WeekEnd HaloLinks: One last storm

Hey, guess what? The Angels lost a game yesterday, The final score was 9-1 but it was actually not as close as the score might indicate. Kole Calhoun hit a solo home run for the only LAA score, and he had 2 of the 5 total Halo hits all game. But the key stat is that the Angels left only 3 runners on base. Yep, 1 run scored and only 3 guys stranded. That kind of offense works, but only if Nolan Ryan is your starting pitcher and even then only if you get lucky and land on any one of those 7 special Game Starts out of his 773 total.

That ain’t what this team is all about. So why do I care that this was another Andrew Heaney struggle. Let’s just chalk up the L’s and not be surprised about it, and spend time worrying about Heaney in 2020.

The Angels are in Houston this weekend, where Tropical Depression Imelda is flooding the region and costing us lives. It’s the last leg of the last road trip for the last men standing in 2019. The best we can hope for is that the Astros fans stay home and remain safe, the Astros themselves play us straight up and help us hold out draft position, and that the Angels stay dry and baseball good.

And while all that happens, plow through these Last-10-Days-Of-Baseball-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Season Status Update: 84 losses, with 9 games left to go. All the teams drafting ahead of the Halos are in losing mode except for Seattle, which has now won 5 in a row. Yep, we are only 4 games out of last place in the AL West..........With the loss to the Yanx yesterday New York achieved 100 wins, something that was once a major deal. We already have two 100-win teams with one on the verge and three others still within range. Meanwhile, we have two teams with at least 100 losses and another on the brink. It’s possible that we could have 6 100-win teams and three 100-loss teams. That would be a big deal, but know that in 2002 MLB finished with three +100-game winners and 3 others with at least 97 wins, and 4 teams at +100 losses. The past few seasons show a trend in a gravitational pull to the extremes, but there are still the random seasons in our past which match a year like 2019...........

There is a legitimate case for Mike Trout to lose MVP...........Oh hell to the no, Mike Trout is clear front-runner for AL MVP.............And don’t even try to bring that Alex Bregman shit into this.............

Trout’s surgery is today.............So he will be watching the Eagles on Sunday with his foot up on a pillow............

MLB Pipeline named their Prospects of the Year for each team in 2019. For the Angels, it was not Jo Adell. Nope. And we are talking about this Jo Adell......MLB names for us Jered Walsh and Hector Yan...........

I am putting this up here in Haloville because we have some history. The next round of head cutting has happened in the Red Sox front office and, among others, this round took out Eddie Bane. THE Eddie Bane. OUR Eddie Bane..............

I am a rum guy. I could do 10,000 words on rum history just off the top of my head. Captain Morgan is not a product I stock in my home tiki bar, but don’t let that stop you from inviting me along when you win The Captain Morgan Suite for the September 29 home game versus Houston..........

Everywhere In Baseball

Home Run Derby Update:.....Amazingly, not a single one of our MLB home run leaders played yesterday. The Mets, Reds and Dodgers all had the day off, and Mike Trout and Christian Yelich are, of course, injured and done for the year. So going into the weekend we have Pete Alonso leading with 49, Eugenio Suarez is right behind with 48, and Cody Bellinger and Jorge Solar trailing at 45......And this final sentence will be the place where I memorialize Mike Trout ending his year at 45 and Christian Yelich at 44.............

Just hours after pitching 2 innings of shutout ball in the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the Angles on Wednesday, MLB placed MFY pitcher Domingo German on Administrative Leave for domestic violence...........

Ronald Acuna, Jr. now has 40 home runs to go with his 39 stolen bases. The 40/40 club is very very rare. Barry Bonds did it in 1996 when he was 31-years of age. Alfonso Soriano did it in 2006 when he was 30. Jose Canseco in 1998 1988 when he was 23. And Alex Rodriguez did it in 1998 when he was only 22. That’s it. That’s the whole list. Ronald Acuna, Jr. is only 21............

It IS quite possible to obtain productive starting pitching by making simple trades. MULTIPLE productive starting pitchers at the same time, even. Oakland did it just this past July.............

The Marlins did that thing of extending early one of their young pre-arb phenoms, This one is their shortstop Miguel Rojas. Oh, wait. No. Rojas ain’t young at all. He is already 30-years old. He was set to hit his first arb moment in a couple of months, but he originally singed way back in 2005 by the Reds, then cut loose in 2012 without ever getting out of MiLB. He didn’t burn his rookie status until after 2014. His 2.4 bWAR is better and the 1.5 bWAR of Andrelton Simmons this year so I should be too snarky, but in Marlin land that is 2.4 bWAR is rare air. Leave it to Derek Jeter to do the trendy thing on a relatively old man..............

Ah, for the good old days, when the Angels were the team most famous for outperforming their projections..............

Yeah. Dang. With Mike Trout’s injury and his ending the season with a .291 batting average, he misses being a member of the .300/.400/.500 club for the first time since 2015............

This has been a crazy year, and we are not just talking about a lot of home runs.............

Sandlot baseball makes me so happy. Having to organize sandlot baseball makes me sad.It’s supposed to just be.............

($$) - When I first read that Joe Posnanski had created something addictive which he had dubbed “The Homer Sheet”, I went racing to read it hoping to learn that there might be donuts involved. Alas, it’s “homer” as in “home run”. Joe is tracking how in the year 2019 we are realizing a record number of players to hit 10 home runs, or 15 home runs, or 20 home runs, etc. Each possible number from 1 to 50. It’s pretty fun, and something to keep following. For those without a sub who remain curious, you can jump directly to his work product and follow along here............

The Duffle Bag

Job Posting: R&D Analytics working for Trader Jerry up in Seattle. And The Mothership has fun with all those Phillies job opening to which I linked yesterday...........I never thought of this. I could certainly get into the custom baseball bat business when I retire. I got all the skills and tools and will have all the time............It just seems to me as if Bryce Harper is not the kind of guy who gets the lucky breaks. The bad breaks, surely, but not the lucky ones............