eaterfan

I don't think anyone isn't blaming Hamilton and Pujols, although Pujols' injury may be a factor in his lack of production this season. But I think the dead horse of Hamilton and Pujols has been beaten enough and there is nothing the Angels can do to fix that problem other than a) bench them b ) hope they improve. Trumbo may be able to be traded so that's why people discuss him. What is this obsession with power production? Power production =/= production. A team full of Kenny Loftons hitting 10 HRs would score far more runs than a team full of Trumbos hitting 35. What matters is how many runs you create compared to how many outs you use. Trumbo isn't great at that and since he's not bringing much in any other facet of the game he deserves a lot of the blame. But blaming everyone for this season doesn't really matter. What matters is evaluating the team going forward and figuring out who will be productive in the future. Many of us feel Trumbo doesn't have the pitch recognition to be that guy over the course of a whole season. He's 28 now and probably won't improve much from here on out.

I hate the Napoli comparison. Napoli got on base. Also Napoli at least played poor defense at catcher instead of first.

Apparently they don't grow in Anaheim either because Mark Trumbo has as many 40 HR seasons as I do.

I didn't know Ballast was closed. I had to get home earlier than I expected last night so Ballast Point got cut so that was lucky for me.

Don't worry, Aaron, you really didn't miss too much. The cherry was almost totally undetectable. If you do get your hands on some I would suggest drinking it pretty warm. The cherry didn't come through at all at cooler (not cold) temps.

Nice haul, Katie. I think Black Xantus is one of the most underrated beers out there. I love it and it's relatively cheap for a barrel aged beer and always available. It's the stout that I always have on hand for when I don't feel like being adventurous. Went to the Alesmith release party this weekend. BA Speedway was great as was the coffee. It was really easy and not that crowded at least in the morning. Met some cool people. Some of the variations they had on tap and on cask were great like the World Tour, Vietnamese Brown Ale. I wasn't overwhelmed by the cherry VSS or the Pistachio SS. Neither flavor was very detectable. I got hints of both but others weren't able to detect them which is weird because I generally find I have a less sensitive palate than most but I picked out which was which in a blind tasting.

Beer weekend San Diego trip today and tomorrow! Going to pick up my Barrel Aged Speedway Stout today at Alesmith before the races. Tomorrow I think we'll do Alpine and Societe early tomorrow and then maybe Port/Lost Abbey and Churchill's. Any other Sunday suggestions?

I love stouts but this one was a little hard to finish even with 2 other friends having it. I have 2 extras that I will age and hope the flavors blend together in the bottle. I doubt it will be enough to rescue this iteration of the w00t but it may get better.

Cause it costs less to not pay two managers.

For a slander case they actually would have to prove that he is lying. Clark doesn't have to he's telling the truth.

Haha, different strokes for different folks. I really think the 120 minute is overrated. It was good for a few sips but after that I found it a bit overwhelming. On the other hand I loved Pliny the Younger and I'm not even a huge IPA fan. It was one of the best beers I've ever had. The hops were perfect in there. As far as the w00tstout goes, I found it to have a lot of potential but the flavors seemed to be all separate and headed in a different direction. If felt like it got rushed to the market and the flavors hadn't been given time to blend. I really liked the sweetness of it and the pecan flavor though. If they release another one next year I'll give it a try but if it isn't improved I won't buy a third year.

He was just standing his ground.

I'm more worried about the parking around there than standing in line.

Damn, that's my session. It's going to be a mess.

Hamilton isn't hitting HR's because he's not motivated to? That's always been my problem too. I'd be a 40 HR guy if I would have had more motivating managers back in Little League.

They let you order twice? Which sessions are you going to?

Got 6 bottles. My friend can't make it down their Labor Day weekend so I bought the beers and am going down there but he's paying for all of them and I get half.

Not to mention the number of ABs keeps increasing.

I think it has more to do with the talent upgrade. A lot of those players still liked and respected Francona and that's why they were so upset Valentine was hired. I won't even argue that Valentine did poorly because they didn't like him. I think he did poorly because A) they didn't have the talent and Valentine is bad at strategy. Did Mattingly suddenly become smarter in June this year? Did he suddenly get more respected? No. It was a talent upgrade from returning Ramirez, calling up Puig and getting Greinke back. I think Scioscia still knows the strategy and the odds of finding a better manager are very slim.

I'm sure the reason the Sox are doing better is because of the manager not because Pedroia came back and they have a very different team than last season. It's definitely not that they traded away a bunch of over paid past their prime veterans for good young players that represented a major upgrade in talent.

If everyone makes the last out equally it's 1/9 games would end between each lineup spot so that works out to about 18 PA's over the course of a season. It's not a huge difference but if Trout is hitting .333 that is probably about 4-5 hits and a walk or two and a probably a couple of stolen bases. Shuck wouldn't get on base enough to justify the difference between him hitting 2nd and 9th. Let's not forget the only time it makes a difference is the first time through the lineup.

Keep Trout at 2nd. He needs more PAs not fewer.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15295 A great read that shows drafting young high school kids is a much better value than older ones.

But he has no protection!

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/08/happy-birthday-to-mike-trout-who-could-be-the-best-player-ever/ And another wishing a happy birthday to someone who could be the best baseball player ever.