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Well, at least we got to games against those horrible Orioles. We got some power, too. Maybe enough to kick start some power soon?
2 games out of three ain’t bad, but it shouldn’t be good enough. We want 4 out of 5 against guys like that. Because this team isn’t strong enough to win 4 out of 5 against the early 2019 Minnesota Twins. Who have next. You saw what happened against the 26-win Astros in Monterrey. The 25-win Twins in Minneapolis can be like that. Then again, a lesser squad swept the 24-win Brewers. Hey, baseball.
In what cannot be an accident, young Canning was left to work on things. He was half way through his third time around the batting order and rolling towards 100 pitches (he ended up at 101). It was after 2 outs in the fifth when he surrendered a walk and was offered a shower. With 6 more strikeouts yesterday, Griffin now has 19 K’s across 14.1 innings.
mike trout continues to show signs of life. I gotta look it up. It seems like mike has homered on mother’s day before. Heads up, by the way. His next home run will be career #250.
Onward we go with Road-Trip-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
That Peter Bourjos experiment that was going so well in Spring Training? The Angels pulled the plug. Bourjos was DFA’d, cleared waivers, and then was released outright. He might hook on somewhere for one or two last grasps at the tail end of his career. But he really does need to find some offense.........
Chris Stratton was also DFA’d. He did NOT clear waivers. The Pirates claimed him, forcing Billy Eppler to work out a trade. Since Pittsburgh is short on baseballs, they just sent back some cash.............
Andrew Heaney out for two more weeks...........(And Nick Tropeano needs more...er...’stretching out’ down at SLC.).............
Yeah. Ain’t it the truth. We finally get a handful of role players kicking ass and it’s the core that is the echo............
$$ - The Angels are making points by driving hard into versatility among their role players..........
I blame Kole Calhoun for this. Leading off by jogging to the dugout?? Silly man.........
This came out Friday, but is worth a repeat in case you didn’t see it. mike trout has a very good fan in Baltimore. Then, right on cue, trout goes and homers for his fan. It’s real-life Captain America stuff...............
Ok. I was wrong. Tommy La Stella is not simply having a better season than Daniel Descalso, he’s having a better year than Philadelphia’s $330 million man.............
mike trout - the good son - has had a couple of good at-bats over the weekend. A pretty good game on Saturday. An OK game yesterday. He’s recognized that he is off, and injury is no longer a cause. He thinks it’s an easy fix. If it’s so easy, he’s going about it very carefully..............
Weekly mike trout Career WAR Perp Walk. This past week mike caught back up with Zack Greinke,are having just passed a clump of guys who finished at 67.1 bWAR. Those would be Roberto Alomar, Don Drysdale and Dwight Evans...............
And while we are talking about mike, I shall take a moment for a Special Contribution. I re-did the MLB logo, using their current Pantone color pallet. You might recognize the profile as the very best all-around Major League baseball player of our time. You are welcome, Commissioner. Consider it a gift from HalosHeaven...........
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Everywhere In Baseball
Win some games, give your fans a deal, and you don’t need to monkey around with the rules of the game itself. The fans will come...........
That Tiger fan has had a change of heart. He is now more than happy to hand to Albert Pujols over the baseball that we will now never know is the actual baseball that Albert Pujols has already said he doesn’t want which might be the baseball that Pujols hit for a home run, his 2,000 RBI............
I like the idea of a pitcher with fire in his gut. He should get after hitters, and hate losing or being removed. Marcus Stroman has that fire. He should save it, though, for those outings when he is not ineffective............
Those silly Cleveland Indians, going cheap in the offseason and refusing to pay Cody Allen the big money to keep him. Now they are paying the price for being that cheapskate............
Cool. MadBum Moments. First off, Bumgarner’s no trade list was released. The Halos are not on it. You might infer from that the he holds no animosity towards Arte Moreno and Billy Eppler. However, when you look closer at the list you see that his list is comprised of teams that are actual contenders. You know, the kinds of teams that would actually effect a trade for Bumgarner. We, uh, don’t qualify. And he knows that.........Yasiel Puig took his new blond bob into Oracle Park and took Bumgarner deep. Everybody was focused on Puig new hair style. But not Bumgarner. He didn’t give a shit about the hair. He gave some snake piss over giving up that home run to Puig...............
Still up in San Francisco, it appears we might be seeing a revolt on the part of the players versus the Front Office laptops. Derek Holland is calling out the Front Office for having him fake an injury to explain a trip to the IL. This, as a result of being moved to the bullpen, which he doesn’t like. Now, logic would dictate that if anybody would know that he was hurt, it would be the player. Usually before the coaches or medical staff. So if Holland says he had to fake an injury, it’s a pretty serious thing.....So serious that the Giants Front Office ended up pulling out Holland’s medical file and showing it to MLB officials to prove that, yes, he really WAS injured. Who to believe?............
Looking at this analysis of Cleveland in the 2019 AL Central is a lesson in “when your pre-season projections don’t look like they are going to work out, re-do your pre-season projections until they fit”...........But for those who had projected the Washington Nationals high, well, there’s no fixing those projections now............
AAA players now get to play with the Manfred Ball. AAA players now get to hit home runs just like the big boys..............
$$ - In ranking the best outfield arms in MLB, trout does not rank a Top Ten. he doesn’t rate an ‘Everybody Else’. He doesn’t even rank ahead of some minor leaguers. And neither does Kole Calhoun............
The Duffle Bag
Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Shoey.............Zack Greinke doing his very best to validate Rob Manfred worst nightmare............When a no-hitter is still in play, players step up. I doubt Bellinger makes that play down 12-3..........Rain inside the Houston domed stadium. Lights failing inside the Tampa Bay domes stadium. What’s the deal, MLB? We getting cheap on public spending?.............Talk about good sportsmanship...........How about a pitcher throwing a perfect perfect game? All outs by K! Fast-pitch softball does have this flaw............The Padres changed their twitter handle for Mother’s Day to the Madres. This instead of simply grabbing a second handle. So somebody jumped on the Padres. And the Padres used the corporate power to engage the corporate power of twitter itself and snatch back their normal handle..............