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The Angels acquired Patrick Sandoval for Martin Maldonado back on July 26th of last year. Maldy stuck in Houston long enough to acquire a serious shot at a WS ring, then was let go and landed in Kansas City, then sent to the Chicago Cubs. But the Astros must really like Maldy, because he is now back to Houston in time for a WS ring. So far Maldonado has cost the Astros both Sandoval and Tony Kemp (not counting the casting off of Max Stassi to make roster room). In return Maldonado gave them 41 games for his 2018 shot (making it to the ALCS), and won’t give them more than 52 games to get another shot in 2019.
But here we are with Sandoval. Skipper Brad chose not to use Sandoval as a Starter, and used Taylor Cole as an Opener, instead. Mistake. The Reds must have scouted Taylor’s last Opening against Houston back on August 2nd, when he lasted all of 1 out and exited already down 4 runs. This time Cole’s 1st inning was 5 runs on 5 hits and a walk. Sandoval took over in the 2nd, with the game already lost. Patrick went 5 innings and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. Great intro to MLB, flashing a great change-up. But he was matched up against a Luis Castillo who had recently abused the Astros, a Castillo that was facing this night a recently non-potent LAA offense. After that 5-run 1st-inning debacle on Cole’s part, the rest was inevitable.
Mike Trout stole a base? That was something he had not bothered doing since Game #76 back on June 20th. 35 games ago. Add that to his 37th home run and you have roughly 60% of the offensive highlights for the night until Brian Goodwin made a pinch-hit appearance in the 9th. All told it wasn’t enough.
Something has gotta give. We have a collision course of fail in our near future.
The Red Sox had lost 8 in a row as they welcomed the Royals into Fenway (this included getting swept by the Yankees, something the Yankees are entitled to...prompting the NFY Yankees to troll the Red Sox hard post-game). The Royals had lost 6 in a row, and 9 of their last 10. Boston did pull out a win in Kansas City last night, so their streak is over. But they are still dead man walking.
The Angels rolled into Cincinnati having lost 8 of their last 10 and 4 in a row. The Reds, though, had won 6 of 10 including a split with the Braves in Atlanta. The Reds are having no problem extending the Angels suffering.
Tomorrow the walking dead of Boston host the walking dead of Anaheim. Something has gotta give.
On we go with E-Is-Now-Inevitable-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Andrew Heaney had a simulated throwing game yesterday. Nothing broke. So far. Which kinda feels like Russian roulette, does it not?.......We spin the chamber next in Boston...........
Jo Adell “looks like he is going to be a special player”..........
Kole Calhoun knows his days are numbered. It’s easier to lay the Halo career to rest in the offseason when nobody is looking than to pull him right out of the post-Skaggs locker room that is already short-handed............Kole also needs some perspective. The Angels need a hell of a lot more than “a little something to go our way” in order to “get back on the winning side of the things.”..........
Time again to vote for Victor and Gubi..........
Skipper Brad takes us deeper into what are the techniques of pitch framing. “Pitch framing” is, of course, the art of exploiting how bad humans are at the visual mechanics of +90mph live motion. Or, in other words, taking advantage at how bad humans are at the ob of plate umpire..........
When it comes to playoff odds for 2019, the Angels (0.1%) are only a hair’s width above all the MLB teams that are trying to lose (0.0%)............
($$) - We are not a Super Power. We are not an Ascending Contender. We are not a Wild Card. We are not the Harry Caray/Lou Brock Tier. We are not The ‘We Thought They’d Contend’ tier (and they still might). We are The Long Journey To The Middle, just above There’s Always Next Year, The Rebuilders and Trust the Process.........
Yell all you want, Yankee bleacher faithful. But Mike Trout owns the AL MVP Award.............
Trout’s 0.3 fWAR week was so common for him that USA Today didn’t even bother to publish a Mike Trout Monday recap. That hasn’t happened since early May.........
Albert Pujols with more longevity records...........
The IE ‘66ers flipped their name to the California Burritos for the Minor League Baseball Specialty Jersey Golden Bobblehead Award. They are asking for your vote as fan favorite.....Those ARE pretty cool. But dayum, there are A LOT of very cool ones from which to choose. The Tennessee Smokies looks like a pack of Fruit Stripe Gum. The California Poppies? I wore that shirt to school back in the 60’s. So both of those strike a chord of nostalgia with me. The Albuquerque Isotopes Science jerseys crack me up. Wearing the bold words “Pimiento Cheese” across one’s chest will get a lot of looks. Same with “Atomic Pork Chops”, although that uni itself looks like a waste of creative energy. The Birmingham Stud Muffins and Jupiter Loggerheads both look like pajamas. The Hustlers had such great promise but fell way short of it’s potential..........
Everywhere In Baseball
The 2019 post-season schedule is released. Worse case, the World Series still slides in just prior to Halloween...........
Baby Vlad joins Noah Syndergaard as MLB Players of the Week for last week......Guerrero is showing zero signs of suffering from his participation in The Home Run Derby.....And as projected, Yuli Gurriel was named AL Player of the Month for July and not Mike Trout. A fair outcome...........
The Marlins and Rays went into a twitter battle, with the Marlins losing by racing to the bottom in one large jump. Get it? The Rays? Killed Steve Irwin? Sheesh...........And, yep, when the apocalypse comes, the Angels will claim the title of Top MLB killer for all eternity...........
In the Yankees sweep of the Red Sox, Sunday pitchers J.A. Happ and David Price were both returning from paternity leave.....Price got completely blown out of the water. Hs third inning was brtual. With 2 ouuts and a man on 1B, the sequence then went home run + double + double + single + double + single + walk. When he left there were still 2 outs, now men on 1st and 2nd, and 6 runs had scored. His final line was 9 hits and 7 runs in only 2.2 innings.....So here you have a new dad coming back and getting torched (again) in Yankee Stadium. And the locals let him have, giving new meaning to Pedro Martinez’ famous line of being owned by the Yankees..........
Good teams crush bad teams. That’s one way to elevate themselves into good teams. The Angels are actually pretty good against teams playing at .500 or below. But they have also lost a total of 19 such games to that tier. When you are 9 games out of the WC, those 19 losses hurt..........
Houston flipped the magic switch on Aaron Sanchez, too. Painful to realize how much further they are along than we in pitcher management. Maybe picking the brain of Max Stassi can help..........
You pays your money, and you takes your chances. The Cubs paid up some money for Craig Kimbrel and got 14 appearances out of him before his hits the IL. Maybe he was not as prepared as he thought he was without an ST camp?..........
The Cubs might be interested in signing Jonathan Lucroy..........
Bryce Harper is getting desperate? Trying out new batting stances in the middle of games?.............
The Duffle Bag
The Onion. Undefeated...............Jacob deGrom is very very good. 50 of his last 54 starts with 3 or less earned runs allowed? We don’t have a complete game out of anybody this season, and the only pitcher in the franchise with more than 5 total innings of work on the season and an ERA of less than 3 would be Hansel Robles..........I was afraid that this would happen. That stupid Topps typo is going to foist more of Justin Beiber upon the world..........Garrett Richards is doing rehab outings now..........I have to respect any man who takes pride in his hot dogs..........Zack Greinke has played long enough, and owned enough MLB hitters in that time, and has moved around MLB often enough, that some of the players he has owned have ended up being his teammate. Where he gets to laugh at them in person.........really? TV crews can’t leave a family alone when their kid makes his MLB debut? Let them have their moment as a family............