Capital_Dave

I knocked a few runs off my prediction due to the "Trout Baby Effect" -- insignificant in a 162-game season, but noticeable in a 60-game season!

333 greginpsca 328 Junkballer 323 Capital_Dave 317 Slegnaac 316 Taylor 315 AO 299 AD&B 295 JAHV76

If you had to pick ONE MANAGER in all of baseball to figure out exactly how to play every angle to maximize your chances of winning a season unlike any other in baseball history, who would you choose? Me too. Joe Maddon.

Angels fall just short in their comeback attempt, stranding Jason Castro at 2nd in the bottom of the ninth, as the Angels fall to the Red Sox 5-4. Angels forego the DH again, with Ohtani going 1-for-2 during his 6 innings pitched (5ER, 6Ks). Mike Trout hits his 22nd homer. The Angels head out on a long ten-game road trip next. They'll hit Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Atlanta, starting Friday.

The Angels slip back a half game behind the Wild Card leaders again as they drop a game to the Red Sox by a score of 5-2. Canning gets a quality start but barely. David Fletcher's doing a good, not great, job as leadoff this season, batting .278 (but with just a .324 OBP).

The Angels move into a share of the Wild Card lead with a 6-3 win against the Red Sox. Rendon goes 2-for-4 with a double and a home run, now batting .310 on the season. Shohei Ohtani slugs his 12th HR of the year.

The Angels complete a four-game sweep of the Rangers after an absolutely dominant start by Andrew Heaney, who has otherwise struggled mightily this year. Final score: 6-0 Angels. 8IP, 13K, 2 hits, 0ER, Heaney earns his third win of the season. Ohtani continues his hot streak, going 2-for-3 with a three-run homer. He's gone 9 for 12 since Friday and has hit three-run homers for three games in a row. A rather anemic Red Sox team (35-43) come to town for a three-game set starting tomorrow.

Don't look now, but Shohei Ohtani is getting pretty hot. He goes 4-for-5 today, with a double and a homer, as the Angels win their third in a row, this time by a score of 9-3. A great start by Julio Teheran (8IP, 3ER) followed by Bedrock's first game action since being activated from the I.L., an effective inning of relief. The Angels outhit the Rangers 16-3 and go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon. I dunno guys (and occasional girl)... given the COVID-19 news coming out of major league camps these last few days, we all might have to get used to the idea that this is the only game action we're getting this season. Pretend Angels Fever... Catch it.™

Shohei Ohtani with a big game, going 3-for-4 with a 3-run homer, as the Angels beat the ice-cold Rangers 6-4. Dylan Bundy gets the win, with a 5.2 inning, 9 K performance, giving up just two runs. Hansel Robles with his 18th save, just three off a four way tie for the league lead (21).

Griffin Canning has another excellent start, giving up just 4 baserunners in 6 innings. The Rangers rallied late, but the Angels held on to win a slugfest 10-7. A well-rounded win, with every member of the Angels starting lineup getting at least one hit. Jo Adell with his 6th homer of the year, a three-run shot that provided the margin of victory. Oh, and ho-hum, Mike Trout got his 21st homer of the season, now batting .321.

Nothing like a trip to visit Tarpy in Oakland to smother your hot streak. The A's complete the sweep over the Angels 7-2. The Halos have now lost 5 in a row, after their 17-2 hot streak. Shohei Ohtani had his roughest start of the season, going just 4 innings and giving up 7 earned. Noe Ramirez and Justin Anderson pitched effectively in relief to limit the damage. Maybe Ohtani was miffed that Manager @Jeff Fletcher didn't let him bat in this one? Instead, the Angels utilized the DH and got another 0-for-4 out of Albert Pujols, who is now batting .214 on the season.

All the runs in this game were scored with one swing of the bat. Unfortunately, that bat belong to an Oakland Athletic. Sean Murphy's three run homer did in the Angels, as the good guys lost 3-0. Mike Fiers shut down Angels hitters, as he combined with Soria and Hendriks on a two-hit shutout.

Athletics get three hits apiece from their leadoff (Semien) and 9-hole (Murphy) batters, and run roughshod over the Angels to a final score of 8-3. Andrew Heaney has another forgettable outing, giving up 5 runs (4 earned) over 5 innings. Jo Adell Lineup Watch™ has Adell now batting 5th, contributing a double today to go 1-for-4. Albert Pujols Lineup Replacement Watch™ has Matt Thaiss going 1 for 3, batting ninth, still not giving Manager @Jeff Fletcher much incentive to sit Pujols more often.

Kind of a bummer of a game for the Angels. Julio Teheran gives up four first-inning runs, so the home crowd never had a chance to get into it. Those four runs would end up being the margin of victory as the Mariners win 6-2. Jo Adell's hot streak comes to an end. He's been moved up to 6th in the lineup. Pujols (justifiably IMHO) has been dropped to 8th in the lineup, batting after Adell and Simmons. Felix Peña gets called up and goes 2.2 effective innings. Big mini-roadie coming up, as the Angels head to Oakland this week for three games against the Wild Card leaders. Rotation is well aligned for an important series.

Angels rally in the bottom of the ninth, but fall just short, losing a slugfest to the Mariners 11-10. Albert Pujols claims 5th place in the all-time HR leaderboard, passing Willie Mays with his 661st career HR.

There are certain moments that you dream about as a Little Leaguer. And as he looked around him, Jo Adell realized that he was living one right now. This had already been an emotionally exhausting game. Five lead changes, a combined 24 hits between the two teams, and now he and his fellow Angels were down 8-6 in the bottom of the ninth. But there was hope. And some magic in the air. He looked down at third base and saw David Fletcher, who had led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to electrify the crowd. He looked to second and saw his mentor Mike Trout, who had moved Fletch to third with his own bloop single to shallow right, becoming the tying run. And down at first was Shohei Ohtani, who had drawn a white-knuckle walk to become the winning run on first. Oh, and up on the jumbotron? That Rally Monkey was jumping around. It was time to jump up, jump up, and get down. Adell low-fived Justin Upton as Upton headed back to the dugout, having struck out on a nasty Carl Edwards slider for the second out of the bottom of the ninth. Upton had certainly done his part tonight: he had gone 2-for-5 and had 4 RBIs. But baseball is a team sport, and Upton's strikeout set Adell up for his moment. And so it was on a 2-1 inside fastball, Adell found his pitch. A mighty crack of the bat was met with a momentary stunned silence, then a deafening roar, as Mariners left fielder Mallex Smith drifted back, back, then turned and watched as Adell's two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth, WALK OFF GRAND SLAM sealed the win for the Angels! The final score was 10-8. As he rounded third and headed toward the mob at home plate, amidst the fireworks and 43,000 screaming fans, Jo Adell realized his boyhood dream, and the Angels had delivered an iconic moment in their make-believe season. Your Pretend Angels have now won 17 of their last 19 games, and are within 1.5 games of the Wild Card.

Another day off for the Angels, who are getting some rest after a brutal three-week stretch without any days off at all. Here's a look at the Angels team stats so far this season. The Angels bullpen is a strong suit in this simulation, with Barnes and Buchter surprisingly effective contributors. Starting pitching has rebounded sharply over the last few weeks, sparked by Griffin Canning and Shohei Ohtani's return to the rotation. The Angels offense has underperformed expectations, particularly Upton and Ohtani. But Trout, Rendon, and Simmons are all well north of .300 and contributing all over the stat sheet.

I've seen this kid pitch a few times. He's a gamer. Very competitive. Great mound presence. He was a K machine in Louisville. Love the pick!

You won't see this every day. (Has it EVER happened before?) The National League team used the DH on today's game, and the American League team did not. The Angels' hot streak continues as they rack up yet another win, this time a Shohei Ohtani-pitched 5-1 drubbing of the Miami Marlins. Manager @Jeff Fletcher continues to bat Ohtani cleanup on his start days (usually giving him a day off around the starts). Ohtani pitched into the seventh, giving up just one earned run and recording 9 K's. He earned his third win. Mike Trout hits his 20th homer of the season, a three-run shot, and Jo Adell's hitting streak continues, today with a sixth inning double. This team sure is fun to (virtually) watch right now. They've won 16 of their last 18 games.

Hean-Dog has a sterling game, going 7 scoreless frames, striking out nine Marlins to earn the win. Hansel Robles with the save. Ho hum. Angels win again, 2-0. Jo Adell continues his hot streak and goes 2-for-3, as Manager Jeff Fletcher moves him above Albert Pujols in the lineup (for the first time this season?) This Angels team is on a roll.

Credit where credit is due: Manager @Jeff Fletcher I'm just the journalist who reports the news. Hey I guess that makes me the @Jeff Fletcher of this scenario.

Very light schedule today, with just two games on the docket and the Angels have the day off. They're headed home to Angel Stadium for a juicy five-game homestand against the Marlins and Mariners. Here's a look at the standings, including the Wild Card standings where, don't look now, but the Angels are ahead of the Yankees and Red Sox and just 3.5 games out.

Funny I was just about to bring up the 2019 Nats. Will the Angels 19-30 start be a similar bit of trivia in the pretend future? The Angels win yet again and are now a "winning team" on the season, this time leading wire-to-wire, as they down the Twins 8-6. A couple of late Twins runs made this one close and gave Hansel Robles the opportunity to earn his 15th save. There's no easy way for me to compute his batting average during this winning streak, but Jo Adell has been on fire of late. His batting average is up to .263 after spending some time south of the Mendoza Line. Rendon hits his 13th home run, going 2-for-4.

Since falling 11 games under .500 on May 21st, the Angels have gone 13-2 since then and once again find themselves at .500 after today's win at Target Field. The Angels came from behind on this one, behind 3-2 in the 7th, before putting five late runs on the board to pull out a 7-4 win. Dylan Bundy with a quality start to earn his second win. One interesting thing about this winning streak is how spread out the offense has been. This was another game with virtually every member of the starting lineup (8 of 9) recording at least one hit. Simmons went 2-for-4 with a homer, now hitting .324 on the season. (Let's focus our efforts into getting him into the Pretend All Star Game.)

I believe the Second Amendment provides an absolute right to bear arms. Specifically, I believe the Second Amendment provides an absolute right to bear muskets: single-use weapons that need to be primed, with a cartridge inserted via a ramrod, and fired, a process that takes a good half-minute before you start the process again. I believe that you should be able to have as many of these 18th century muskets as you would like, without a single restriction or qualification. I believe that modern weaponry should be subject to heavy restrictions and that every effort should be made to reserve armor-piercing rounds and other military ammunition to military use only. The Constitution, in my unpopular opinion, says NOTHING about your right to bear an Uzi or a grenade launcher. These weapons would be as magical to Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin as an iPhone. Of COURSE the Constitution doesn't speak to your right to bear those kinds of arms. This is an unpopular opinion and I have absolutely no idea why that is so.