WeekEnd HaloLinks: Yeah, but Seattle goes up to 11

Here is how this goes. Early in the day I start my daily hunt for link targets. I open a browser window and park each newsworthy bit of tids in a tab, open a new tab, and repeat. Once the string of tabs gets so small that the only thing you can do is click the “X” and close that tab, I open a new browser window and start all over. I try to get through my hunting territory before I get to a 4th source window.

At some point thereafter, I do open that 4th window and get into HH and open the editor, and start linking and composing. I might bounce around looking for the best link on some story everybody is talking about, and I do enjoy pulling up a tab to see I already covered that story, which means I don’t have to type up something for that tab after all. It accelerates the journey towards the finish line.

Why do I bore you will all of this? Because when the game comes on, I often open a FIFTH window and follow on Gamecast as my wife monopolizes the TV. ALT+TAB to bounce over to the game window is a common keystroke.

It’s common, that it, until the Angels claw their way back from yet another devastating pitching performance to tie up a game 10 to 10 going into the 9th inning. And I don’t care that our current savior is named Cody Allen. It’s Anaheim. It’s 2019. And it’s a tie game in the 9th effing inning. I know. I just GODDAMNEDKNOW that the next time I ALT+TAB over to the game window it will be over, and the final score will be 11-10 Seattle. FML.

Note to Skipper Brad. You have exactly one job: Do Not Lose To Jerry’s Kids. Ever.

Have some Here-Comes-A-Very-Long-Weekend-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Andrelton Simmons gets cred as the 2nd best shortstop of the decade (to date). Only 2nd because Elvis Andrus has a lot more offense.............

Thanks, Maria, but Arte used to have a much larger ad presence in the LA city area..........

Speaking of Maria Torres, this is our very own beat reporter...........

Mike Trout knows really knows his weather.............

In looking at early season extreme pitching results, Matt Harvey can’t even get that right. As bad as Harvey has been he hasn’t been the absolute worst in MLB. Merely the second worst............

Everywhere In Baseball

One of the hard parts involved with this gig is determining how far I want to go with attribution. As I have mentioned before, VOX does not gift us with a news wire. I am forced to read about 40 web sites, 5 nights a week. Most of the time, they all have the same news. To whom do I link? I roll with my own rules, but out there in those news castles it’s a pretty big deal. How big? Get a load of this: Khris Davis cashed in on juiced baseballs and signed an extension with the Oakland A’s. I’ll use MLBTR because it’s neutral enough, and does give credit. At 12:58PM yesterday Jon Heyman tweeted the news. In his tweet he writes “@JeffPassan 1st”. Passan had tweeted the news 4 minutes earlier, at 12:54PM. But guess what? Susan Slusser had tweeted the news at 12:51PM, besting Jeff Passan by a whopping 3 whole minutes!! THREE!!! That will teach Jeff to wait until he got off the elevator. In their world, those 3 minutes are everything. Slusser just had to reach out to correct Heyman at 1:06PM...........

Oh. And, yeah, the baseballs are juiced............

So far, Ronald Acuna is actually batting better than Mike Trout batted at age 21...........

Joey Votto setting weird career records all over the place..........

What does a baseball manager do in their typical day? I’ll bet a hell of a lot less than they did in a typical day 20 years ago...........

The Internet gives us 7.5 billion historical researchers anymore. It’s near impossible for anybody, today or yesterday, to hide the bad ideas they had at any point in their lives. 40’s singer Kate Smith gets taken down from the Yankees’ pantheon, and with her comes down her rendition of God Bless America..........

Free Agency as we have known it is gone. The future “classes” are loading with near-retirees because the youth is getting locked up. And the rewards for FA’s are shrinking in direct proportion to the rising risks.............

Baseball players have fun with fake careers in order to remain anonymous when out in public. “Blimp Folder” is my second favorite. My actual favorite would be “daily baseball blogger”.............

Brandon Belt got Justin Boured. You saw what happened to Bour the other night.....It happened to Belt yesterday......The plate umpire in that Giants game, Ryan Additon, totally sucked on that side of the plate. Patrick Corbin, Sam Dyson and Drew Pomeranz all had a good time over there..........That’s the very kind of strike zone that makes any pitcher “dominant”............(Note: that was actually the SECOND time that Brandon Belt got called on strikes when the pitch was wide right. In the 5th inning, the bad K resulted in Bruce Boche getting ejected.).............

Jackie Robinson was born on January 31. He died on October 24. So MLB cannot use the anniversary of his birth or his death to celebrate his break-through achievement. I suppose the only date they have left would be April 15th, the date of his first appearance on an MLB field. Oh, wait. That’s what they do. Well, then, David Price, since you don’t like it if MLB fails to schedule EVERY team play on Jackie Robinson Day, and MLB rarely can schedule EVERY team to play on a Monday, your only choice is to lobby Congress so that April 15th always falls on a Sunday............

And you know something about scheduling, don’t you David Price? You won’t be joining your team when it visits the White House because it’s baseball season. Those 9 months are tight. One wonders how the other guys on your team figure it out?............

Oh, and back to Jackie Robinson Day. MLB is selling off the merch...........

We are hearing it more and more. Craig Kimbrel has pulled back from his demand for a 6-year deal.......And Dallas Keuchel will take a now-less-than-a-one-year-deal and ump back into FA in November..............

The Duffle Bag

(from reddit) Amir Garrett, Cincinnati pitcher, is totally fine with bat flips. As long as he gets to pimp his strikeouts............Actually, there are already a lot of pimp options for pitchers...........In fact, it sounds like ALL the players want to be pimping.............Brewers bullpen arm Jeremy Jeffress owns a food truck on the side, and is rolling it into Miller Park in a couple of weeks. That’s the very definition of putting one’s money where one’s mouth is..........Not bad. A High School kid smack a very rare home run cycle.............Noah Syndergaard: “That wasn’t pine tar. That was me trying to warm my fingers. Baseballs are cold!!”...........