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Well, here we go friends. The last home stand, the last week, the last games of the season for us. Somehow we will screw it up, anyway. We might as well laugh at it all and pay attention to real baseball while it lasts. For the most part, we can count on at least the other guys playing the real baseball.
6 games left: what would be the best over/under for total runs scored?
6 games left: what would be the best over/under for runs surrendered?
It gives you something to think about.
We are still tracking through The-Last-6-Days-Of-Baseball-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Season Status Update: At 86 losses the Angels are in a June draft positional mix with the Pirates, Mariners, Rockies, White Sox, Padres, Reds, Rangers and Giants. They can rise no higher than 6th, with the Pirates, Mariners, Rockies and White Sox above them. They can fall no further than 13th, with the Padres, Reds, Rangers and Giants below them. Making this very easy on me, not a single one of those teams played yesterday, so I could polish this off early. And, yes, it’s all about me..........
This 2019 LAA pitching staff will rank as one of the worst in MLB history. Everybody watched it and everybody knows it. But 2019 LAA pitching coach Doug White remains an analytic genius..........
Albert Pujols opens up, and everything he says defies everything said about him. Some cynics will say he is lying, and other cynics will say that the first cynics don’t know what the hell they are talking about............
The Angels hit well enough top be a playoff contender..........The Angels pitched poorly enough to put them in the hunt for a high June 2019 draft slot..........
Hansel Robles just needed a chance to be weird.............
Jo Adell is reminding us that he is still a work in progress...........
($$) - But here is hanging out with Adell, Brandon Marsh and Jahmai Jones at the AFL..........The road food spread stories read like Papillon..........
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.............
Oh look! Somebody has been reading my recent Links posts about 100-win/100-loss teams...........(And somebody else was reading my opening from yesterday about how the Angels are gifting playoff slots these days.)...........And here is something to think about: Minnesota, Oakland, Tampa Bay and Cleveland should all end up with at least 95 wins. And one of them is going to not make the playoffs, and another one is going to last only as long as it takes to sneeze...........
The Cubs are dust, and that is a pretty big deal. There recent collapse has been epic.....That it was the Cardinals who steamrolled them right out of the playoffs is just damning......The notion of a dynasty are crushed.....The idea that the Cubs players were subject to some level of brutal pressure because they won already is baloney. The Astros players are in the same boat and thriving..........But now we can start dissecting the karmic psyche of Cubs fans..........
Part of the Cubs problem is the loss of Kris Bryant due to a busted ankle. Scott Boras is pretty pissed off that Rob Manfred’s bags are wet.............
What? No Mike Trout in the MLB Second Half All-Star Team? Damned straight, skippy.............
And look at this: a player from the Baltimore Orioles made AL Player of the Week. This is the same Orioles in the same week that looked like the entire team was ready to check out completely and get some fishing in before fall took over..........
This makes Rob Manfred’s denials all the more embarrassing. We have more teams hit at least 200 home runs in this season alone than all of MLB experienced for it’s first 115 years...........But if you thought home runs have been a big deal so far, just wait until the playoffs start..........And in any event, Mark McGwire is thrilled. After all, this barrage works well to whiteout the asterisks on his andro-fueled legacy..........
Ned Yost is retiring. That guy gets a lot of credit for being skipper on a team where 25 guys all had their career peak at the same time, and a shit ton of lucky breaks all fell their way. And I mean A LOT of credit for that one time.....But Missouri loves its own. Mike Matheny, the Cardinals cast-off from just up the road and hanging around Kauffman Stadium as a ‘special advisor’, may have just ‘special advisored’ his way back into the dugout...........
The timing of Andy Green’s firing sure sucks for Green. I hope is comp package was payign him well enough to take one for the team....The list of candidates to replace Andy Green in San Diego is now at least 13 guys long. Mike Matheny is not on the list...but...Eric Chavez, Raul Ibanez, Joe Maddon and Mike Scioscia are..........(Bruce Bochy is being cagey)..........
I am still stupified that some folks around here did not want to pay Yansmani Grandal to be our catcher. He signed for 2 years, $32MM with the Brewers and has been catching gold..........Grandal is one of only 4 catchers in all of MLB to generate enough playing time to count as qualified, and ranks second in all of MLB in fWAR......Quick: when was the last time an Angels catcher had AT LEAST an fWAR season of 5.1 or better? (answer below)..........
The Twins think they got duped, A.J. Preller-style, by the Giants for taking on a Sam Dyson from the Giants that is damaged goods..........
If you were holding back on a subscription to The Athletic on the theory that it is a flash in the pan, time’s up. The Athletic ain’t going anywhere but up.........
The Duffle Bag
Austin Hays made a catch.....That catch looks kind of familiar.............The Mets are hiring even more. We got an intern opening in R&D.....and we got another intern opening in Player Development..........Mookie with a cannon shot............
Quiz answer: The last time any Angels catcher had AT LEAST an fWAR season of 5.1 was NEVER. The closest we have enjoyed to that would be Brian Downing in 1979, Downing was 5.0 fWAR as a catcher/DH.