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Griffin Canning represented himself well (7 strikeouts over 6 innings, giving up 0 runs on 4 hits and a walk) and the Halos offense carried Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun and David Fletcher (0 for 11). One of those nights when things go not wrong. Ignore that it was Detroit, and expected. Enjoy it. Celebrate. Don’t overthink it.
Angels win 6-1 in only 9 innings.
Clap for Matt Thaiss starting things off with a 2-run home run, going 2 for 4 with 3 RBI. Cheer for Shohei Ohtani going 3 for 4. Smile for Skipper Brad only needing to burn 3 pitchers in a game.
And then belly flop directly into this pile of Back-In-The-W-Column-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Adalberto Mejia has been lost to the Cardinals. This is something I consider being another casualty of the Friday morning shit show, something I am considering laying at the feet of home plate umpire Tony Randazzo. (Not so much for his call on the David Fletcher slide. It’s unsurprising that an umpire would have a mental commitment to call in favor of the tag on a sequence of good defensive plays to get the ball to the catcher and have a good tag applied. And, yes, umpires depend on human vision mechanics to make a mental commitment to a call before the brain actually gets to process all the info. But, no, my lamentation remains focused on Randazzo not being able to find his zone all night, leading to all sorts of game chaos.) After burning through 10 pitchers, including the next day starter, Billy Eppler had to make roster moves to try and survive the next few games with his already brutalized pitching staff. To make room, Mejia had to be moved off the 40-man. This meant DFA and being exposed to the waiver wire, where St. Louis claimed him............
In lieu of any news or rumors concerning the Angels being serious about some blockbuster purchasing decisions at this year’s trade deadline, we are left looking like a carcass to be picked over. Brian Goodwin and Jonathan Lucroy are the parts being considered insurance depth for playoff contenders..........How either of those guys returns a mid-level consistent starter is beyond me..........
Trout Porn Moment: OPS over the last 3 seasons is 8th best stretch in history for players his age. My guess is that his 3 year stretch from 26-28, and then 27-29, and even maybe 28-30 will all be same, or higher, against historical records.........
Mike Petriello notices that Mike Trout is having a monster July......And twitter unleashes the brain-addled ‘never won a playoff game’ thumb army..........
Yeah, Justin Upton knows he was swinging at garbage Monday night. You were not alone, Justin. Blaine Hardy only threw 5 pitches in the zone all night.
Hey, if it ain’t likely you are gonna win enough games to play in October, you might as well take advantage of the free travel and enjoy the good eats from May through September..........
Adam McCreery was DFA’d..............
Everywhere In Baseball
Phony baseball dust-ups are over. Now we get true-blue brawls, like the old days. Amir Garrett went full on and took on the entire Pirates dugout solo! Real punches were thrown. Guys stayed mad and went after each other repeatedly. Anger is real......The background here is that the Pirates have a nasty rep for throwing up and in at hitters way more than other MLB teams, especially against the Reds, and this reputation goes back may years. No. Seriously. Farther back than you realize, or maybe even have been alive. Considering that pitchers miss their spots all the time - which means that they do NOT have pinpoint control - this is dangerous, and it pisses off opposing teams. Notably among those would be the Reds, with whom the Pirates have bad blood brewing already. And the Pirates went at Reds batters again last night............
Mike Trout is having a monster July. But that doesn’t mean that some random guy cannot rise up and, at the same time, have the best single month he will ever know in his career, resulting in an even more monster July. Such is the case with Yuli Gurriel. Going into yesterday’s games Gurriel with a MUCH higher BA, higher OBP, higher SLG, higher OPS. Same 2B, same HR, same RBI. 6 fewer strikeouts and 8 fewer walks in 13 ore ABs’.....And now he has a 17-game hitting streak. Trout has received all the press, but Gurriel deserves the PotM..........
I notice that modern baseball players have zero love for the Great American Songbook catalog when it comes to their walk-up music of choice...........
The old saw claims that some times the best deals are the ones that you don’t make. The obverse to that might be that the worst deals are the easy ones that you let somebody else make. once upon a time Sonny Gray was an outstanding pitcher. He couldn’t handle the pressure of the Yankees and tanked, and the Yankees dumped him off to the Cincinnati Red for pocket lint. Sonny Gray could have easily been had in the off-season by any of the 28 other teams. A lot of those teams would like some starting pitching right now. Some of those have been wanting starting pitching for 3 or 4 seasons already. Their mistake.........
The Dodgers are struggling overall, and struggled to even struggle in their 9-1 loss to Colorado on Monday. So when Joc Pederson didn’t run all the way to first base on an infield ground out at the meaningless tail end of that blow out, LAD manager Dave Roberts had his volunteer for making a statement to his players..........
The freshest push back on complainers I have read in a long while. Yankees radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling on people who complain about his style: “The world doesn’t feed its hungry by how I make a call.”..........
The Marlins. If you thought it was tough being a fan of the Angels as they struggle to fetch the final pieces necessary to be a legit playoff contender, how about being a fan of a franchise that had more than enough pieces to be a legit contender, and traded them all away?..........
Trevor Bauer gets to pay Rob Manfred some of his salary for that epic heave onto the batter’s eye............
The basic theory to baseball is that the regular season game is approached in a way that hopefully achieves maximum results over time, without concern for the opportunity of the moment. Batters are gonna swing their standard hacks regardless of situation even if the pitcher is throwing only Little League velocity and you are 2 runs down. And managers are gonna use the bullpen arms they have worked out in advance regardless of the possibility of losing the game currently in hand..........
The worst thing that can happen to a non-credentialed, non-professional, composer of baseball words intended for consumption by baseball fans is to be in possession of inside baseball knowledge. As this article reveals, having that info makes for heady times. But Internet words can matter, and information can be costly. People like myself may be passionate, but that does not mean we are elevated above the periphery. We remain unaware of our responsibilities with such knowledge, which is why I don’t want any of it to begin with. I already have enough responsibilities in my waking hours..........
Too late! Blake Parker signed with the Phillies...........
Trade Rumors
Another journalist complaining that MLB teams are not making enough trades to keep him happy..........
So here you go, writers, know joy! The Reds, Indians and Padres pulled off a three way, and the BIG names moving were Trevor Bauer to the Reds (along with Franmil Reyes and Logan Allen from the Padres), Yasiel Puig to the Braves, and Taylor Trammell goes from the Indians to the Padres. Victor Nova goes from the Padres to the Indians and Scott Moss goes from the Reds to the Indians........... Puig is interesting. Will he pass physicals after the brawl with Pittsburgh? How many games are the Indians going to have to pay as Puig serves his suspension?...........
The Cubs picked up David Phelps (and cash) from the Blue Jays, who are obviously leading the selling charge...........
The Braves got Chris Martin from the Rangers...........
The Astros are seriously looking to dive into their war funds built up through the tank cycle and add to their All-Star pitching staff. They are rumored to be in every big name. Zack Wheeler talks.....Madison Bumgarner talks.....And up until last night they were also involved in Trevor Bauer talks..........
Baseball is all about comps. And buyers can now look to the dearth of returns that the Blue Jays got for Marcus Stroman and push back on asking prices coming from greedy sellers. This, of course, makes the sellers not happy..........
Stop me is you have heard this before. The Brewers nabbed Jordan Lyles. Lyles comes to Milwaukee this time from the Pirates. Last year about this time he was claimed off waivers from the Padres. By the Brewers..........
The Mets want MLB-ready guys for Noah Syndergaard......The Padres are offering MLB-ready guys for Noah Syndergaard............
Yasiel Puig was getting sniffs from the Braves. That would have been awesom, getting pulled from one team that is struggling to stay out of the basement of the NL Central, to another team that is cake-walking into the playoffs with a fair shot at the NLCS - against the very team that dumped him off to the cellar in the first place.........
The Duffle Bag
I get it that MLB players are accustomed to pristine playing surface conditions. But can’t a guy be bothered to tap down his own turf lump anymore?...........