB’s, at the rate he is going he would have roughly 2.5 fWAR. And just take a guess where that would place him among AL Rookies in 2018?..........
Everywhere In Baseball
Reminder that there is a new trade deadline approaching this Friday. Dudes moved after the 31st are ineligible for the playoffs............
Consider first that there was once a time when it was yet to be decided where a manager might choose to park his defenders around the field of play. And consider also that, until some better than horrible locations coalesced into the commonplace, names were not commonly assigned to the players commonly parked in those regions. Eventually, we did get consistency in defensive alignment and we did get fixed names for the defenders assigned to those locations. But none of this really became cast in stone until people got serious enough about the sport to commence recording games. Those, mostly, were statisticians. These days, as the game evolves, it’s statisticians that are mostly upset about how things like the shift are warping the ledger books...........
Sticking with stats, The Mothership wants to rope you into the fun of Championship Leverage Index as a way to add fun to your pennant chase window here at the tail end of the regular season. For the record, the LAA cLI = 0.00..........Oh, and while you enjoy the pennant races, guess which team has the 3rd most difficult remaining schedule because they will be playing exclusively in the AL West? That’s right. From here on out the Angels have only 3 games against the White Sox, and everything else against our own division. 17 of those games are against playoff contenders.........
Maybe Bob Costas would like a daily blogging gig?..........
The Naked Gun is not the greatest baseball movie ever made, but it still has a great backstory..........
Grant Brisbee woke up yesterday morning still high, and had himself one hell of a good time writing his baseball column..........
Some of the best ballparks ever conceived are those that were never built. My favorite is the domed stadium proposed for the Brooklyn Dodgers. A decade ahead of the Astrodome, had it been built it would have delayed the movement west of Major League Baseball and we might not have the Angels here in Anaheim...........
Is this part where I am supposed to shed tears over the injury struggles of the Oakland starting rotation, or over the extended absence of Aaron Judge?. Sorry, but nobody gets to whine about injuries this year. Not if they are not the Halos...........
Oh, did I say injuries? Maybe we should build a relative scale. We can call it The Tulo Index..........
Hey, Thor, it’s not how hard you throw, or how wicked your stuff is. It’s what happens to your meatballs that counts..........
Managers have almost no impact on outcomes. Just ask anybody, especially around here. But don’t ask the Cardinals Front Office. They seem to feel otherwise, the silly fools..........
With 9 players on the field, how is it possible that there are only 17 different kinds of triple plays? Well, there’s not, actually, but those are Sam Miller’s faves...........
Most of you already know this, but it bears covering so that everyone is on board. Baseball used to be all about bats made from ash trees. Now it’s all about maple trees. About 75% of all bats are now made from maple wood............
Baseball scouting is a long, boring, and tedious profession. That promotes imaginative prose, just to maintain sanity..........
The Nationals were gracious enough to survey their fans on preferred starting times for home baseball games. That seems revolutionary. But when you learn that the fans chose to keep the start times as they are, which is pretty much what they are everywhere, you suspect that maybe this is something that baseball teams possibly did decades ago already. As in, gee, maybe we should pick the time that happens far enough after work that the fan can get to the ballpark, but not so late that they cannot stay through the whole game?..........
With college football upon us, don’t forget that Kyler Murray, QB for the Oklahoma Sooners, is actually also an Oakland Athletic..........
“The following extra point is being brought to you by the Jags minus one.” Or not. I envision a day when sports betting info will be on a premium streaming feed for baseball games, as a chiron scrolling along the bottom of your viewing experience..........
The Duffle Bag
This is a growing thing. It needs to keep growing. If you are a grown-up who scores a foul ball, thereby blocking the joy of many nearby kids, your penance is to chug your beer...........It’s fast becoming a sub-sport of MLB to wonder how the Astros are pushing the envelope..........This has nothing to do about baseball (unless you are one of those single ladies who hover near the clubhouse exits after night games without success). But I think that it’s funny that my Google search found the article most likely based on the title of the article..........Some people just need something to be all upset about. And baseball is not without its ninnies..........Taco eating contests are the best. Keep it up, SLC!..........Stepen Piscotty hits a foul ball caught by an asinine ballpark architect...........