TroutBaseball

at some other point I want to hear the journalistic reasoning behind updating/editing a published story instead of writing a new story. Seems like this could lead to all kinds of #fakenews scandals if writers know they can change their articles.

Kershaw last night after the game said he thought Taylor would be valuable as a utility man but NEVER thought he'd have this much pop. We probably don't need to dive in to why his OPS in AAA might not be reliable.

Chris Taylor is exhibit A that there's some new form of PEDs in baseball. No one saw this coming. I think I could name 12 players that fit his mold.

. . . and he's funny

I know he's a favorite of several here. Sam Miller will be speaking at Q COMMONS next Thursday in Long Beach. http://qcommons.com/longbeach

Stanton might be got just by assuming his contract and a few Rodons. Not that I think the Angels should.

JD Martinez instead?

Billy was on the Baseball Tonight podcast with Buster Olney. http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=20835397 My notes: 1) they're going to need more pitching help next year. 2) Upton seems to like playing in SoCal 3) Simmons is amazing

Here is a gif

At one point in the game the Astros had 6 men in the outfield against Pujols. They moved 2B, SS, and 3B onto the grass. No SS has ever played as far back as Correa against Pujols. Fletcher pointed out that the shift forces Albert to run harder because the plays are closer. If other teams are going to force him to run there's no way he plays out this contract. Does anyone know if the Angels have insurance on his contract? If he's permanently on the DL can they recoup some cost?

as I was saying. . . Petit leads the team in Goose Eggs https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/were-still-looking-for-the-new-goose-gossage/

They are both in tonight's lineup. Philips batting first, Upton batting third

With Twitter's new algorithm there's no point in checking Twitter for live game updates. Better just to download the MLB app and set up notifications. Also, Twitter's decision to show me every political post every single one of my follows decides to like sucks.

What most baseball players use it for is to help pick up and track pitches. It can be used as a stimulant as "greenies" were once used, to give players a pick-me-up. It's not just a prescription medication like your average anti-biotic, the state of California considers it a tier-2 controlled substance. Pharmacist are not allowed to fulfill prescriptions for it from outside the state. You can get addicted to it and it has the potential for overdose. https://www.addictioncenter.com/stimulants/ritalin/

Ritalin is for sure a performance enhancer. That's why there's an illegal market for it in Silicon Valley. A psychiatrist once told me that if his own son was good enough to play professional baseball he'd tell him to do whatever he could to get a prescription for it. MLB gives medical exemptions for Ritalin but the number of players with those exemptions far outpaces the ratio of adults using it in the general population. Adrian Gonzalez has publicly complained that too many players are abusing the personal exemption rules for Ritalin.

I love the charitable approach but these guys are given clear instructions and have help from the union when evaluating medications.

The red uniforms are great. They just need to no longer be red on red. I think they should mix some black in as an accent color instead of blue (blue is everywhere in MLB!)

I think the way the season has gone lately no one cares about anything other than feeling vindicated about Cowart.

Just like with boxing, poor kids will use the sport as a way out of poverty but the middle class will start removing their kids from the risk.

bobblehead night

I see I'm a day late to the consensus opinion. It wasn't until the second loss to TB that I was convinced it's time to sell off anybody with an expiring contract. If anything this team is playing above expectations.

Keith Law was saying that the Royals have 4 guys going into free agency (Moose, Hosmer, Cain, AL Escobar). They might be willing to ship all four out for just one great prospect. That seems like a crazy deal but there is some logic to it. They'd all just be rentals so their trade value is diminished.

I've heard they'd be FOOLISH to take an asset like Freeman and try to move him over to 3B. The speculation is that they are "saying" he's moving to 3B so that they can reduce the perception of urgency as they try to trade Adams away.

I was kind of thinking about this tonight too. The Dodgers have gotten far more out of Utley in the last 2.5 years than I thought they would.

As much as people want to punish ESPN for personnel decisions it's these 5 things and only these 5 things. Opinion shows are all over the place on ESPN for the same reason as they are on FOX News, CNN and MSNBC. Hard news stories and highlights are easier to consume instantly on the internet instead of waiting 30 minutes for them on TV. Want to see that cool Curry move against Lebron; just go to Youtube, no reason to wait for Scott Van Pelt to show it to you.