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Andrew Heaney didn’t pitch horribly, but he pitched just sloppily enough to allow the misery that are the Texas Rangers to overhaul the misery that is the LAA offense. After an 11-7 shellacking of these same Rangers in this same Arlington ballpark back on August 18th, the Angels have scored more than 5 runs only once - 10 to 7 over Colorado on August 27th. Including that 10 run contest, that’s just over 3 runs per every 9 innings. Take that one Rockies game out, and we are enduring an average of 2.6 runs per game. So 2 runs last night ain’t so special. Not even to a waste pit such as the Rangers.
Not all bats were weak. David Fletcher was 3 for 4 and Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run off of a lefty.
MLB remains in a post-Labor Day Weekend stupor, with not a lot goings on. But you still must memorize all these Down-To-An-Elimination-Number-Of-8-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Shohei Ohtani News
Maybe Sunday, might not............
A Little Bit Of Mike Trout News
This is what I mean when I keep typing that Mike Trout is wasting the 2018 edition of his prime years. This ain’t Arte’s fault:
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A Little Bit Of Angels News
Victor Rojas stirs up the Internet with his most recent blog post, arguing on behalf of more diversity in the broadcast booths. Victor knows this subject much better than I do, so all I can contribute is to keep linking to his cause where I find it, much the same way I do for women in Baseball..........
Andrew Heaney, 2018 LAA Roberto Clemente Award nominee..........
The LAA farm system is rising, thanks in no small part to some bright prospects in 2018..........I would not have picked Taylor Ward to be the brightest, however..........
Everywhere In Baseball
Hoo boy am I getting old. Ryan Howard has officially announced his retirement. Think of it this way: Howard’s first appearance a the MLB level (2004) came just 7 seasons prior to that of Mike Trout (2011). Howard has had his moments. And if you pay close attention to all the unusual influences of MLB over time, you can find one clean window. And in that window, Ryan Howard mashed a clean 58 homers in a single season. For that, The Mothership grants him the honorary single-season HR record..........Best Howard factoid would be the Bartolo bookends to his career...........
A brouhaha in the Mariners’ clubhouse as they watch their emerald destiny sink into the deep blue sea...........
Recall that link I gave you to the guy who was calling bullshit on David Ortiz and the Red Sox, with a then-emphasis on Ortiz associating with known gamblers? Well we got ourselves another excerpt from the upcoming tell-all book written by that same Eddie Dominguez, ex-MLB Department Of Investigations detective. This one is all PEDs and it opens up the window wide to just how stupid the notion of PEDs testing is, how easy it is to circumvent, and where the best places are to go to get juiced safely..........
And now that you have read that excerpt, you can go read this with a new-found perspective..........
We are getting nearer and nearer to Awards season. So the articles are starting to pop up with growing frequency. All the awards? Or just RoY?..........
‘S-bout damned time. My real belief is that the actual biggest problem with MLB is the incredibly weak and shallow representation of the players - Major AND Minor Leagues - by the MLBPA. Things keep tilting more and more in favor of the owners and away from the actual talent (you know, the ‘content’ that makes baseball worth watching in the first place?) while we all enjoy an ongoing labor peace. But that peace will not last forever, not as long as an imbalance continues to worsen. A weak MLBPA negotiating side failing to stand strong as equitable partners in the MLB enterprise is creating that worsening imbalance, to the point where we are already worrying about strikes when still-freshly-inked CBA comes up for renewal. At this point I can only hope for two things: that the MLBPA upgrades their negotiating team - which is now done! And, second, that the new team is not so far under water that it feels the only way out is to blow it all up and start over..........
I keep forgetting that Baseball is broken all over the place and everything needs to be ‘fixed’. Clearly, I have been enjoying the hell out of the wrong sport, because there is no way I should get such a rise when the game is chock-a-block full of dysfunction. Everybody wants to change shit, even when nobody asked them. The latest thing firing off the check engine lamp is September call-ups. Roster expansion. Sure, Mike Scioscia has complained for some time, but I beyond that I failed to notice how our sport completely implodes the last month of every season. Maybe I was simply too engrossed in playoff races or plain, simple baseball or something...........
Seriously, Kenley Jansen, playing baseball ain’t worth risking heart failure. As much as I hate all things Dodgers, the line of demarcation is precisely at human health and welfare. You need better doctors first, then worry about making Doyer fans happy..........
Every year it seems that the news of injured players includes some new form of injury and pain of which I had happily been living in ignorance. Today that surprising new hell, brought to us by Jose Abreu of the White Sox, is known as ‘testicular torsion’.............
Nothing makes a team happier than to commit to tanking, win a few games, and start to pretend that they are the Houston Astros all over again..........
Writers (union writers for sure this time) still fuming about Service Time manipulation. Today’s entry comes from up top at SBN, where in the comments section the author clearly states that the MLBPA screwed up, but instead of owning it they should mount a PR campaign to shame MLB into tearing up the deal and gifting them a mulligan. Or, as in this case, the author is volunteering that PR campaign for MLBPA’s benefit..........But as Jeff Passan points out: “The executives are not the devil. The system is. And yet because it’s a system that has made many men rich and many owners richer, the establishment is loath to abandon it for something novel and progressive.”..........
For history buffs, Baseball Americana. The game is in our blood. It’s in the breathing of our summer air. And it’s not just in Cooperstown. It’s in The Library of Congress, too. I’m going to be over in that area in a couple of weeks. Don’t let me forget to drop in and report back. Or, I suppose, I could just as easily buy the book.........
The Duffle Bag
MiLB announcer gets his cup of coffee!...........Yolmer Sanchez continues to change the drenching game..........Minor Leaguer Brady Feigl is one frickin’ freaky dude. Both of them...........It’s interesting to look at these charts and notice how many teams had something interest occur right around the 70 game mark into the season..........Leave it to California kids to pull off a great homage to the greatest of sitcoms.............Trea Turner demonstrating how to give back a base freely given...........If the Astros don’t wish to be bothered or distracted by the Roberto Acuna domestic violence issue, well, that ship has sailed. Won it, Houston..........