Baseball Journal August 1-3, 2018

8-1-18

The MLB.TV free game featured the uninspiring matchup of the Rays versus the Angels.  Thank goodness fans on the east coast will be able to see the greatness that is Mike Trout, whom none of them have ever heard of.  Only people in southern California and baseball experts have ever of this guy.  It’s a pity that this fellow who’s often in the running for league MVP is so unknown.  If only he’d promote himself more by making controversial statements and getting into trouble like NFL and NBA players.  The baseball media has done all it can by even making up and an entire stat, WAR, to mathematically prove that Trout is the greatest baseball player of all time. 

Or maybe, he plays for a team that is under the curse of Albert Pujols, or more specifically Pujols’ contract, which has hamstrung the team from being really competitive.  No matter how great a player you are, you only win and lose as a team (right, Lebron?) and if you’re on a .500 team, you don’t matter.  Unless your entire sport is actually a reality show, starring you, and the game results don’t matter (right, Lebron?).  Yes, I’m apparently feeling feisty this month. 

The Rays put their new acquisition, Tyler Glasnow, right on the mound today.  Kole Calhoun greeted him with a leadoff home run that went into the Ray tank in the outfield.  Plop!  In the third, Ray Mallex Smith was almost driven in on a single, but tripped and fell at third base.  The inning ended with a double play and nothing coming across.  Glasnow only went three innings, but this is a pitching strategy by Rays’ management, and not because of a bad start.  I don’t know what to say about this theory yet.  Others have tried it unsuccessfully, but the league seems to be trending in this direction anyway.

In the fourth with the Angels up 2-0, Tommy Pham, who I thought was on the Cardinals but is now on the Rays, tripped rounding second.  He would have scored otherwise.  It seemed like this wasn’t the Rays’ night, but on the next play Pham advanced to third on a liner to the outfield.  Andrelton Simmons was running over to cover the base and was smiling at Pham about to talk to him, when suddenly Luis Valbuena threw the ball in his direction.  It was a poor decision that caught everyone off guard.  There was no chance of getting Pham at third and no chance of getting him at home as the ball went out of the field of play. 

The Rays would then go ahead and tie it and take the lead on a Mallex Smith triple, 3-2.  The Rays kept hitting.  They loaded the bases in the fifth without scoring.  Willie Adames homered in the sixth to make it 4-2.  Then, they got three in the eighth to make it 7-2, which was the final.  The Rays’ announcers during the game seemed convinced that their team was ready to win now with their current team.  Not in AL east they’re not, but I wish them luck.  This organization seems to stay competitive all the time with innovative strategies and doing more with less.  Meanwhile, the Angels, with more cash, in a bigger media market, and in an historically easier division, seem to do less with more.

The Chihuahuas’ broadcast was blocked at my other workstation.  Hmph, the nerve.  The Flying Squirrels weren’t playing and FOX Sports Radio was doing endless moralizing over a personal situation in college football, which has now become national sports news.  See, this is the kind thing that Mike Trout needs to get involved in.  This would really raise the raise the profile of baseball in general.  Actually, there is one with the Astros trade of Ken Giles to the Blue Jays for Roberto Osuna.  Osuna has an unresolved domestic abuse trial hanging over him.  Hopefully, this too will reach the level of a national hand-wringing scandal. 

I got a Papa Johns pizza over the weekend.  I wanted a good pizza, but there’s some scandal in management there.  I’m not sure, if by buying the pizza, which side of the situation I was supporting.  Now I’m conflicted if I should have gotten the pizza or not.  Now this scandal-driven society is starting to hit me where I live with my precious pizza.  I don’t like a bunch of amoral, unethical, un-virtuous sub-humans pronouncing judgment on what they find unacceptable in society, especially when they cover for others of their degenerate kind when it benefits them and their Agenda.  The media is about to create a society that nobody can live in. 

I joined the Chihuahuas versus the Baby Cakes, henceforth referred to as New Orleans, under overcast skies in El Paso halfway through the game.  Undefeated Brett Kennedy was on the mound, but New Orleans was up 3-0 in the fourth.  Javy Guerra doubled in a run in the frame.  Tim Hagerty gave a great call as the ball headed foul and somehow landed fair.  The pups scored again, but left the bases loaded, 3-2. 

Brad Wieck came in in relief for two scoreless innings and with five strikeouts. Allen Craig led off the eighth with a double that made took an odd bounce off the outfield wall.  Raffy Lopez then came up and hit a monster two-run home run that went over the batter’s eye and out of the ballpark.  4-3 Chihuahuas with extreme prejudice.  Trey Wingenter closed it out with three straight outs, though the final two batters did drive it to the warning track. 

The Rangers and Diamondbacks were probably playing tonight on TV, but I was busy and, frankly, the Rangers aren’t worth making an effort to watch.  They traded Jake Diekman at the deadline to the D-Backs, so he changed dugouts during the series.  I noticed that Ranger closer, Keone Kela, was also traded to the Pirates.  Given how the Rangers keep burning out their closers, at least until they get the new stadium with a roof, this was likely a good move for everyone involved.  The Pirates’ pitching has definitely been upgraded.

8-2-18

It was a light day for baseball for me, not really voluntarily.  The MLB.TV free game was during the day and I missed it.  I’m still blocked on getting Chihuahuas’ games at my other workstation.  I tried getting the other team’s broadcast, but it was blocked too.  I did listen to some more Flying Squirrels baseball, but I’ve decided that unless something really interesting happens during their games, it’s not worth writing about.

So, I joined the Chihuahuas versus New Orleans late.  I did walk in on Franmil Reyes hitting a three-run homer in the first, but it was in the third when I finally sat down and started listening.  By this time, the game was basically over at 7-0 pups and that wasn’t even the end of it.  The inning went 13 batters.  Three more runs scored as the NO outfielders lost a couple fly balls to make it 10-0. 

In the eighth, Jumbo Diaz (his actual name) came in as a reliever for NO.  I remember Tim Hagerty calling him pitching before in 2017 (and I think I wrote about him and I can’t find the entry, damnit).  He’s still in fighting trim at 350 lbs.  The main drama in the inning started with the first batter, Diego Goris, getting called for a penalty strike for not being in the box when play started.  The ump endured a small amount of heckling from the dugout before tossing someone.  It might have been Brett Nicholas, who wasn’t even playing today.  Goris ended up doubling and Auston Bousfield drove him in.  The final was 11-4 Chihuahuas.  It was a good win, but I wasn’t totally into it.  Hey, Gen Con is on Twitch this year!  (They were showing a Pathfinder 2 demo.  I didn’t care.  Oh, well.  No point in linking to it; it’s over.)

8-3-18

Time to rant some more, but I have reasons this time.  In addition to losing Chihuahuas’ games at my other workstation, MLB.TV suddenly started giving me crap about my login.  The site wanted my login and password, which it then rejects.  When I try to reset the password, it rejects the password it just gave me to reset it.  This has come up before, but isn’t an issue on a daily basis.  In any case, I can’t watch or listen to any the games there today.  Let’s hope this sorts itself out. 

There also wasn’t any Flying Squirrels baseball on.  All of sports talk on all three radio networks (ESPN, FOX, CBS) were discussing a spousal abuse issue.  At no point was it explained to me how this story was any of my business.  Nor did they explain how this involved the Ohio State football coach (excuse me, THE Ohio State), who wasn’t the one beating his wife, but simply MUST resign anyway.  I assume the d*ckheads at the NCAA are getting ready to vacate wins and championships from the university.  (I don’t even like THE Ohio State.  I’m more of a Michigan fan.)

Between this kind of stuff and the NFL kneelers, we may be only a few months away from the end of all major sports as we know them.  We may already be there.  As I said, the NBA is a reality show.  Their games are irrelevant.  The NFL has all the sporting integrity of professional wrestling.  Its only real entertainment value, like horse racing, is betting.  You know we could replace all these jerkoff players with some Korean kids playing Madden on Twitch.  The only difference would be that the games might not be fixed. 

Wait, let me give some love to my former favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys.  Yes, up until last year, even with my love for baseball, the Cowboys were my favorite team.  On some level I should thank the kneelers.  I was really sick of watching my team lose, but still getting talked about all the time.  The Cowboys are like the Lebron James of football. 

I give no props to Jerry Jones for his recent comments, but Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot both came out and said the Cowboys will stand as a team.  Elliot said something like, “We’re America’s team.  We stand for the Anthem.”  Thanks, guys.  I’ll consider watching and listening to the Cowboys this year just for that, but I have a feeling this kneeling thing is being primed for a bigger political protest in the near future (which is what the protest is really about). 

Oh, I could go on (last month’s recaps ran out to 50 pages), but let’s get to tonight’s baseball game.  The Chihuahuas were playing their last game of the series against New Orleans.  (Don’t get me started on their team name, and Chihuahuas isn’t exactly a great name either for that matter.)  NO took the lead in the first, but Forrestt Allday did make a great jumping catch on the warning track.  Basically, that’s all I heard of the first half of the game.  Francisco Mejia did tie the score in the bottom with his first Chihuahuas’ home run.

I started listening again in the fifth with the score 3-2 New Orleans.  The wind started picking up at the park.  You could hear it whipping on the mics.  The Chihuahuas started a rally, but I had to step away to work.  When I came back a couple minutes later, the Chihuahuas were now up 5-3.  This just wasn’t my night for baseball. 

In the sixth, Auston Bousfield made another jumping catch on the warning track.  The wind seemed to be carrying the ball.  It carried a monster home run by NO on to the Big Dog house to make it 5-4.  In the bottom, their catcher made a visit to the mound to allow the ump to regroup after getting hit.  No mound visit was charged, so there’s still courtesy visits allowed between the guys behind the plate even with the new rule.      

Trey Wingenter was charged with a pace of play violation, but still got the outs in the eighth.  The Chihuahuas put two on in the bottom with nobody out, but failed to plate any insurance runs.  There was a little drama getting the final out, but Rowan Wick closed it out in the ninth for a 5-4 Chihuahuas win.  That’s a home sweep for the pups and nine errorless games.  They are looking good.