Baseball 2015

Dysfunction in Anaheim finally comes to a head as GM Jerry DiPoto and Manager Mike Scioscia's relationship became untenable over advanced scouting reports. DiPoto wanted the coaching staff to use his reports. Scioscia and team leader Albert Pujols told him to stick it, and the owner sided with the guys in the clubhouse. DiPoto left his post, so who knows who will be the person making a trade before the deadline.

Angel fans can at least say we've seen the Pujols from St. Louis. Set practically every Halo record for the month of June (HRs, RBIs, slugging %, etc) and leads the AL in homers with 24.

 

And it appears the current scouting director is involved in this somehow. Or was. At any rate, he's now the former scouting director, and the details are beginning to emerge. http://www.stltoday.com/sports/base...cle_b529088f-70c3-51c5-bab2-106afa1d2a12.html

 

All Star break, plenty of time to change a team's fortunes, but as it stands:
NL: Best team; St. Louis is simply a well-oiled machine.
Biggest Surprise: Thought the Cubs were a year away, but Joe Maddon has them in the hunt.
Biggest Disappointment: This is going to sound strange, because they are in first and Bryce Harper has been a beast, but the Nats should be the best team in the NL and have been wildly inconsistent. Everyone knew the Phillies were the worst, but the Brewers and Reds shouldn't be this bad.
Best Player: Harper starting to live up to the hype.

AL: Best team; Kansas City has been out to prove last year wasn't a fluke.
Biggest Surprise: Going with Encore's Twins. I had an inkling the Astros had a bunch of young talent that could put it all together. Sorry to FulhamTx about Springer getting hurt, because they haven't been the same since he went down. Maybe ES can elaborate, but did not envision the Twinkies being this good.
Biggest Disappointment. The Red Sox and Mariners. Boston has been awful by their standards, and despite being 5 games under .500 the rest of the AL East is mediocre and they are only 6.5 games out. The M's were picked to win the division by practically everyone, but as usual they can't hit. I know Pujols' contract is bad, but he's producing, Robinson Cano flat out stinks.
Best Player: 3+ years ago a couple gentlemen from the great city of San Antonio told me under no uncertain terms to slow my roll about Mike Trout. I repeat exactly what I said then; Mike Trout is STILL the best young player I have ever seen.

 

Baseball has actually been fun for me again since the Cubs are good, and somehow we're a power hitting team, which is also exciting. Been a solid year around the league so far, definitely fun to see pitchers starting to dominate a bit more.

 

Astros need some help via trade. Having 2 guys in the line up hitting 200 just can't happen and we need another starter. With that said I'm very proud of the team and what they have done to this point. I think the break will do this team a world of good, they have looked gassed for last week, I believe they have played more games than any other team. Time to hit the reset button and push on for the rest of the year! Getting Jed lowrie back in a week or 2 will be huge for the astros as well.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

The Twins have been surprise up in these parts as well, especially with the way they started the season. My thought at the beginning of the season was that the Twins were a year away from having Buxton and Sano (2 of the top 15 prospects in all of baseball coming into the season, according to ESPN) make an impact and a few meaningful arms short of a real pitching staff.

Well, Buxton is up (and on the DL), Sano is mashing the ball in the bigs and the pitchers are throwing way over their heads...so I've been proven wrong on all fronts. I'm not sure the starters can sustain their current output though, so I have a feeling that the Twins will slowly come back down to Earth in the 2nd half. I do like how Paul Molitor has them playing though...the right way.

 

You'd have to ban me too.

Have to admit I'm finding baseball more and more tedious and boring as time goes by. Unless my O's are in the mix, anyway. That's not looking likely this year. Wonder if Cruz would like a do-over on that Seattle move.

 

When it comes to the Yanks & Sawx (and Jays & Rays to a slightly lesser extent), guilty as charged!

Isn't that the point with rivals?

 

I'll confess I don't keep up with too many teams or players that aren't connected to the Cardinals. I certainly don't think they're a lock, despite the best record at the break. The Cubs are better and I haven't figured out why the Pirates haven't won the NL Central or gotten a wild card the past couple of seasons. Our weaknesses began rearing their ugly heads in a big way the last 10 days to two weeks before the final Sunday before the ASG. I'm expecting some backup on our part, the question is how much. I'm not sure we've improved the 40 man roster enough to contend at the end of the year, but I've thought that for 2 or 3 years now and, lo and behold, Matheny and Mozeliak pull the right strings and we end up playing in October. It's one of the oldest cliches' around, but there IS a lot of baseball left. And once you make it into the post season, it's anybody's World Series to have. Just look at '06.
Gonna try not to get too worked up about and enjoy the ride while it lasts. I think St. Louis' season will depend on pitching, defense and a key acquisition or two around the trade deadline. Mozeliak and DeWitt have been either very good or very lucky at that, so we'll see what they pull off this season.

 

Isn't it time that someone in the Hymel household buys HatterMom a Mike Trout jersey? Best stat from last night as Trout became the first ever back to back MVP; in his first at-bat in his 4 All-Star games have gone accordingly; 2012 - single, 2013 - double, 2014 -triple, 2015 - Home Run. An ASG cycle for the kid.

2 other thoughts; The Home Run Derby in this 'tournament' style format was great. Put me in the Red Sox Haters Club (sorry Heather & Jim)

 

I'm just hoping that Trout (or Harper) wanders into the wrong locker room, or airport or whatever and pulls on the Giants' orange and black. Trout's opp o line drive homer to start the game made me forget how much I dislike the Angels (old grudges die hard). But that dude is special. I didn't get to see Mays or Mantle in their prime, but Trout can't be too far off.

 

For the most part, that's true. But they did hit a couple of dry spells in that span, most notably the '70's and the '90's. Still, I'll happily agree that, for the most part, the organization has been stellar.

 

And he starts off by pitching 7 scoreless innings against the AL leading Royals!

Huge series against the Halos starting tonight.