MondoLinks: The Tide of Stars Hath Turned

PLAYOFFS

What a difference a weekend makes. Waking up Friday the Astros had their backs to the wall on the field, and that was merely the backstory of the franchise.

Now we wake up on Monday and we are standing on the opposite polar cap. Outscoring the Nats 19-3, and with Washington’s ace Max Scherzer struck down by a bad night’s sleep on a cheap mattress, the series returns to Houston with the Astros leading 3 games to 2 and landing the Nationals on their backs. Scherzer will be available for a Game 7. Max may be waiting for that Game 7 ball the rest of his life.

On the upside, we got to watch Fernando Rodney do his thing on a world-wide stage.

Bad time to make your one bad call behind the plate.

We get the DH back. Howie Kendrick, our nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you.

ANGELS - THE HAPPY STUFF (mostly)

We have an international phenom on the verge of throwing off the mound full speed again. Shohei Ohtani is expected to retake the mound in November..............

When Ohtani does take the mound, he will have a new pitching coach measuring him up. Mickey Callaway, ex-Mets manager, will take over the job of Joe Maddon’s pitching coach..........Someone help me out here. Does Callaway still get paid by the Mets, too?............

Finally, our hitting coach Jeremy Reed has a new assistant, John Mallee, who has been coaching batters for the Astros, Cubs (under Maddon) and of late the Phillies. The 2019 Phillies were about as middling as the 2019 Angels, so Mallee should fit right in...........

Mike Trout wishes to thank his fellow MLB players for recognizing his greatness......Mike Trout, the bet player on the planet.....by showing how great his heart is. To celebrate receiving their recognition, he is donating $50,000 to a worthy cause via the Players’ Trust...........

Here. Have a recap of how things stand as we roll into the offseason.............

MANAGERIAL MUSICAL CHAIRS

The Mets ‘mystery candidate’ has been revealed. It’s Brewers’ bench coach Pat Murphy..........Murphy joins a crowded field of guys still in the running..............

The Giants are laser locked on this Joe Espada guy. Not dissing on all your Joe Maddon love, but the Giants have a pretty good history of having their shit together and knowing what they are doing. And if they looked at the pool of candidates and like Espada, well..........

In general, your managerial status roundup is here..............

BASEBALL

Without a doubt, the World Series games are taking way too long. Stupidly so. Four frickin’ damnable hours so. I find that I can meander off to something more compelling, like washing dishes, and know that by the time I get back we will probably still be in the same inning. Lots of factions are at fault here. MLB & advertisers... players themselves... managers... and occassionally the umpires. .............It’s gotten so bad that the sports media itself has gotten bored and moved along............This guy focuses on how late are the start times, forcing games to end after midnight. In the old days a start time of 8:08 would result in an end time of 10:30 and everybody is happy. So if the goal is to end games at 10:30PM for the convenience of east coast viewers, and we keep letting WS games become absurdly longer, some day soon we might have to start a game at noon in the Pacific time zone............

Jeff Passan opens the curtain just a tad and let’s us see into the Astros front office, and it’s a pretty horrible look. Evenbeyond the Taubman incident there is a lot of grating arrogance there. I can imagine it rubs outsiders the wrong way. But guess what? The Astros are going to keep feeling like champions until some other franchise proves they are not.............

The Cincinnati Reds are moving their press box away from behind home plate and down the right field line. In the article there is a link to an older episode where then-commissioner Bud Selig reacted to BBWAA complaints after the White Sox had done this and promised it wouldn’t happen again. This tweet was in reaction to the Angels doing this very thing. I, for one, am thrilled to learn that baseball writers are losing their grip on some entitlement..............

It took way too long, and way too many cycles, but the Houston Astros finally figured out how to admit to their idiotic bungling of the Brandon Taubman incident. In as minimalist a manner as possible, they admitted being in the wrong and they apologized to the writer who had been targeted.............

Defensive metrics are highly suspect, unless one disagrees with how others might be celebrating defense in picking Golden Gloves candidates. Then defensive metrics are the rule, man..............

The Red Sox are trying to tap into the young genius phase of Front Office staffing by naming Chaim Bloom their new GM. Bloom, all of 36, is known mostly for his association withe the Tampa Bay Rays............

Segregated pro baseball was, as the title states, The Original Performance Enhancer. The author doesn’t show his work. but his results are intriguing. Adjusting pre-desegregation game production to account for weaker competition results in significant adjustments to career WAR on a whole host of famous names. The result career WAR leaderboard looks better to these eyeballs...............

Damn. We lost another MLB umpire. Chuck Meriwether, just 6 months ole than me...............

STUFF

Priorities, people. Priorities, and hail our hero. Beer FIRST, then you can pick up the silly little baseball.............If you are a sports fan, yesterday was a pretty good day...........