Halos Heaven

Royals' Greinke remains mortal - Wichita Eagle
Greinke fell to 1-7 after allowing four runs and 10 hits while throwing 116 pitches in six innings. His ERA edged up to 3.60. In the AL that's not bad. It's just not dominant like his 2.16 mark in 2009. "Not awful," he said, "but I made a couple of mistakes." The biggest mistake was a hanging slider that Torii Hunter slammed 414 feet for a two-run homer in the fifth inning (here's the video: Hunter smashes a two-run shot in the fifth). Had Greinke been in top form, it would merely have kept him even because Angels starter Jered Weaver (5-2) permitted just four hits in seven shutout innings while striking out nine and walking one. "He's a pretty darn good pitcher," center fielder Mitch Maier said. "And when he can command all of his stuff, he's tough. He's got a lot of deception—he's stepping over here and throwing over there."

Obviously I haven't been watching close enough over the last couple seasons, but I just recently noticed how Weaver doesn't stride straight towards the plate when he pitches, but rather he lands a couple feet to the third base-side of the mound.  This is what Maier is talking about in the above quote.  I know this isn't "normal", but can anyone remember another pitcher who threw like this?  Yesterday's highlights:  Frandsen starts a double play in the eighth - Billy Butler grounds out to Kevin Frandsen to start an inning-ending double play (watch how Howie Kendrick stands in against a sliding David DeJesus to turn the double play).  And, here's the Angels closer doing what he does best:  Bloomquist smacks a two-run shot in the ninth - Willie Bloomquist (Yeah, Willie Bloomquist!) crushes a two-run shot to left to cut the Angels' lead to one in the ninth.

Angels-Mariners Preview -  FOX Sports on MSN
Joe Saunders (3-6, 5.09 ERA), set to take the mound for the Angels in the opener of this three-game set, faced Seattle on Sunday and had one of his worst starts of the season. He surrendered seven runs and 10 hits in 4 1-3 innings before the Angels rallied to win 9-7. It was a setback for Saunders, who went 2-1 with a 1.57 ERA in his previous four outings. The left-hander is 6-0 with a 2.93 ERA in his last nine starts versus the Mariners. Seattle will counter with Ian Snell (0-3, 4.58), who matched up with Saunders on Sunday, surrendering three runs and walking four in four innings. The right-hander is 0-2 with a 7.04 ERA in three starts against the Angels. Snell is 0-1 with a 4.00 ERA in two starts since rejoining the rotation.

The Angels next stop on their "Sir George's Smorgasbord" of tasty treats is Seattle.  It's too bad the Orioles weren't part of this spread so the club could fill up on more weak-team favorites.

MORE LINKS AFTER THE BREAK...

Remember this guy?

Sure you do.

Yost is ejected after exchange with Estabrook - Video MLB.com
Ned Yost is ejected after coming to the defense of catcher Jason Kendall in an exchange with Mike Estabrook

This was completely absurd.  I'm not a big Jason Kendall fan, but I respect the way he complained to the home plate umpire in the correct way and was totally professional in how he handled this situation.  No one knew he was even talking until Estabrook came out from behind him and got in his face.  Since when is it acceptable for an umpire to escalate an argument?  Forget that, when did it become acceptable for an umpire to START an argument?

Does Derrek Lee make sense for Angels? - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN
Is Derrek Lee better than some sort of platoon involving Mike Napoli and Mike Ryan, with Robb Quinlan occasionally tossed in there for old times' sake? Probably. But not by a lot. But as long as they're within shouting distance of first place, they have to keep looking at their weak spots. First base is obviously one of them, but third base is worse, plus two-fifths of the rotation and a goodly chunk of the bullpen. Considering Mike Scioscia's man-crush on Jeff Mathis, when Mathis comes off the DL, Scioscia should probably just install him behind the plate and give most of the first-base action to Napoli. The Angels need to make some in-house fixes, and this is probably the easiest.

Rob Neyers take on the Derrek-Lee-to-the-Angels rumors.  Today is Darin Erstad's 36th birthday.  (ridiculous player signing suggestion alert.  snorhor please skip this section.  Thank you)  What's he up to these days?  Would he be better than Quinlan as a first baseman/bench guy?

The knock on Napoli - ESPN Los Angeles
The newly minted stat -- rally-killing rate, or RKR -- calculates the percentage of time a player strikes out or grounds into a double play with runners in scoring position. Here's the leaderboard entering Thursday (minimum 35 plate appearances with RISP):
1. Napoli 52.4

Griffey retires from the game, not family or friends - Hal McCoy
In 2005, when Griffey played for the Cincinnati Reds, he had one home run in April and the fans were on him like five coats of paint on a smooth wall. I wrote a column in which I said, "If Ken Griffey Jr. stays healthy this year, if he doesn’t hit 30 home runs I’ll eat this column on Courthouse Square. And I’ll furnish the ketchup." Written and done. Forgotten. I thought. Griffey had never mentioned a word to me about it. On August 25, 2005, a sultry night in Washington’s RFK Stadium, Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 531st career home run, his 30th home run of the season. After the game, I was standing outside the clubhouse door, awaiting admittance for post-game interviews. Griffey walked by and said, "Hal," and he flipped me a baseball, THE baseball. On it, he had written, "To Hal, Thanks so much for the friendship. All my best, Ken Griffey Jr., Home Run No. 30, Home Run No. 531, August 25, 2005." He had read the column. He hadn’t forgotten.

I think we fans sometimes forget that the players are in fact, human too (you know, that "human element" thing), so it shouldn't come as a surprise when one of them does something nice...but it does.  And it's newsworthy.  Anyway, here's a story about Griffey being nice.

Cameron Diaz: Sex keeps me young - MLB News - FOX Sports on MSN
Actor Cameron Diaz has attributed her youthful appearance to an active sex life in excerpts which emerged Thursday of an interview published in the latest issue of British Vogue magazine. Diaz, who has been romantically linked to New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez since February, said along with diet, exercise and laughter her beauty regime also includes "lots of sex." "Yes, sex, we need that as human beings," she said. "It's healthy, it's natural and it's what we're here to do."

What does this have to do with the Angels?  Nothing.  What does this have to do with baseball?  Nothing.  What does this have to do with anything?  Nothing.  But I have to say, if I were ever to try and get into shape, her regime would be at the top of my list.  Finding a trainer would be the hard part.

June 4 - BR Bullpen
1964 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers becomes the fourth major league pitcher to hurl three no-hitters by blanking the Philadelphia Phillies 3 - 0 at home.
2003 - At Puerto Rico's Hiram Bithorn Stadium, Jeff DaVanon of the Angels becomes the fourth major league player to have three consecutive multi-homer games. Lee May (1969 NL), Frank Thomas (1962 NL) and Gus Zernial 1951 AL) were the others. At the same time, DaVanon also becomes the third player to do it from both sides of the plate in two back-to-back contests, matching Ken Caminiti 1995 NL) and Eddie Murray 1987 AL).  Anyone need any further proof Jeff DaVanon was the shit?
Happy b-day:
1907 - George Washington, outfielder (d. 1985)
1974 - Darin Erstad, outfielder; All-Star  Here's the Angels new first baseman, or at least could be.

Jared Weaver, you're my Brochacho: