The Angels were swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend. Mike Trout homered on his birthday. Anthony Rendon is struggling. Jo Adell had a rough day. This team has the second-worst record in baseball. Fun!
ICYMI: Eric Kay was charged in relation to the Tyler Skaggs case. John takes a look at Mike Trout’s career so far. Brent looks at Dylan Bundy’s season so far.
The Cleveland Indians sent pitcher Zach Plesac home for going out and meeting some friends. It’s a good learning moment for Plesac and perhaps also a cautionary tale for the rest of the league in they decide to engage in risky behavior. Meanwhile, the Indians are still supposed to play next week.
Speaking of postponed games, the St. Louis Cardinals have yet another series postponed. They have only played five games. This will be problematic if Major League Baseball decides they want the Cardinals to play the full sixty games.
The Oakland A’s played the Houston Astros over the weekend. An A’s broadcaster trolled Jose Altuve by making buzzer sounds. Tensions came to a head when there was a brawl in Sunday’s game (read: not good for social distancing) and Ramon Laureano was ejected. Houston’s hitting coach, Alex Cintron (who finally has to do some work and teach the Astros how to hit), instigated the brawl, and Laureano obliged him. It will be interesting to see what the punishments will be, considering MLB was very strict on the whole no-brawls thing before the season. The A’s play the Angels tonight. Here’s Jomboy’s take on the whole mess.
Grab Bag: Fernando Tatis Jr. is really good. Chris Iannetta (aka Destructobeam) has retired. Oakland has won nine in a row. The Mets, or at least their television partner, are sponsored by Send in the Clowns, which is somehow a real company name. Go figure.
OT: Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship on the back of one of the most impressive holes (the 16th) to close out a Major. That kid is impressive.
Joe sticking with Jo (batting 9th). That’s the right decision. Goody is sitting tonight. That’s less right.
Maddon putting his best hitter at #3 is just a galaxy brain move to me. Why would you ever reduce PA’s to your top hitter?
Didn’t Ruth hit 3rd? I should check and see who batted 1st and 2nd for the 27 skanks. ..
Makes sense to have .356 hitting Earle Combs leading off but .285 (.320 OPS) Mark Koenig 2nd is unnecessary.
Back then the #2 was just the “bunt him over” guy!!!
This team is too good to be playing this poorly. What if we sweep Oakland? 3-4 games out in an era of expanded playoffs is nothing! We can do this. I just don’t see these guys getting to this level of competitiveness and not believing they are playing to win. Still hopeful. If a team can be surprisingly bad, that means they can also be surprisingly good.
Have people given up on this season? We’re 7 games out of first. At the 2.7 conversion rate that’s like 19 out after 43 games. That sounds grimmer than I expected.
But Rendon and Ohtani are too good to be in the .100s. My worry is that the starting pitching might come back to earth (see yesterday for an example).
CBS Sports has grades so far. We’ve got an F.
I have given up any hope of playoffs, but i’m still happy to have baseball to watch. You can never have too much Mike Trout.
Same here. The Angels left for that road trip as a 3-7 team. Knowing that a tough week of Oakland/LA was in store and knowing that .500 is the already low goal for a low playoff spot, I figured the team needed to go 5-1, no worse than 4-2 on that road trip to have any life. Instead, 2-4 and handing a division rival a lifeline.
Agreed!! Still enjoying baseball but not expecting the Angels to make the playoffs. Even if they did it might be just embarrassing.
Being 7 games out is not exactly the equivalent of being 19 games out in a 162-game season. Yes, the Angels have far less time to catch up, but it is still only 7 games. Moreover, the team has a far lower bar to meet this season in order to make the postseason.
Needed a 4-2 road trip, could’ve really used 5-1, but instead pretty much iced our season before it began.
Great breakdown by Jomboy. The Houston coach egging on a fight then hiding behind 3 other guys laughable. What a joke. The fact of the matter, though, is Oakland went to Houston’s bench so expect them to get hit harder by the league.
This is an interesting situation. I noticed a few days back that the A’s seem to have set up their rotation so that Fiers could avoid facing the Astros (he in fact pitched the game before the Houston series). This was smart. The indignant cheaters would have been very fired up (pun intended) to get revenge on someone they surely see as a snitch, a rat, or whatever other pejorative term you can find. On the contrary, I see Fiers as a “whistle blower,” which is a noble thing, not a negative. In any case, the hard feelings between these clubs boiled over anyway.
Don’t expect us to be the beneficiaries of any suspensions. Typically the punished player will appeal any suspension handed down by the League, which buys him and his team time so he can keep playing until a final decision is reached. This usually takes a few days. Players almost always appeal, so we will likely have to face Laureano this series.
I’d completely overlooked the Fiers situation. And, yes, he’s a whistleblower. This isn’t organized crime.
I had to watch the Jomboy clip. I wonder if the grassy knoll shooter is the one who dislodged Maldonado’s mask? Things we may never know.
Jomboy breakdown was a great link. Thanks for sharing! Fuck the Astros. If the Dodgers pitcher got 8 games for not hitting someone, the Astros deserve more for hitting the same guy 3 times, but I bet they get off with little more than a wrist slap, which is common Manfred behavior, protecting his little bitches.
I hadn’t thought of that angle. I guess it comes down to intent. Kelly definitely intended to hit and/or terrorize guys.
As much as I dislike Houston it was the A’s who ran to Houston’s dugout to start the brawl. I expect them to get hit much harder by Manfred.
After all the negative publicity that Manfred received from all quarters with Kelly, l doubt that he will come down hard on the A’s or Asstros. About now Manfred is feeling the heat for a lot of bad decisions that he has come up with.
Joe Kelly got 8 games for inciting a brawl, he didn’t hit anyone. The Astros coach incited a brawl, he should be banned for the season. The coaches should be held to a higher standard. Nothing would have happened if he didn’t start to run his mouth. Of course, Manfred won’t see it this way, but he should. It’s like an NBA makeup call. Nobody likes it, but it feels fair in the end.
If Manfred has showed anything it is that he will protect the cheaters. This is kind of screwed up logic. Why so much concern about protecting the Astros ? It is very odd. Now, if the real games started and all of a sudden a bunch of beanballs were coming at their heads, then that is different. But that did not happen.
Manfred is a horrible Commissioner.
I think under the recent rule changes, guys can be banned for the rest of the season for blatant violations of the social distancing rules. It will be interesting to see just how far Manfred is willing to take things.
Haha, SendTheClowns? Were the Mets talking about themselves!?!
Just a tidbit on 23 year old Morikawa’s performance. That drive on the 16th (under incredible pressure and after chipping in to make birdie) was everything the Angels have not been this year. It showed heart, skill and was unbelievably clutch. He then stepped up and hit the putt for the Eagle.
Watching the final 2 1/2 hours of the PGA Championship filled me with more joy, awe and elation for sport than the 60+ hours I have committed to Angels baseball this year.
l have been joking heavily about us losing to catch the Pirates, but in truth l would prefer that this team get it together and put in a run of wins that would show promise for next season. Losing pretty much sucks and is not fun. But this team is sluggish and watches way to many strike threes just fly by. the batters for the most part are not keeping there head down and eyes on the ball. Concentration is lacking in the field, even Mike is getting a late start going after the ball.
With what is happening with the Cardinals how is this virus going to affect the MLB playoffs if a huge number of games played will be different per club?
The Astros are still lucky that 2929 Strange is here, as fans would be a whole lot worse than their opponents have been. They even act like they don’t understand why they are being thrown at and verbally assaulted. Without cheating Altuve is having problems figuring out how to hit. Karma.
Adell must really be in the dumps right now, but with the team showing they are behind him everything should mentally turn around for him shortly.
Let’s go Angels!
I honestly think the Astros will not be better off by 2020. They seem to be struggling this year, and then next year if fans are allowed, the fans will return more bitter than ever and shower the team with boos, thus affecting two seasons of theirs.
I agree. They’ve lost Verlander to injury, Cole to free agency, and it’s hard to argue that the nerves are not getting to them. When actual boos start pouring in en masse, it’ll be nearly impossible not to be rattled.
To think they could’ve gotten it all pretty much over by now. I have to imagine the boos would gradually decline as the season wore on and they visited teams a second time.
But, no, they have something to look forward to in 2021, hopefully.
Feel bad for Adell but he’s fortunate there have been no fans to heckle him. Kinda an ideal environment to embarrass yourself in.
Glad we called him up and he can take these lumps now. Hoping they can create roster space somehow and get Marsh up here as well.
Yeah, it has been a brutal debut. I was really impressed by his reads and defense when I saw him in Spring Training. I’m obviously no scout but he seemed to take a good, confident first step and always be in position to make a good catch and return the ball.
Hopefully this is just jitters and hopefully he doesn’t start to doubt himself.
Last time there was a brawl, MLB felt Pederson’s role in taunting the Astros warranted significant punishment, but the Astros that actually started the brawl by charging him were treated like innocent parties.
Following that precedent, Alex Cintron should get an 8 game suspension and Laureano should receive an apology for being ejected.
This is kinda crazy, but Laureano was plunked three times this series. How could he not be miffed that these were intentional if it’s only hitting him and not other A’s players? And Cintron, as a coach, should be subject to much harsher punishment than a player would be.
Yep, taunting and calling out the player from the other team and walking out of the dugout, Cintron should be suspended for the rest of the season. Banned from all team facilities and contact with players/ management until after the 2020 season has ended.
Halos just look like they’re mailing it in, no fire out there. Happy trails Destructobeam, retired life is great!
Yeah I’m guessing that first series with all the demoralizing losses in Oakland followed by more bullpen disasters kinda killed the team morale for the fake season. Maybe if we started 4-1 they’d care more but I think a lot of teams playing like crap will continue to get worse or even have players opt out.
It’s happening with the NBA too…the teams that started hot seem to be energized and the ones that didn’t are really mailing it in. It may sorta feel normal to us on TV but I imagine the empty stadiums is really weird for players every single day.
Definitely interested to see what MLB does to the Asstros and the A’s. Houston getting thin skinned? So incredibly tragic.