HumpLinks: Halos’ Pen Is Full Of Bull

Don’t blame an offense that created an immediate 3-run lead for the Halo pitching staff to hold. (Well, OK, you can blame Tommy La Stella, Albert Pujols, Kole Calhoun, Kevan Smith and Brian Goodwin for going 0 for 18, but in the end we needed a LOT of runs.)

Don’t blame Trevor Cahill, who held that lead through 5 innings, the first 4 of which were no-hit. Don’t the blame the defense too much, which was errorless, if not clueless.

So on a team with one of the better bullpens in MLB, this should be a lock, yeah?

No. Blame the ‘pen. 8 runs surrendered over 3 innings (7 of them all on their own) and for the second night in a row the bullpen buckled to the Twins 8-3. Three losses in a row, because being .500 is so scary.

Catch your breath with these The-Pen-Is-Flightier-Than-Absurd-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

In conclusion, Andrelton Simmons is on the 10-day IL with a Grade 3 sprain. Ohtani, of course, was right back at it last night...............

Captain Obvious is now a sports writer. The Angels Still Have a Starting Pitching Problem...........

MLB and ESPN have come to the conclusion that the 2019 LA Angels are not fit for prime time viewing. Instead of closing on the possibility of being the Sunday Night Baseball Game of the Week, the Angels got that opportunity closed in their face. Game time for that September 1st has now been determined and it is the usual 1:07PM start..........

Jo Adell has changed his agency. Lining himself up for a brilliant set of arbitration years, He has armed himself with Scott Boras just in case this trend of early extensions becomes the new norm..............

The next time you read somebody chirping about how cheap is Arte Moreno, point them to this list. Arte went bigger than anybody in the 2018-2019 ‘prove it’ list of pitchers. That’s being willing to take the biggest risk possible with what’s available. (Not counting that Patrick Corbin dude.)............

Food for thought: Tommy La Stella as AL 2B All-Star? A good discussion is to be had to compare La Stella to Brandon Lowe of the Rays...........

Kevan Smith taking one for the team. Literally............

Maria trolling the Mariners?...........

Everywhere In Baseball

The Mets are still the most fun story in baseball right now..........Here we go again..........Only the Mets Could Find Themselves in This Situation...........The New York Mets, a multibillion-dollar corporation that moonlights as a comedy act, put on their finest show in years Monday..........The New York Mets, Where the Only Thing Amazin’ Is the Misery..........It takes a village to raise a clusterf#$k like that...............

The Braves just lost their first round pick of last year’s draft to Japan. They played that Houston trick of conducting a post-draft medical and decided that Carter Stewart’s wrist was not up to the slot money allocated for that #8 overall pick. So they low-balled him. Steward said no. Now he says sayonara..........

I still say that the best way to fight the MLB Front Office fascination with velocity and spin rate is the knuckleballer...........

When the Red Sox and Yankees play in London next month, the venue is going to cover up the natural grass and install artificial turf. Because playing baseball is so hard on the health of living grass, y’all...............

When you read the very next sentence, remember that MiLB is now playing with the Rob Manfred baseball. The AAA Reno Aces collected 25 runs on 25 hits in a single game, against the Tacoma Rainers..............

$$ - This is a fascinating comparison between the way that baseball teams used to handle young talent versus how they do today. We all have a lot of awareness concerning today’s young players and how they process their way into MLB. So, for me, it’s more interesting to read how franchises - and the veteran ballplayers - were squandering the talent of younger players in decades past............

The Duffle Bag

Every Tuesday is Taco Tuesday in Fresno!...............Ahhh, spring time in the Rockies, where the crack of the bat is muffled only by,,,the snow?..........What’s this? MLB promoting their brand via social media?...........Jered Weaver showing that a 78mph fastball is tough for modern beer league batters..........Sam Miller has a point. Do you know that bobbleheads are supposed to bobble because they were once intended to rest at the back window of the family sedan...........I say that MLB needs to save this for the Red Sox on the 4th of July uniforms................