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Just by serendipity, the very day that the Chicago White Sox pitchers were handing out free home runs to one and all, Skipper Brad gave Mike Trout the day off. Too bad for MLB, because we have ourselves a real live Home Run Champion of MLB chase going on, and Mike is smack in the middle of it.
The National League has Cody Bellinger (42) , Christian Yelich (41) and rookie Pete Alonso (40) in the game, while the American League only has Mike Trout (41). That’s 4 guys within 2 HR’s of each other. Bellinger and Alonso both homered yesterday. This could be a fun race down the stretch.
So, without Mike, the Halos took the field on Sunday and fired on all cylinders. Griffin Canning when 7 innings, struck out 8, gave up only 1 run on 5 hits. He also picked off a baserunner, ChiSox Tim Anderson from second base.......Matt Thaiss homered, but he also flashed some of that Spring Training lumber by going 3 for 4 and driving in 4, collecting 7 total bases......Shohei Ohtani homered, something he had not done since July 27th and something folks were starting to notice. By the way, that gives Shohei a career-high 9-game hitting streak, where he has 16 hits......Anthony Bemboom laucnhed his first career home run.....And Brian Goodwin (subbing or Trout in centerfield) totally juked Jon Jay by totally faking a fielding error and totally faking some Little League defense, all in order to con Jay into trying to score and gunning him down at home plate to close out the Chicago frame in the top of the 6th. Brilliant. Defensive Play of the Year possibly.
Angels win 9-2 and Mike Trout hit no home runs. After the grossest of gross losing streaks, the Halos have now won 6 of their last 9 and are in Arlington to face the Rangers for 4 followed by the Astros for 3.
-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Remember how Victor and Gubi finished 6th in all of MLB in Awful Announcing’s fan voting of favorite broadcast team? Awful Announcing thinks that our crew, even at 6th, is grossly UNDER-rated! You go, guys!.................
Shohei Ohtani had another mound workout, and this one working on his breaking stuff. Everything went great..............
Friday night the White Sox had Bill Walton as a guest announcer. Saturday night it was Michael Schur. Walton was amazing, but Schur gave us something amazing-er. “Trout Falls”............
Asshat Josh Hamilton ‘regrets’ leaving the Rangers. I would imagine that this would be ‘regretting’ how he will enjoy a family legacy that will last for generations, all spending 125 million of his regrets for stealing Arte Moreno’s money, something he blamed on Arte.
Jose Suarez was punted back to AAA to spend some time there retooling.............While Keynan Middleton might make it back before November, after all.............And stop drooling. Jo Adell lost enough time to injury this season that the LAA brain trust wants him to get more work in during winter leagues rather than making a coffee call in Anaheim for the close of this season............
Yeah, Red Sox buddy, you are absolutely correct. We all know it. We just cannot leverage any fan power to make it so. But these truly are among the very best looking Angels uniforms in history, and among the best MLB uniforms anywhere, of any time..............
Ippei now can claim the Halos as his cult charter members..............
Trout Porn: Jay Jaffe is gobsmacked by how Mike Trout’s peak keeps peaking............
Also, going back to something that hit last week, I can’t find a path from Babe Ruth to Mike Trout that is less than 7 degrees of separation. Can you?............
Weekly Mike Trout Career WAR Perp Walk. Mike takes the field tonight in a deadlock with Derek Jjeter at 72.4 bWAR. He vaulted Rafael Palmiero and Harry Heilmann this past week and now has to sneez to claim #87 All-Time for himself. It took Jeter 2o years to reach that total. It has taken Mike 9 2⁄3 seasons. My guess is that any minute Jjeter is going to stop believing in WAR. Once that sneeze is over, coming up next are Larry Walker at 72.7, then Pal Waner (Hall of Famer) at 72.8 and Jim Thome/Arke Vaughan (both Hall of Famers) at 72.9................
Everywhere In Baseball
Remember all that media rancor about the shitty buying behavior on the MLB Free Agent markets the past couple of years? Yeah, about that. What are the odds that this same media forgets how right the Front Offices turned out to be...............
Youth Shall Be Served. The kids are killing it in MLB, and maybe that’s more than just the fact that there are so many great young talented ballplayers at the same time. Maybe it’s also because so many are being given a feature role at their age. It’s precisely the kind of thing that needs to happen to propel baseball into the next generation. Too bad that we just lost Fernando Tatis, Jr. for the year......And too bad that Baby Vlad is hurt.............And too bad - OH HELL! - was Mike Trout ever benched for lack of effort (or pulled to be given an IV for dehydration)??? Ronald Acuna just was. And this was just after Acuna has dropped Cody Bellinger’s MLB-leading 42nd homer (see above) over the wall............
Taking the juice out of baseballs in KBO certainly has cut hard into the inflationary slugging numbers. It also took some wind out of BA. But notice also how it has a big impact on length of game time. Just what Manfred has wanted, right?...............
Let’s talk Yankees for a second. It appears that the MFY Front Office is in the No Fun Zone. Deadspin calls out the passage in this ESPN article where MFY reached into the MLB Front Office and inquired about having the kill switch on hot mic clips that we fans have found to have so much fun.....They are also having a run at getting their butts ejected, Brett Gardner in particular, and a lot of it is for jackassery behavior in the dugout. The Yankees, from my POV, are happy to take full advantage of how much we fans (and the media) love to bag on the umpires as the default bad guy in all things. Since the rules don’t explicitly prohibit some of the stuff they are doing, they are happy to hide behind the lack of rule and our pissiness at umpires. Oh, guess what? “...there is a growing opinion among umpires that Boone and the Yankees are targeting young umpires to try and intimidate them. The last three incidents the Yankees had involved younger umpires called-up from Triple-A to fill in for vacationing or injured veteran umpires.”..............Next, Aaron Boone thinks that MLB needs a mercy rule. I guess that would be a Designated Game End? I am tempted to argue back with the idea that if you gotta manage through burning a bullpen, you gotta manage better. But that sounds like what NL fans argue about the DH, right?............
One more MFY. Aaron Judge is have a bad spell. The article wants to focus on the last month. But if you look it up, Judge is on a career arc where his 2019 is not nearly as good as his 2018, and 2018 was a not nearly as good as his 2018............
Speedy Billy Hamilton’s career may be coming to a very speedy close..............
LAD reliever Julio Urias was gunned down by Commissioner Rob Manfred for 20 games after MLB concluded that suspension was warranted for violating the MLB Domestic Violence policy.............
Matt Harvey did AAA work for the Angels, too. Of course, he was never dominant for us in any MiLB rehab start. He was Ok in his IE 66ers start, going 4 innings but giving up 2 runs on 4 hits with only 2 K’s. Then he did a stint for the Bees in SLC, which was 11 runs on 13 hits in 6 innings of work with 3 walks thrown in. But, yeah, there were also those 10 K’s. So (deep sigh) of course he goes 4 innings for Las Vegas (Oakland AAA affiliate in the same league as SLC) and K’s 5 while allowing no runs on only 2 hits. That is merely his best MiLB start since June 29th of 2012..........
If you are working in the wrong franchise, being in one’s Option years sure reads like a particular brand of hell..........
Sean Doolittle’s deteriorating season has just landed him on the IL. Some days off to rest up, I suppose............
It’s a line in the sand. Here at Halos Heaven, our policy is no politics. The justification is that we are all here for the escapism of the sport and the communal enjoyment of our particular team. Pimping politics is a form of Rick-Rolling the readership into enduring political POVs whether in agreement or not. Well, the new owners of Deadspin know of this modern tension, and the Deadspin establishment is being shown the door. If the owners want Deadspin to revert back to its origin as a sports site, it’s going to be a hard battle over a long time because that cat is already out of the bag.............
The Duffle Bag
Yasiel Puig having some Little League fun. Or inspiration...............Cubs players having some Little League fun, getting in on the mountain sliding..............The event at Williamsport looks like it was a lot of fun for all.............Anthony Rizzo especially. (Isn’t that a REAL Little League home run???)...........By the way, the Cubs won the MLB series at the LLBWS Classic............(h/t UniWatch) An auction for baseball memorabilia used in iconic baseball movies and TV shows............Make no mistake, Jack White is a baller............This looks to me like Zack Greinke just realized why catchers use big, padded, mitts to catch hard-thrown balls.............