July 20, 2018 Page 1 of 38

Press Clips

(July 20, 2018)

July 20, 2018 Page 2 of 38

CLIPS CONTENT

FROM THE OC REGISTER (PAGE 3)

Whicker: Mike Trout is a regular guy who happens to be the best player in baseball

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani cleared to resume throwing after tests show continued healing of his elbow

Angels stats at the 2018 All-Star break

Angels post-All-Star Game 2018 breakdown

Angels confident they can get hot, vie for playoff spot

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES (PAGE 10)

Angels face uphill climb to postseason and a murky future for Mike Scioscia

Shohei Ohtani cleared to begin throwing program

FROM ANGELS.COM (PAGE 13)

Ohtani cleared to start throwing progression

FROM THE ATHLETIC (PAGE 14)

Rosenthal: Spotlight is on the great Trout; Machado’s L.A. approach; Indians’ intriguing trade; more notes

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (PAGE 18)

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani cleared to begin throwing progression

FROM ESPN.COM (PAGE 19)

Shohei Ohtani clears hurdle in latest checkup by Angels

FROM NBC SPORTS (PAGE 19)

Shohei Ohtani medically cleared to begin throwing progression

FROM CBS SPORTS (PAGE 20)

Bregman, Astros begin second half against Angels

Angels' Shohei Ohtani may pitch again this season after being cleared to start throwing program

FROM YAHOO! SPORTS (PAGE 22)

25 Degrees: For once, the baseball world revolves around Mike Trout, reluctant superstar

Mike Trout is not the problem, but going home in October doesn't help

FROM THE RINGER (PAGE 28)

The 2018 MLB Midseason Awards

FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES (PAGE 33)

LOVERRO: MLB needs to sell its own brand, not worry about Mike Trout

FROM FORBES.COM (PAGE 35)

Doctors Clear Angels' Shohei Ohtani To Throw Again

FROM BEYOND THE BOX SCORE (PAGE 36)

A changed stance has done wonders for Kole Calhoun

July 20, 2018 Page 3 of 38

FROM THE OC REGISTER

Whicker: Mike Trout is a regular guy who happens to be the best player in baseball

By Mark Whicker

It was early in the 2002 season, another beautiful night in a beautiful stadium in Anaheim, another parade of cars on the 57 South, visible beyond left field, few of them stopping.

Empty seats were in the majority. Fans stretched out. It was casual and pleasant. It also wasn’t good business.

A longtime Angel employee sighed and asked, “I don’t know what we can do to draw. We’ve tried everything.”

He was referring to the stadium renovation, to new ownership, to diving into the free-agent market, to growing their own, to leading by 11 games in August.

Someone replied, “There is one thing you haven’t tried.”

“What’s that?”

“Winning.”

And then the Angels tried that.

They clinched an American League wild-card spot in the final week of that season and came home to a different territory. Cars backed up on the exit ramps. More than 40 years of inertia was replaced by an avalanche of screaming Halomania. It did not stop until the Angels won the World Series.

It really hasn’t stopped yet. The Angels drew 3.06 million fans the next season, an increase of more than 700,000. They have not failed to draw 3 million since. That has prevailed through a wretched decade, with only one playoff appearance since 2009. In that one, the Angels got swept in three by Kansas City.

Baseball’s Topic Of The Week was the prominence of Mike Trout, or lack of it. Why isn’t he LeBron James, Drake or the most interesting man in the world?

Some say it is baseball’s fault. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred appeared to say it was Trout’s fault, that you can’t be “passive” when it comes to marketing yourself.

Taken literally, his words were relatively innocent, but the Angels countered by trumpeting Trout’s all-around virtue, particularly his charitable work, and seven years of masterful play without a public misstep.

July 20, 2018 Page 4 of 38

There was some legit grievance there, but there was also a we-got-your-back message to Trout, who becomes a free agent after the 2020 season.

This was the kind of pointless crossfire normally seen on the political channels. It was not based on fact, but perception.

Trout is not a tree falling in a remote forest. He has finished first or second in every American League MVP race but one, and won the award in 2016 when the Angels lost 88 games.

He is routinely described as the Face Of Baseball, primarily because he has such a contented face, doing what he loves.

How famous is he supposed to be? Nolan Arenado, in Colorado, has almost as much impact and is more obscure. Kris Bryant isn’t all over TV. Aaron Judge is, but he hits long home runs and plays for the Yankees. Corey Kluber and Chris Sale could walk down Fifth Avenue wearing candy-striped sports coats with gold-plated name tags and it wouldn’t matter.

The NBA and the NFL are different. Quarterback is the most dominant and visible position in sports. Basketball’s human conglomerates play at least 40 of 48 minutes and can turn around a team’s fortune with one dotted-line sign.

Trout makes a plate appearance 11 percent of the time. The limits of his influence are painfully plain.

We watch and identify with baseball teams, not individuals. And we’re still watching. Forbes Magazine reports that MLB games in 11 markets are the highest-rated prime-time TV shows. In 24 markets, they’re atop the cable-only ratings – and that doesn’t count the continuing Dodgers blackout.

Generally, a ballplayer has to do outsized things to make a commercial splash. Reggie Jackson did them. So did Mark McGwire. So did Nolan Ryan and David Ortiz. Barry Bonds, in other circumstances, assuredly would have.

Trout isn’t a mythic figure. He’s a regular guy who sits in the seats, not in the suites, at Philadelphia Eagles games. He just plays mythic baseball on a nightly basis.

It’s refreshing and nostalgic to see a great player who doesn’t chase popularity, who has no trademark pose or shimmy or dance.

In the NBA, you don’t have to win to sell (i.e., Chris Paul, James Harden, Blake Griffin). In baseball, you do. The postseason is the only time America gathers around. Derek Jeter wasn’t a celebrity because of what he did from April through September. He was the captain of the Last Dynasty, and he collected the spoils.

If Mike Trout gets to a World Series and homers five times in seven games and reaches above the wall to grab somebody else’s drive, his face will become inescapable. Maybe he’ll be an Angel when that happens. Maybe not.

In the meantime, let’s not dissuade Trout of the belief that he only needs to play one game.

July 20, 2018 Page 5 of 38

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani cleared to resume throwing after tests show continued healing of his elbow

By Jeff Fletcher

Six weeks after Shohei Ohtani was diagnosed with a grade 2 sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament that threatened his use as a pitcher, perhaps until 2020, he was cleared on Thursday to begin a throwing program.

Tests showed continued healing in his elbow from the platelet-rich plasma injection and stem-cell therapy that he underwent last month, the Angels announced. It’s a significant piece of surprising good news for a team that has been ravaged by injuries.

Based on the time Ohtani missed and what’s typical for this type of rehab, the best-case scenario would be for Ohtani to be able to pitch in games by the beginning of September.

“We were obviously pleased with the results of his evaluation, and we are looking forward to him beginning that throwing process and seeing where that eventually takes us,” general manager Billy Eppler said.

Ohtani began throwing immediately, playing catch at a distance of up to 60 feet on Thursday afternoon.

Ohtani still has several significant tests to overcome before the Angels know when he can pitch again. He will need to slowly increase the intensity of his throwing, up to game speed, before they can be confident enough that his ligament will hold for him to proceed without surgery.

If Ohtani, 24, still ends up needing to have Tommy John surgery, the Angels would likely want to know that before mid October, so he could have the procedure and be ready for the 2020 season.

In the meantime, Ohtani was cleared to resume hitting three weeks ago, and he returned to the Angels lineup just over two weeks ago. Ohtani, who is 6 for 24 since returning, is hitting .283 with an .887 OPS this season.

On the mound, Ohtani has a 3.10 ERA in nine starts. He last pitched on June 6, the day before the UCL damage was discovered.

So far Ohtani’s progress has been better than when Garrett Richards had PRP treatment in 2016. Richards was diagnosed with a torn UCL in early May, and initially slated for Tommy John surgery. He then got further opinions that led him to PRP, but he still didn’t resume throwing until August.

Richards returned to pitch at 100 percent by instructional league in October 2016. Although he’d dealt with other injuries subsequently, his ligament remained intact until this month, when it finally gave way. Richards is now scheduled for Tommy John surgery next week.

JC Ramírez also underwent PRP to treat a damaged UCL in September 2017, and he didn’t resume throwing until November. Ramírez also appeared to be healthy, before eventually tearing the ligament after two starts in 2018.

July 20, 2018 Page 6 of 38

Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano briefly tried PRP in 2016, but both ended up having Tommy John surgery before they were cleared to throw.

The Angels have never discussed the specifics of Ohtani’s damaged UCL, beyond calling it a grade 2 sprain. Eppler, however, said that no doctor had ever told him that Ohtani needed Tommy John surgery.

Angels stats at the 2018 All-Star break

By Jeff Fletcher

The Angels (49-48) have suffered through an injury-marred first half, reaching the break nine games behind the Seattle Mariners for the second wild card spot. The Angels’ record is, in most ways, a perfect representation of how they’ve played. They are around .500, and by most measures they are near the exact middle of the pack. How do they measure up with the rest of MLB, statistically?

Statistical category (MLB ranking)

ANGELS OFFENSE

On-base pct. – .316 (17th)

Slugging pct. – .413 (12th)

OPS – .729 (13th)

Batting average – .244 (18th)

ANGELS PITCHING

Team ERA – 3.81 (9th)

Bullpen ERA – 3.81 (13th)

WHIP – 1.307 (15th)

Strikeouts per 9 inns – 9.1 (8th)

Opponent OPS – .735 (14th)

Opponent batting avg. – .245 (16th)

July 20, 2018 Page 7 of 38

Angels post-All-Star Game 2018 breakdown

By Jeff Fletcher

ANGELS FIRST-HALF REVIEW

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Injuries have scuttled the Angels’ season once again. They began the year with nine starting pitchers on their depth chart, and eight of them have been hurt so far. At least two, Garrett Richards and JC Ramírez, are already out for the season. Two of their relievers, Keynan Middleton and Blake Wood, are also out for the year. The Angels have gotten passable work from the pitching despite the injuries, but they’ve been under pressure by an offense that has performed inconsistently.

ANGELS SECOND-HALF PREVIEW

KEY TO THE SECOND HALF: The bad news for the Angels is they are in arguably the toughest division in baseball, so simply hanging around .500 isn’t good enough to stay reasonably close to the leaders — as it would be in the National League or the American League Central. The good news is that means the Angels still have plenty of head-to-head games against not only the division-leading Astros, but also the Mariners and A’s, who are ahead of them in the wild-card race. They will have to play well against everybody in the second half, but beating the teams in their division will help them make up ground faster.

TRADE POSSIBILITIES: The Angels need some help in just about all areas, most acutely the rotation and the bullpen. They could also use a big bat at third base. However, their position in the standings means it’s unlikely the Angels would want to give up much to get a rental player, and those players are the ones who are most readily available. If they aim for someone who will be under control beyond this year, it will require them to deplete a farm system that is finally back to being in the middle of the pack. The Angels also could opt to trade away major leaguers for prospects, although their most attractive players are all under control beyond this year, so they’d probably like to hold on to them. Ian Kinsler is the best trade chip among their impending free agents.

BIGGEST CONCERN: The pitching could get worse. While their starting pitching was fighting injuries for most of the first half, they still had enough depth that they had a quality starter almost all the time. With Nick Tropeano’s return from the disabled list Friday, the Angels will have four healthy starters among the nine from the start of the season. If they have any more injuries — or if a pleasant surprise like Felix Peña falters — they could be in big trouble.

SCHEDULE: Two of the first three series after the break are against the Astros and Mariners, with the rebuilding Chicago White Sox in between. It’s a 10-game homestand right before the trading deadline. After that, they play the surprisingly improved Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians. If the Angels are to vault themselves back into the race, they’ll need to play well against some good teams. Their margin for error is gone.

July 20, 2018 Page 8 of 38

Angels confident they can get hot, vie for playoff spot

By Jeff Fletcher

ANAHEIM — Math suggests the Angels open the second half without much chance to make the playoffs. FanGraphs calculates their playoff chances at 2.5 percent.

History, however, offers more hope, at least in Ian Kinsler’s eyes.

“There’s always a team every year that makes a run for the wild card that kind of sneaks up on people,” the Angels second baseman said. “I think definitely we’re one of the teams that can put together a really good second half and be right in the mix at the end.”

Kinsler points to the Minnesota Twins just a year ago. They were 45-43 at the All-Star break and then they traded their closer, falling to 50-53 by the trading deadline. They ended up finishing 86-76 and winning the second wild card.

Two years earlier, the Texas Rangers were 42-46 at the break, and they finished 88-74 to win the American League West. That same year, the Toronto Blue Jays were 45-46 at the break, and they finished 93-69 to win the always-tough AL East.

Recent examples like those buoy the hopes of the Angels, who will resume their schedule Friday with a 49-48 record. They are in fourth place, 14 games behind the Houston Astros, whom they will host for three this weekend. More attainable is the second wild card spot, currently held by the Seattle Mariners. The Angels are nine games back of the Mariners for that spot, with the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays also in between.

If the Angels are going to overcome those 2.5 percent playoff odds, they’ll need to get hot and have other teams get cold.

“I know a lot of teams are playing well right now, but within the drop of a hat a team can easily go on a nice skid and we can play really well, like the A’s right now,” Angels left-hander Tyler Skaggs said. “They’re on a nice little run. I don’t understand why we can’t do that. There’s still a lot of time left in the season.”

The A’s were two games below .500 before they went 21-6 heading into the break.

If the Angels are looking for another potentially encouraging figure, it’s this: The Mariners have been outscored by two runs this season, which suggests that their 58-39 record may be an unsustainable pace. They lost seven of their last nine games before the break, including two of three to the Angels. The Angels play the Mariners seven more times, all in Anaheim, starting with three next weekend.

The A’s are also playing a few games ahead of what their plus-24 run differential would suggest, while the Angels (also plus-24) are a few games below.

“We feel the same optimism about reaching our goals, but know there are some things that we need to do better and that’s what we’ll really focus on,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

July 20, 2018 Page 9 of 38

The primary reason the team has underperformed is, once again, injuries. The starting rotation was intact for most of the first half, but now the Angels are down to just two healthy starters – Skaggs and Andrew Heaney – among the projected top five.

In the first half, the Angels got 22 starts from Garrett Richards and Shohei Ohtani — their two most talented pitchers — and they may get zero in the second half. Richards is scheduled for Tommy John surgery, and Ohtani has significant hurdles to clear to come back, even after Thursday’s encouraging news that he was cleared to resume throwing.

If the rotation is to hold up in the second half, they’ll need to keep Skaggs, Heaney, Nick Tropeano and rookie Jaime Barría taking the ball every fifth day, and maybe find a way to add a starter by the trading deadline.

The bullpen has not been as much of an issue as the narrative. Their 17 blown saves — third most in the league — are misleading. The bullpen’s ERA (7th in the league), WHIP (10th), and inherited runners stranded (1st) all indicate they’ve pitched at a passable level.

The larger problem is the inconsistent offense has too often put them in a position of trying to protect a 2-1 lead for three innings. The Angels have lost nine games when they’ve allowed three or fewer runs, compared with just four for the Mariners and five for the A’s.

The Angels’ offense has gotten below expected production from several spots, most notably right field and third base. Zack Cozart was slumping before he was lost for the season to a shoulder injury. Kinsler has been inconsistent, hitting for some power but not getting on base. Kole Calhoun slumped for three months before going on the disabled list, although he’s been hot for a few weeks since he returned. Luis Valbuena, who plays against most right-handed pitchers, has also been in a rut all year. Justin Upton has hit for power, but not produced with runners in scoring position.

All of that needs to change in the second half, and the Angels are confident it will.

Calhoun’s resurgence, the return of Ohtani after a one-month hiatus from the lineup, and the addition of David Fletcher are all reasons for hope.

“I’m very optimistic,” Kinsler said. “I think we all can be tough outs, one through nine. When we start doing that, we’re a very lineup to pitch to. I know other teams just want to see us go away. They don’t want us hanging around.”

UP NEXT

Angels (Tyler Skaggs, 7-5, 2.57) vs. Astros (Dallas Keuchel, 7-8, 3.75), Friday, 7 p.m., Fox Sports West, KLAA (830 AM).

July 20, 2018 Page 10 of 38

FROM LOS ANGELES TIMES

Angels face uphill climb to postseason and a murky future for Mike Scioscia

By Jeff Miller

The Angels are looking at a significant deficit, at three teams ahead of them, at 10 weeks of playing uphill.

About to begin the post-All Star break portion of their 2018 season, they’re looking at something else even more substantial:

The potential conclusion of Mike Scioscia’s managerial reign.

With 65 games left in the 10th and final year of a contract extension he signed in January 2009, Scioscia could be beginning the end of a possible Hall of Fame career.

“I love managing,” he said Sunday. “All I’m thinking about right now is our game today and then it will be the game after that. That’s it.”

All season, Scioscia, who turns 60 in November, has refused to publicly discuss his future beyond the next pitch.

The team’s upper management, including owner Arte Moreno and general manager Billy Eppler, isn’t expected to make any decision official until after the season is allowed to play out.

By all accounts, Moreno, Eppler and Scioscia remain on strong working terms. The relationships appear to be sound and, at this point at least, whatever direction the franchise goes, that choice probably will be made in concert.

And unless the Angels make a dramatic leap in the standings over the next 2 1/2 months, someone else could be managing the team in 2019.

“It’s a long season,” All-Star center fielder Mike Trout said. “We gotta stay positive. We can’t give up yet.”

The climb back starting Friday against first-place Houston is a daunting one for a team that has used the disabled list 25 times and employed 50 players, including 29 pitchers.

The Angels trail Seattle by nine games for the American League’s second wild-card spot and will have to scale Oakland and Tampa Bay just to reach the Mariners.

“You never want to be on a team that’s completely giving up on a season because there’s still a ways to go,” pitcher Tyler Skaggs said. “Look what the A’s have done. If we were to go on that type of run, we’re right back in this.”

July 20, 2018 Page 11 of 38

Oakland was below .500 in mid-June before starting a 21-6 roll — by winning two of three against the Angels, no less — to move within three games of Seattle. It will take something similarly stunning from the Angels now.

If the Mariners are only average the rest of the season, they’ll finish with 91 wins. That means the Angels would need to go 42-23 to catch them. If the Mariners maintain their current pace, the Angels would have to finish 48-17.

“This team is not out of the playoff race by any means,” second baseman Ian Kinsler insisted. “Especially with the second wild card now, crazy things can happen.”

Overcoming large deficits to make the postseason is a baseball tradition, one that has continued to thrive over the past two decades.

Minnesota trailed by 11 games at the All-Star break before coming back to win the AL Central in 2006.

The A’s were nine games behind Texas at the break before winning the AL West on the final day of the 2012 regular season.

The 2014 Dodgers and 2002 A’s also came back to make the playoffs after surfacing from double-digit holes.

“We have the same optimism about reaching our goal,” Scioscia said. “But we know that there are some things that we need to do better. That’s what we’re going to focus on.”

The Angels’ have sputtered because of an offense that has been unable to consistently produce. Only five AL teams have poorer batting averages with runners in scoring position and none of those five is within 14 games of .500.

The bullpen has had steady and impressive stretches but also been fragile and unreliable. A heavy workload in April yielded largely encouraging results but also might have contributed to an eventual decline in performance.

Though fairly dependable, the rotation has failed to provide a sufficient number of innings, a problem made more difficult to solve because of an onslaught of injuries that has forced the Angels to use 12 starters.

“When you have more than half of the starting pitchers on the DL, it’s really tough,” Albert Pujols said. “But we need to figure out a way to do it.”

St. Louis figured out a way in 2006. Pujols recently invoked the memory of that team, one he helped win a World Series title despite injuries to key figures Mark Mulder, Jim Edmonds and David Eckstein.

Those Cardinals also suffered from the sort of inconsistency that led to two eight-game losing streaks before they rallied to go 11-5 in the postseason, beating Detroit in five games for the championship.

July 20, 2018 Page 12 of 38

“We don’t expect anybody to feel sorry for us,” Scioscia said. “We don’t feel sorry for ourselves. This game is really about where you are now, where you are today. We have to take care of things in-house.”

Determining where the Angels are today is no harder than looking at the standings.

Determining where they could be tomorrow — especially as it relates to their manager — is a little more involved.

Shohei Ohtani cleared to begin throwing program

By Jeff Miller

Shohei Ohtani’s return from a grade 2 sprain of his right ulnar collateral ligament continued Thursday when he was medically cleared to begin a throwing program.

The rookie pitched most recently on June 6 and was diagnosed with the injury the next day.

Though there is a chance he could pitch again for the Angels this season, Ohtani, in the best-case scenario, remains several weeks away.

Until he can start really testing the condition of his arm, it will be unclear when he might resume pitching.

With only 10 weeks left in the regular season, the Angels have plenty of time to answer questions regarding Ohtani’s availability before the start of next spring training.

His long-term health and development is more of the team’s concern today than getting him back in the rotation as soon as possible.

Ohtani received injections of platelet-rich plasma and stem cells June 7 and was cleared by Dr. Steve Yoon to resume swinging a bat three weeks later. He rejoined the Angels as a designated hitter July 3.

Yoon’s latest re-evaluation showed additional healing of the ligament as the Angels hope Ohtani can avoid surgery.

July 20, 2018 Page 13 of 38

FROM ANGELS.COM

Ohtani cleared to start throwing progression

By Matt Kelly

The Angels announced Thursday that Shohei Ohtani has been medically cleared to begin a throwing progression after going through a scheduled evaluation with Dr. Steve Yoon at the Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles.

Ohtani, 24, has not thrown a Major League pitch since June 6, when an MRI revealed a Grade 2 sprain in the ulnar collateral ligament of his pitching elbow. The right-hander received both a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and stem cell injection at the time, and he spent nearly a month on the disabled list before returning in early July as the Angels' designated hitter.

The budding star has hit .250 and slugged .458 since his return, knocking a home run and a pair of doubles over 28 plate appearances. Ohtani is hitting .283 with an .887 OPS over the entirety of his rookie season.

But the intrigue surrounding Ohtani has centered on his singular ability as a two-way player, and Thursday's announcement lends hope to fans clamoring for his return to a big league mound in 2018. Though a Grade 2 sprain has often directly led to season-ending Tommy John surgery for many pitchers, a select few -- including Ohtani's countryman Masahiro Tanaka -- have been able to pitch regularly with the injury without undergoing surgery.

Ohtani has often dazzled when he has been healthy enough to pitch, pairing a fastball that routinely touches triple digits with a hard slider and a nearly unhittable splitter. The phenom is 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA on the mound, striking out 61 batters over 49 1/3 innings and holding opponents to a .202 batting average.

Ohtani was an early front-runner for the American League's Rookie of the Year Award as he attempted to become the first player since Babe Ruth to successfully pitch and hit on a regular basis. His club begins the second half a game over .500 at 49-48 and nine games back of the division-rival Mariners for the AL's second Wild Card spot.

July 20, 2018 Page 14 of 38

FROM THE ATHLETIC

Rosenthal: Spotlight is on the great Trout; Machado’s L.A. approach; Indians’ intriguing trade; more notes

By Ken Rosenthal

Part of a journalist’s role is to hold public figures accountable for statements that are misleading, inaccurate or just plain dumb. Alas, the echo chamber of the Internet occasionally distorts questionable remarks, prompting criticism beyond what is appropriate — punishment that does not fit the crime.

Such is the case with commissioner Rob Manfred’s comments on Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout before the All-Star Game. The reporter who asked Manfred the question about Trout, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, was taken aback by the public backlash to the commissioner’s response.

Manfred is not blameless — he should have recognized that some would interpret his comment, Player marketing requires one thing for sure: The player,as a shot at Trout. The commissioner could have expounded on Trout’s many fine qualities on and off the field. He also could have turned the question around, making the point the Angels did in a later statement defending Trout, saying, “We applaud him for prioritizing his personal values over commercial self-promotion. That is rare in today’s society and stands out as much as his extraordinary talent.”

Frankly, the entire issue is overblown. Trout’s low Q rating should not be cause for hand-wringing, not from Manfred, the media or anyone else. Trout should be appreciated for who he is — a player who rapidly is becoming one of the all-time greats, if he is not one already — and marketed as such. His seeming indifference to stardom is not unlike Derek Jeter’s. The difference is, Jeter played in New York, not Orange County, and won five World Series. Since Trout’s arrival in 2011, the Angels have yet to win a single postseason game.

Can baseball do a better job of marketing its star players? Of course. Does Trout frustrate some in the game with his reluctance to promote himself and, by extension, the sport? Without question. Should Trout be criticized for his hesitancy when he is a model representative of the game? Absolutely not.

If baseball was smart, it would make a commercial showing how Trout interacts with fans, particularly children, before every game, home and away. The commercial would show images such as the one below from Fenway Park. The theme could be, “This is our biggest star. He conducts himself the way we want our sports heroes to conduct themselves. And we are so proud he is ours.”

How’s that for a statement?

Hey, look who’s on third

So, the Los Angeles Dodgers want to play Manny Machado at third base as well as shortstop. Interesting, considering Machado’s season-long insistence about remaining at short, the position he began playing regularly in the majors for the first time this season.

July 20, 2018 Page 15 of 38

The Baltimore Orioles drafted Machado as a shortstop, but moved him to third in the majors rather than displace J.J. Hardy, a top defender at short. Hardy’s departure after last season created an opening for Machado to fulfill his desire to return to short, and the Orioles obliged him.

The Dodgers acquired Machado to replace injured shortstop Corey Seager for the rest of the season, but also value versatility in their position players. As Machado approaches free agency, his best course is to accommodate the wishes of his new team.

Which, it seems, is exactly what Machado intends to do.

“Everybody is on the same page about that,” Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi said in a conference call on Wednesday night after his team acquired Machado from the Baltimore Orioles for five prospects.

“He understands the way we manage the roster, and the options that Doc (manager Dave Roberts) likes to have moving guys around. He’s told us he wants to do whatever he can to succeed and win.”

The Dodgers probably will ask Machado to play third only when Justin Turner needs an occasional day off. Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Max Muncy, Kiké Hernández and Austin Barnes are among their players who shift between positions. Machado would look selfish if he resisted the team’s preference for him to do the same.

In addition, Machado might only enhance his free-agent appeal by taking a team-first approach. It also will not hurt him to show clubs that he remains an elite defender at third, where he won two Gold Gloves. His defense is not as strong at short, but executives from several clubs say he fares better in their internal measures than in the publicly available metrics, with his powerful arm serving as something of an equalizer.

Machado, 26, will be the most attractive player available in free agency, just as he is likely to be the most attractive player traded. The difference is he will gain leverage in the open market, picking his next position as well as his next team.

A trade more interesting than it appears

At first glance, the Cleveland Indians’ acquisition of relievers Brad Hand and Adam Cimber from the San Diego Padres for catcher Francisco Mejía seems reasonably balanced.

Hand, a two-time All-Star, comes with three additional years of control; Cimber, a surprising rookie, comes with five. Mejía, a switch-hitter with rare offensive tools, is the game’s No. 15 prospect according to MLBPipeline.com, giving the Padres a whopping 10 of the top 100.

Three rival executives, however, criticized the deal from the Padres’ perspective, questioning — just as some with the Indians did — whether Mejía, 22, is strong enough defensively to remain at catcher. A position change would reduce Mejía’s overall value. At catcher his offense might be elite; at other positions, it might not separate him as much.

The Padres intend to evaluate Mejía over the next several weeks before determining whether he should move to another position — perhaps third, where he played in the Arizona Fall League last year, or left

July 20, 2018 Page 16 of 38

field, where he also played at Triple A. The team’s scouts love his offensive potential, though he is batting a relatively modest .279 with a .755 OPS at Triple A this season.

So, did the Indians get a steal? Not so fast. As much as teams covet controllable assets — and as much as the Indians needed such pieces with both Andrew Miller and Cody Allen eligible for free agency — relievers are the game’s most volatile performers. Very few provide consistent production, making long-term control perhaps less meaningful.

Hand, 28, is something of an exception; this is his third straight impressive season. But even Hand can be vulnerable, as evidenced by his .952 opponents’ OPS over 12 innings in June. It remains to be seen how he will perform in post-season pressure after spending his entire career with non-contenders in Miami and San Diego. Cimber, of course, will face the same transition.

For the Mets, a warning shot

The New York Mets display a knack for becoming embroiled in controversies other clubs do not experience, the latest example being the growing tension between the team and All-Star right-hander Jacob deGrom. CAA’s Brodie Van Wagenen, the agent for deGrom, released a statement to The Athletic on Monday, warning that the “inertia” of the pitcher’s current situation could complicate his relationship with the club.

Van Wagenen said the Mets should either sign deGrom long-term or “seriously consider trade opportunities” now. The Mets are under no obligation to act on either front, and can offer valid reasons for delaying any decision. They might view a long-term contract for deGrom at age 30 as an unnecessary risk when he is under control for two more seasons. They also might prefer to hold off on a trade until after they decide upon a full-time replacement for general manager Sandy Alderson.

Still, the fact that Van Wagenen felt compelled to release a statement speaks to a greater problem. When was the last time an agent confronted the New York Yankees in such a fashion? The Boston Red Sox? The Chicago Cubs?

The relationship between the deGrom camp and the Mets remains good, sources say; the two sides are maintaining a respectful, positive dialogue. But Van Wagenen spoke out for a reason. The best guess: The Mets are telling deGrom they value him and want to keep him, but not following through with an offer.

I’ve written the Mets should start retooling by signing deGrom and trading right-hander Noah Syndergaard for premium young talent. Whether those would be the right moves or not, at least they would signal a direction. The Mets presently lack such direction, but that should change once they hire a new GM, who presumably will arrive with a five-year plan.

In the meantime, the Mets’ control over deGrom diminishes with each day they play the wait-and-see game. Van Wagenen’s statement was a warning shot: His client — one of the game’s most low-key, affable superstars — will be a good soldier for only so long.

C’mon Rockies, take a look

July 20, 2018 Page 17 of 38

Sources say it will never happen, but imagine the message the Colorado Rockies would send to third baseman Nolan Arenado, the rest of their organization and their fan base if they traded for deGrom.

Arenado, who is eligible for free agency after next season, seemed to spark the club’s current 10-2 surge by venting publicly about his impatience with losing. The Rockies will need to impress Arenado to keep him, and another spending spree on free-agent relievers surely is not what he has in mind.

DeGrom would be an ideal choice to front the Rockies’ young rotation, and Colorado has the pieces to get him, starting with middle infielder Brendan Rodgers, the game’s No. 6 prospect according to MLBPipeline.com.

Rodgers likely will replace second baseman DJ LeMahieu, a potential free agent, but the Rockies have an infielder at Triple A, Garrett Hampson, who also could fill that role. Club officials might argue that Rodgers has the higher offensive upside. But a proposal centered around say, Rodgers, right-hander Jeff Hoffman and outfielder David Dahl would be an interesting starting point.

Would deGrom be as effective at Coors Field? Probably not, but he allowed one earned run in eight innings against the Rockies at Coors on June 18, and also pitched well in his only other career start in Colorado, allowing three runs in 6 1/3 innings on May 15, 2016.

Around the horn

*Why did the Yankees even pursue Machado when GM Brian Cashman has publicly, emphatically and repeatedly stated his confidence in rookie third baseman Miguel Andújar?

It’s simple, really: As good as Andújar is — and he might end up the American League Rookie of the Year — the Yankees viewed Machado as a significant offensive and defensive upgrade for the rest of the season.

The Yankees have no plans to trade Andújar — according to sources, they refused to move him for Gerrit Cole last off-season and said no again recently when the Padres requested him for Hand.

If they had acquired Machado, Andújar either would have gone to Triple A or platooned with Greg Bird at first base, sources said.

*In a recent story by the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner, agent Scott Boras said his client, Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper, was seeing the “least amount of strikes in the game,” adding, “You want to know the greatest gradient of managerial fear, concern, how you respect others? You don’t throw them strikes.”

Boras was exaggerating, but not by much. Entering the All-Star break, pitchers were throwing Harper strikes 44 percent of the time, the ninth-lowest average in the majors among batting-title qualifiers, according to STATS LLC. The Toronto Blue Jays’ Yangervis Solarte was seeing the fewest strikes, 41.7 percent, followed by Salvador Perez, Wilson Ramos, Giancarlo Stanton and Nelson Cruz, Joey Gallo, Javier Báez and Carlos Gomez.

July 20, 2018 Page 18 of 38

Another interesting fact about Harper that is getting overlooked due to the attention on his .214 batting average: He ranks 32nd among right fielders with minus-nine defensive runs saved. Last season he ranked 12th at plus-four.

*In his first game, new St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt demonstrated how he might run a bullpen differently than Mike Matheny, extending right-hander John Gant for four scoreless innings of relief in place of a struggling Miles Mikolas. The Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4.

The last time Matheny used a reliever for four innings was Sept. 21, 2016, at Colorado, when Jaime García worked four innings in place of Luke Weaver, who lasted only two. Shildt’s willingness to stay with Gant was perhaps a small thing, but he might prove to be a refreshing departure from Matheny, who routinely drew criticism for his bullpen management.

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani cleared to begin throwing progression

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels say two-way star Shohei Ohtani’s elbow ligament is continuing to heal and he has been medically cleared to begin a throwing progression.

The team said Ohtani was given a six-week evaluation Thursday by Dr. Steve Yoon at the Kerlan Jobe Institute. The Angels said they would release specifics about his progress and rehabilitation schedule at another time.

Ohtani was placed on the disabled list with an ulnar collateral ligament sprain on June 8 after complaining about tightness in his right elbow following a June 6 start against Kansas City. The Japanese sensation has since returned to the roster as a designated hitter, but his prospects to pitch remain unclear.

He is hitting .283 with seven home runs and 22 RBIs. On the mound, Ohtani won four of his first five decisions before getting injured.

July 20, 2018 Page 19 of 38

FROM ESPN.COM

Shohei Ohtani clears hurdle in latest checkup by Angels

By Alden Gonzalez

Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese two-way sensation who is hoping to avoid Tommy John surgery, has been cleared to resume throwing.

In a statement Thursday, the Los Angeles Angels said Ohtani's six-week re-evaluation revealed that his ulnar collateral ligament "continues to show improved healing."

Ohtani had stem cells and platelet rich plasma injected into the ligament on June 7, one day after he complained of stiffness in his elbow after a start against the Kansas City Royals. Less than a month later, Ohtani returned as a designated hitter and has gone 6-for-24 with a home run since being activated off the disabled list.

The Angels, who begin the second half by hosting the first-place Houston Astros on Friday, did not disclose a timetable for Ohtani's potential return to their rotation. Last week, Garrett Richards, another top-of-the-rotation starter who opted for stem-cell therapy two years earlier, underwent Tommy John surgery that will keep him out until 2020.

Regardless of whether he has surgery now or at the end of the season, Ohtani also would not be able to return to pitching until 2020. The Angels don't lose any time by waiting to see if the alternative treatment works. But they do need to make sure Ohtani can throw at full intensity off a mound before declaring that he does not need the surgery, and it appears he will at least try to do so.

Ohtani has an .887 OPS in 157 plate appearances and a 3.10 ERA in 49 1/3 innings as a rookie. Angels general manager Billy Eppler would not even acknowledge the possibility of Tommy John surgery when speaking to ESPN about Ohtani last month.

"Nobody has said 'surgery' to me," Eppler said then. "So, I'm not going to think about it until somebody who's a qualified M.D. tells me to think about it."

FROM NBC SPORTS

Shohei Ohtani medically cleared to begin throwing progression

By Bill Baer

The Angels released a medical update on P/DH Shohei Ohtani Thursday evening. Ohtani was reevaluated by Dr. Steve Yoon at the Kerlan Jobe Institute. The right-hander’s sprained UCL showed improved healing and, as a result, he has been cleared to begin a throwing progression.

July 20, 2018 Page 20 of 38

Ohtani, 24, was diagnosed with a Grade 2 sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow after his June 6 start against the Royals and hasn’t pitched since, though he has been in the lineup as a hitter since July 3. It was initially believed he would undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. Then the thought was that Ohtani wouldn’t pitch again for the rest of the season, but this update suggests a possibility he could return to the mound before the season is over.

In nine starts, Ohtani put together a 3.10 ERA with a 61/20 K/BB ratio in 49 1/3 innings. As a hitter, he batted .283/.365/.522 with seven home runs and 22 RBI in 157 plate appearances.

FROM CBS SPORTS

Bregman, Astros begin second half against Angels

Fresh off winning the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award earlier this week, Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman will try to stay on a roll when the defending World Series champions open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night at Angel Stadium.

By STATS

Fresh off winning the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award earlier this week, Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman will try to stay on a roll when the defending World Series champions open a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night at Angel Stadium.

Bregman hit a tiebreaking home run in the top of the 10th inning on Tuesday night in Washington, D.C. and the American League held on for an 8-6 victory.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch told MLB.com that Bregman took advantage of being around the best players in the game.

"He's always studying, he's always thinking, he's always watching," Hinch said. "He's a smart player. I've watched him ask a million questions to different players that have come through here.

"I'm not sure if anyone that I've come across in the big leagues loves baseball more than Alex Bregman. It starts with that and he continues to get better."

Bregman is hitting .288 with 20 home runs, one more than he hit last season, and 64 RBIs.

The Astros (64-35) exit the break with the third-best winning percentage in the majors behind the Boston Red Sox (68-30) and New York Yankees (62-33). Houston owns a five-game lead over the second-place Seattle Mariners, who lost four straight heading into the All-Star break.

The Angels (49-48) are nine game behind the Mariners for the second wild card from the AL.

Los Angeles has been decimated by injuries to its pitching staff since winning 13 of its first 16 games to start the season, but the Angels remain within reach of a playoff spot.

July 20, 2018 Page 21 of 38

"There are definitely some things that we've been talking about for the last six weeks or so that we need to do better that we're working very hard at," Angels manager Mike Scioscia told MLB.com. "Hopefully, we'll get more continuity as we get some guys back in our rotation. Some guys can swing the bats a little bit better.

"We feel we have the same optimism about reaching our goal, but we know that there are some things we need to do better."

Los Angeles left-hander Tyler Skaggs had a strong first half and he'll get the start in the series opener against Houston.

Skaggs (7-5, 2.57) is 4-2 in eight career starts against Houston with a 2.76 ERA. He faced the Astros on April 23 in Houston and blanked them on four hits in seven innings of a 2-0 win.

Houston second baseman Jose Altuve, the reigning AL MVP, is 7-for-18 in his career against Skaggs.

Astros outfielder George Springer, who homered in the next at-bat after Bregman in the All-Star Game, is 0-for-16 in his career against Skaggs, but Bregman predicts big things for Springer.

"I think George Springer is going to be hot for the second half," Bregman told MLB.com. "The back-to-back push."

Houston left-hander Dallas Keuchel (7-8, 3.75) will oppose Skaggs and try to maintain his success against the Angels.

Keuchel is 10-2 in his career against Los Angeles with a 3.62 ERA and has won his past four decisions against the Angels. The 2015 AL Cy Young winner last faced them on May 5, 2017, and allowed five runs and seven hits in seven innings of a 7-6 win.

Angels outfielder Mike Trout, the 2014 and 2016 AL MVP, is 14-for-41 in his career against Keuchel with two home runs and 12 strikeouts.

Angels' Shohei Ohtani may pitch again this season after being cleared to start throwing program

Ohtani is currently limited to DH duty by an elbow injury

By Mike Axisa

It is possible Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani will take the mound again later this season.

Thursday evening the Angels announced Ohtani has been cleared to start a throwing program. He is currently rehabbing a Grade 2 ulnar collateral ligament sprain in his right elbow. Here is the team's statement:

July 20, 2018 Page 22 of 38

Shohei Ohtani had his six week re-evaluation today with Dr. Steve Yoon at the Kerlan Jobe Institute. His ligament continues to show improved healing. He has been medically cleared to begin a throwing progression. We will update specifics regarding his progression and rehabilitation schedule at a more appropriate time.

It is important to note the throwing program will likely take several weeks. Ohtani will begin by playing catch from a short distance, then gradually stretch it out before throwing off a mound in the bullpen. There are many steps in the process and milestones that have to be reached along the way. This won't necessarily be a quick process.

That said, Ohtani being cleared to start a throwing program is overwhelmingly good news. It means his UCL -- that's the Tommy John surgery ligament -- is healing well and he's strong enough to start throwing. That's significant. Many players who attempt to rehab a UCL injury don't make it this far and need Tommy John surgery.

Ohtani missed a month with the UCL injury and returned to the team as a DH only earlier this month. He is hitting .283/.365/.522 with seven home runs in 157 plate appearances overall, including .250/.333/.458 with one home run in 28 plate appearances since returning from the disabled list. Ohtani has shared DH duty with Albert Pujols since returning.

Prior to the injury Ohtani pitched to a 3.10 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings across nine starts. He was diagnosed with a Grade 1 UCL sprain in the offseason and was able to rehab that injury. A Grade 2 sprain is more severe but, obviously, does not automatically necessitate surgery. Grade 3 is a full ligament tear that requires Tommy John surgery.

The Angels are 49-48 and six games back of the second AL wild-card spot. Barring a surprise run these next few weeks, the team is looking to get Ohtani healthy and in the best position to help next season moreso than trying to claw back into this year's postseason race.

FROM YAHOO! SPORTS

25 Degrees: For once, the baseball world revolves around Mike Trout, reluctant superstar

By Jeff Passan

On the continuum of controversies, the one that erupted at the All-Star Game was good for baseball. If the sport is unable to figure out how to market Mike Trout, at least now we know it’s capable of manufacturing a discussion about him. No wonder MLB perpetually bangs its collective head against the wall. Trout has played the sport at an otherworldly level for more than half a decade, and it took the commissioner throwing not really even shade at him for the masses to start talking about the guy.

Fact: Mike Trout is bad at marketing himself. It’s neither in his DNA nor his job description. So this is an entirely immaterial and moot point, and would be best served riding a rocket ship to another realm.

July 20, 2018 Page 23 of 38

Fact: MLB is bad at marketing Mike Trout, too. Terribly funny people can write terribly funny bits that play to Trout’s personality and rehydrate his dryness. Viral opportunities abound, and MLB’s marketing focus must do a better job at connecting Trout – and others – with the young fans deviating from the game.

Look at that. It is incredible and genuine and organic and needs to be a commercial yesterday and instead surfaces in a tweet almost three weeks after it happened. Mike Trout should be one of the coolest guys in the sports world because he does the hardest thing in sports better than anyone and he has his own Nike shoe and he brings kids on the field to take BP with him. Kawhi Leonard makes Trout look like Shaq, and he’s still popular anyway. Why, then, does Trout have the same Q Score as Kenneth Faried?

This column started more than a decade ago with the notion that everything in the baseball world, from start to finish, was revolving, at that moment, around Manny Ramirez. In that spirit, it is only right to declare the entire baseball world should view Mike Trout in the very same fashion. And since it doesn’t, it’s worth noting: It’s not his fault. Just because …

1. Mike Trout is a reluctant superstar doesn’t prevent the appreciation from burbling around him. If anything, commissioner Rob Manfred pointing out that Trout isn’t into self-promotion allowed Trout to ride the question into the consciousness of some who might not have known him otherwise. And if they happened to Google him, maybe they’d see an unparalleled start-of-career resume. Granted, the fact that …

2. Mookie Betts is exceeding his slash numbers (.359/.448/.691) and about matching him production-wise despite missing a couple of weeks speaks to the overwhelming number of great players adorning MLB rosters today. Bud Selig loved to call his tenure as commissioner baseball’s Golden Era. Maybe this is recency bias, but in terms of young, marketable, fun-to-watch players, today beats any time in Selig’s commissionership. Trout, Betts, the guy who ended the first half with more Wins Above Replacement than both of them. Huh? Yeah. It’s true that …

3. Jose Ramirez wound up on top of FanGraphs’ leaderboard even though Trout, at one point, was on pace to log the most WAR ever. He’s side by side with Trout in Baseball-Reference’s version, too, so this is no fluke. And neither is he. The power is real. The glove is real. The baserunning is real. Ramirez was never a Top 100 prospect, never a Top 10 guy with Cleveland, and yet one can argue that with his way-under-market long-term contract, he is the single most valuable asset in baseball. Between him and …

4. Trevor Bauer, the pitcher with the highest first-half WAR, according to FanGraphs, no wonder the Indians are seen as every bit the postseason danger as better regular-season teams Houston, New York and Boston. A lineup with Ramirez, Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley. A rotation with Bauer, Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger, Carlos Carrasco and Shane Bieber. And a bullpen with …

5. Brad Hand and Andrew Miller, who could be the filthiest combination of left-handed relievers since Miller teamed with Aroldis Chapman for half a season in 2016 – and perhaps since Randy Myers and Norm Charlton before that. The “New Nasty Boys” should unite soon, as Hand joins Cleveland with right-handed reliever Adam Cimber after the Indians gave up top prospect Francisco Mejia, and Miller returns from a rehab stint. Bullpen help was imperative for Cleveland, even more than the Los Angeles Dodgers needed …

July 20, 2018 Page 24 of 38

6. Manny Machado to fortify their lineup. In June they were monsters, and in July they’ve been pretty close, and really this was the ultimate flex in that the Dodgers may have overpaid by shipping five prospects to Baltimore, but they’re so deep and so confident their player-development system will create new ones that it’s no bother. They also know the National League is wide open, and that as the Philadelphias, Atlantas and San Diegos of the world ascend, the Dodgers’ ability to parade through October will lessen significantly. It’s why the potential trade of …

7. Jacob deGrom could so swing the power dynamics of the NL. If teams were willing to give up almost as much as the Dodgers did for a rental like Machado, what could the Mets get for deGrom and 2½ seasons of club control? The biggest return since Mark Teixeira went to Atlanta? Bigger? Most contenders would need to empty their farm systems of top prospects to get close to what the Mets can reasonably ask. But if the situation really is binary – if deGrom sticks to wanting a contract extension or a trade, as his agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, told reporters over the break – then …

8. J.T. Realmuto might not be the biggest trade candidate out there. That there’s a deep reservoir of contenders with catching issues and good-enough systems to get him – Washington, Milwaukee, Houston – gives the Miami Marlins a nice bit of leverage if they are intent on finishing the gutting of their roster. During spring training, the Nationals were pursuing him and offering …

9. Juan Soto, and the Marlins said, nope, no thanks, we want Victor Robles, another outfield prospect. And now Soto is more than halfway to one of the best offensive seasons ever by a 19-year-old. The closest player to his .301/.411/.517 line is Mel Ott, who in 1924 slashed .322/.397/.524. Among him, Ronald Acuña Jr., Gleyber Torres and …

10. Shohei Ohtani, it’s quite the rookie class, and that it’s dominated by international players is a reminder that baseball would not be what it is today without people from other countries coming to America. Ohtani is unlike anything the game has seen in a century, and the news that his torn ulnar collateral ligament is showing signs of healing is great, even if the optimism deserves to be cautious. For now, he’s just hitting, and that’s all well and good, and if he’s back this season pitching, it might be the best gift fans can receive outside of a …

11. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. debut in the big leagues. Vlad Jr. is back after a leg injury sidelined him for nearly six weeks, and the Toronto Blue Jays owe it to the world to summon him this season. Sure, there’s no good reason at this point for them to start his service clock. It is a purely selfish ask on behalf of, oh, the 10,672 fewer fans per game who are going to Rogers Centre this year – not to mention all those outside Canada who adore Guerrero’s swing, his power, his offensive singularity. He is the best pure hitting prospect in a long, long time, and he’s going to be a star, and watching pitchers like …

12. Max Scherzer try to figure him out is going to be a treat. Scherzer’s second half is going to be awfully interesting, too, not just to see if he and the soon-to-be-back Stephen Strasburg can take the Nationals from .500 over their first 96 games to the playoffs, but whether he can join Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Clayton Kershaw and …

13. Chris Sale in the post-strike 300-strikeout club. Scherzer is on pace to do it, and Sale is primed to be the first AL pitcher with back-to-back 300-strikeout years since Nolan Ryan in 1976 and ’77. And the truth is, Sale is a far better pitcher than Ryan was in either of those years. He is lining himself up for the

July 20, 2018 Page 25 of 38

most interesting pitching free agency in a long while after the 2019 season. Joining him, as of now, will be …

14. Madison Bumgarner, along with Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Sonny Gray, Zack Wheeler, Alex Wood, Tanner Roark and others. It’s quite the pitching class, and Sale and Bumgarner signed nearly exactly the same deal: five years, mid-$30 million, two club options, both no-brainer pickups. While Bumgarner’s ERA is strong, his peripherals have slipped this season and he doesn’t quite look like the frontline guy he did over the first seven years of his career. Admittedly, it’s always best to walk into free agency more like …

15. Nolan Arenado is doing. He joins Sale as the best player in the Class of 2019-20, when he looks to be a 28-year-old with the game’s best third-base glove and a bat that only has improved. Yes, the numbers are skewed because of Coors Field, but Arenado will hit anywhere, and to call him the best player in the NL would not be an exaggeration. Just how …

16. Paul Goldschmidt fares that same winter will offer an interesting sense of whether teams continue to devalue players whose ages start with the No. 3. Goldschmidt will hit the market at 32, and provided little changes, he will have spent seven seasons regularly getting on base at least 39 percent of the time and slugging over .500. Tough as it is for first basemen to get into the Hall of Fame, Goldschmidt is making himself a candidate to one day stand alongside …

17. Clayton Kershaw and his contemporaries. It’s easy to forget, as Kershaw’s fastball velocity dips and we wonder whether this is the beginning of a re-entry into this earth’s orbit or simply a detour on the way to a Verlander-like blast back to otherworldliness, that he is still an easy, no-doubt, first-ballot Hall of Famer no matter what the rest of his career looks like. That’s how good Kershaw was from 2009-17. It is impossible to wreck his Hall case. He is in. And if he can do in October what he’s done during those regular seasons, what …

18. Yu Darvish couldn’t do, then his case is even stronger. Darvish, meanwhile, has had an even rougher year than Kershaw, with whom he worked out this winter. Only 40 innings pitched. An elbow injury keeping him out. Questions about whether he’s Jason Heyward 2.0 for the Cubs. It’s not good. Especially since a healthy Darvish really would fortify Chicago’s rotation and take some pressure off a lineup with Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez and Kyle Schwarber and Willson Contreras and Ben Zobrist and Albert Almora and Ian Happ and – holy hell that’s a lot of firepower – that feels enough already. In Philadelphia …

19. Aaron Nola gets it. While his run support isn’t as bad as teammate Jake Arrieta’s, Nola plays for a Phillies team that has far outplayed its run differential and yet leaves the break in first place. Philadelphia wanted Manny Machado. It lost out. So many others available don’t fit. Nick Castellanos needs to play first or DH. Josh Donaldson remains injured. Scooter Gennett almost certainly isn’t going anywhere. Shin-Soo Choo is a liability in the outfield. Maikel Franco has nearly identical numbers to Mike Moustakas. The Phillies would love to have even one bat similar to …

20. Alex Bregman’s thunderstick. In his second full season, Bregman has added another star-level player to a team that already features Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and George Springer. His 20 home runs lead Houston, as do his 64 RBIs. He seems to walk off a game a week, and he is walking, sans off, more than

July 20, 2018 Page 26 of 38

he’s striking out. The MVP of the All-Star Game does not lack for confidence, and he oughtn’t, even when …

21. Edwin Diaz is staring him down from the mound. Diaz was undeniably great in the first half. He also pitched in 48 of Seattle’s 97 games, leaving him just 18 appearances shy of his career high and putting him on pace to become the first closer to pitch in 80 games since Brad Lidge in 2004 and only the fourth in the last quarter century. The Mariners only hope Diaz, 24, holds up better than the other two, Billy Koch and Rod Beck, whose careers never were the same. The value in an elite reliever is immense, as Milwaukee will attest after …

22. Josh Hader’s first half. And yet it’s not his strikeouts or ERA right now that make Hader among the most interesting players of the second half. The revelation of Hader’s awful tweets from seven years ago offered an ugly side of him. The Brewers and teammates came to his defense, and the hope is that eases him back into his role as relief pitcher extraordinaire who is to pitchers what …

23. Aaron Judge is to hitters: someone chasing a strikeout record. Hader could break Chapman’s strikeouts-per-nine mark. And Judge is on pace to best – relatively speaking – Mark Reynolds’ 223 strikeouts. And for the second straight year, he’s proving that’s OK. Because with a walk rate near the top of the league and exit velocities that prove he hits the ball as hard as anyone, Judge is able to work around his bat-to-ball difficulties. Players with warts can be great still. The first half of …

24. Bryce Harper’s season featured a cheek-sized wart. His .214 batting average is unsightly even in an era where unsightly batting averages are the norm. It dragged down his on-base percentage. His slugging percentage cratered as well. A great second half certainly would go a long way in re-establishing some of the money lost by Harper’s first-half performance. Machado’s was 130 OPS points higher, and as they head into free agency looking for groundbreaking deals, it’s pretty much setting the stage for …

25. Mike Trout to cash in on the biggest deal in sports history. And, yes, he’s in line to do that, either now if the Angels want to ensure he stays in their uniform for the next however long or following the 2020 season if he chooses to enter free agency. Either way, whether Trout is as well-known as LeBron James or not by then, the demand for him will remain enormous. Perhaps the world won’t appreciate him until he’s actually on the downside of his career, though at least his numbers always will be there, glistening, telling the story of Trout in a way nothing else has. They’re what make him great, not the commercials or marketing or any of the stuff that gets in the way. It’s almost all baseball, all the time, exactly how Mike Trout likes it.

Mike Trout is not the problem, but going home in October doesn't help

By Tim Brown

Mike Trout is not the perfect ballplayer sent to save a league from its bouts of economic downturn and self-loathing. He is merely the perfect ballplayer, or as close to it as the living have seen. What comes with that is a young man who asks in return that he be allowed to be him, whatever that may be, which seems more than fair.

July 20, 2018 Page 27 of 38

Baseball, in my opinion, was not Mike Trout’s plan to get rich, although he is. It was not his plan to become famous, and you’re free to argue whether he is or isn’t, because I don’t care and he almost certainly cares less than I do.

Baseball was what Mike Trout was good at. And it was what made him happy. It fed his desire to compete and win and keep score. So he kept doing it.

The reason he was good at it, the reason it made him happy, I’m guessing, was because it was a game played in a box, and he was comfortable there, and he could tilt his head and roll his shoulders forward and get on with it.

Over seven major league seasons, gradually, he has raised his eyes, stood taller, accepted the love and tumult that comes with being the player everyone is straining to see. To understand. To borrow a piece of.

I’ve never seen him walk into a clubhouse without a smile, presumably because there’d be a game that day. He leaves the clubhouse the same way, sure there’ll be a game the next day. If you think bigger than that, that if the game is to survive it must nourish itself on the desperate souls of gluttonous men out to get theirs while they can, then, well, maybe Mike Trout is not your savior. Instead, he can be your favorite ballplayer, the young man who’d probably rather pull a kid out of the stands for a game of catch than pose in front of a green screen for a commercial shoot.

So, let’s allow for authenticity. Let’s kill the overdone “face of the game” conversations. Let’s understand that what sells the game is individuals, people – men, for now – being exactly who they are. Who they were meant to be. True to themselves. True to their strengths and frailties, and not being inflated into supermen, which is false and transparent and failed last time, in the long run.

Let’s start over.

The commissioner of baseball did not say Mike Trout should conduct himself or his business in ways other than he already has. Rob Manfred is perfectly pleased with the player and person and businessman Mike Trout is. The way he put it on Tuesday afternoon was, “Player marketing requires one thing for sure: the player. … That’s up to him,” and millions of headline writers took it from there. He said more, but that was the gist.

The Los Angeles Angels reacted with something of a sledgehammer, that being swung from the offices of owner Arte Moreno and president John Carpino in defense of Mike Trout (who was in no need of defending), reading, in part, “We applaud him for prioritizing his personal values over commercial self-promotion. That is rare in today’s society and stands out as much as his extraordinary talent.” While company officials insist the statement was intended to address the entire conversation and not to backhand the commissioner, it played as the latter.

When Aristotle mused, “Nature abhors a vacuum,” he may have been thinking of the Wednesday between baseball’s All-Star Game and the official beginning of its second half. The conclusion of the Manny Machado saga was not enough to fill the emptiness. And nature would like a vacuum just fine if all there was otherwise were the crumbs of an apparent feud between the commissioner and one of his owners, with the game’s best player caught in between.

July 20, 2018 Page 28 of 38

If you got that far while picturing Mike Trout standing off to the side, hands on his hips and shaking his head at the adults in the room, then you were rewarded when Mike Trout himself cleared his throat.

“I am not a petty guy and would really encourage everyone to just move forward,” he said in a statement forwarded by his agent to the club. “Everything is cool between the Commissioner and myself. End of story. I am ready to just play some baseball!”

For those who believe Mike Trout is underpromoted, undermarketed, whatever it is (and Mike Trout clearly is not one of them), that is not as much a baseball issue as it is an Angels issue. In his eighth summer, he has played in one fall, and that lasted three games. The crowds come in October. The nation leans in in October. Stars are born – and raised — in October.

The Angels go home in October.

Given its century or so as America’s pastime, a good run for a diversion that for a long time invited only its type of America, and was for that century bulletproof anyway, baseball seems to have developed an inferiority complex. Rules are challenged. Methods are thrown out. Core elements of an old game are debated over two or three years’ worth of data. Maybe that’s healthy. Maybe it feels panicky. Maybe baseball should just be itself and not succumb to the trappings of a new world that expects everything to be exactly what it wants. Baseball should be good at what it does. To even be great at what it is. First, though, it has to know what it is.

Works for Mike Trout.

FROM THE RINGER

The 2018 MLB Midseason Awards

Mike Trout is good (shocker), Jacob deGrom deserves two awards, and the NL has an MVP mess that may be even more difficult to predict than which of the league’s teams will make the playoffs

By Michael Baumann

It’s not technically the halfway point of the MLB season, but as someone who tends to eat lunch late to shorten the second half of the workday, I find the All-Star break to be a perfect time to sit back and reflect. The season doesn’t end today, but if it did, here’s who I’d choose for each of the eight major awards, and why:

AL MVP: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Of course it’s Trout. He’s leading the AL in OBP, with great power (.606 slugging percentage, 25 HR), speed (15 steals in 16 attempts), and solid defense in center field. What more do you want? Boston’s Mookie Betts and Cleveland’s José Ramírez are a very close second and third, and both are in the midst of uncommon statistical achievements: Betts’s OPS+ at the break is an even 200—nobody’s had a 200 OPS+ over a full season since Barry Bonds in 2004. And Ramírez is tied for the AL lead in home

July 20, 2018 Page 29 of 38

runs (29) and is third in stolen bases (20). Nobody’s gone 20-20 at the break since Matt Kemp in 2011, and Ramírez is in position to become MLB’s first 30-30 man since Trout and Ryan Braun in 2012. Trout is a little behind the pace on the race to both a 200 OPS+ and 30-30, but he could reach either (or both) with a strong second half.

I’m actually starting to feel bad for Betts, who’s been no. 2 to Trout for so long and will probably wind up finishing behind Trout in MVP voting again. At almost any other point in history, Betts would have a case for being the best player in baseball. But since Trout’s in the picture, that’s become a fringe position held only by contrarians and people who sound like background players in Good Will Hunting. In 2016, Betts finished second in AL MVP voting with a 9.7 bWAR season. Setting Trout aside, the last time an American League position player had a season that good was Alex Rodriguez’s last year in Seattle.

Betts’s best path to the MVP award is the one Josh Donaldson took in 2015: get close enough to Trout statistically that award voters have an excuse to shake things up. Having the same MVP every year is boring—even if the same player is obviously the most valuable player every season—as dominant athletes ranging from Mickey Mantle to LeBron James learned firsthand. But Betts will have to keep putting up historic numbers in order to keep that door open, because Trout’s going to put up historic numbers no matter what.

NL MVP: Jacob deGrom, New York Mets

There are as many as 10 teams with a chance at making the playoffs in the National League, which is going to make this stretch run chaotic as all get out—and somehow the NL MVP race might be even weirder. By Baseball-Reference WAR, the four most valuable players in the NL are all pitchers, and the eight most valuable position players in baseball are all in the American League. Baseball Prospectus’s six most valuable position players are in the AL, and its three most valuable NL players are all pitchers, though the margin between deGrom, Aaron Nola, and the top NL position player, Freddie Freeman, is so thin as to be irrelevant.

The serious MVP candidates from recent NL seasons just haven’t shown up this year. Bryce Harper and Anthony Rizzo are having down seasons. Corey Seager, Kris Bryant, and Daniel Murphy got hurt. Giancarlo Stanton plays in the American League. Paul Goldschmidt’s been on fire for the past month and a half, but dug himself into a huge hole by hitting .144/.252/.278 in May. Joey Votto and Buster Posey have been good, but not, like, awesome. A league MVP is usually worth eight WAR or more, but we might just not get that kind of season from an NL position player this year. The top performers so far are Lorenzo Cain, Nolan Arenado, and Freeman, all guys who usually show up on MVP ballots somewhere, just generally not toward the top.

Given the choice of those three, I’d take Arenado, who’s having the best offensive season of his career and after back-to-back top-five MVP finishes might win on the “he’s been close before, and now he’s due” argument.

But I’d feel much better about voting for a pitcher, specifically one of either deGrom or Max Scherzer. Scherzer’s thrown 11 1/3 more innings and has slightly better peripheral numbers, though deGrom’s ERA is more than half a run lower (1.68 to 2.41). Even though Scherzer’s allowing fewer baserunners and striking out more batters, I’ll admit to being a little dazzled by deGrom’s ERA. A 1.68 just looks special, and it is. If deGrom keeps up his current pace, he’ll finish the season with the 13th-best ERA+ by a

July 20, 2018 Page 30 of 38

qualified starter in baseball history, and the seventh-best in the past 100 years. There’s time for one of the position players to catch deGrom and Scherzer, but right now, I’d go with a pitcher.

AL Cy Young: Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox

It is hilarious that two current Red Sox pitchers have won Cy Young awards and Sale isn’t one of them. His strikeout numbers have been outrageous—in 2017, Sale struck out 12.9 batters per nine innings, the third-highest mark ever for a qualified starter, and this season his K/9 is up to 13.1, which is a rounding error away from Pedro Martínez in 1999 for the second-highest mark ever. (The all-time record is 13.41 K/9, set by Randy Johnson in 2001.) Sale’s career K/9 ratio is 10.8, the highest ever for a starting pitcher with at least 1,000 innings pitched, and even if you lower the innings threshold to 500, Sale only trails Yu Darvish by a quarter of a strikeout per nine innings.

Sale leads the AL in ERA and DRA, and he’s second in WHIP. He leads all AL pitchers in bWAR by three-quarters of a win, and while Justin Verlander has him beat in WARP, Verlander’s made an extra start. If Sale falters through the season’s second half, you could make a case for Verlander or Trevor Bauer—and Sale might falter. (Remember how in mid-May it looked like three-fifths of the Astros’ rotation would finish with an ERA below 2.00? Great pitching seasons are fragile things.) After Verlander and Bauer, Corey Kluber’s close behind based on run prevention and innings pitched, but a step behind in strikeouts, as is Luis Severino.

NL Cy Young: deGrom

The phrase “in the conversation” gets tossed around a lot in awards analysis. Usually, it’s sports-talk radio code for “we know which player is best, but we’ve got three hours and 55 minutes more of this show to fill, so who else can we strain to make an argument for?” If you think a player deserves the MVP or Cy Young, you say so. If you don’t actually believe that and are just talking for the sake of talking, you say he’s “in the conversation.”

In the case of NL Cy Young, if we’re talking about who should actually win, there are really only three pitchers “in the conversation”: deGrom, Scherzer, and Aaron Nola. Among qualified NL starters, these three pitchers rank first, second, and third (in various combinations) in ERA, WARP, and bWAR. They rank first, second, and fourth in innings pitched, with San Diego’s Clayton Richard third, and first, third, and fourth in opponent batting average, with Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz second. And even among those three, I’d narrow the real choices down to deGrom and Scherzer, because while Nola is among the leaders in all of those key categories, he doesn’t lead in any of them. He doesn’t have one spectacular stat to point to, like Scherzer’s strikeouts or deGrom’s ERA. I would, as I said in the NL MVP section, vote for deGrom, but Scherzer’s case is just as reasonable.

Despite the existence of a clear top tier of three NL pitchers, the actual ballot goes five deep, which means that Arizona’s Zack Greinke and Patrick Corbin will also get into The Conversation, as will Foltynewicz and possibly even Colorado’s Kyle Freeland, who’s pitched well in tough circumstances, despite not striking anyone out.

AL Rookie of the Year: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels

July 20, 2018 Page 31 of 38

As of right now, Ohtani’s been the most valuable rookie in baseball, but I expect that to change by the end of the year because even if he continues to hit at his current pace (.283/.365/.522), it’s uncertain what impact, if any, he’s going to make as a pitcher down the stretch. If Ohtani, who on Thursday was cleared to start a throwing program after suffering a UCL injury, ends up making 15 starts (he has nine already), he’ll probably be named Rookie of the Year. But if he doesn’t contribute as a pitcher, that opens the door for Gleyber Torres, who’s putting up about the same offensive numbers (.294/.350/.555) but at second base, not DH, which makes his offensive contributions more valuable. And by virtue of playing in New York, Torres might be the only other rookie of note with a fan and media following that approaches Ohtani’s.

Rays first baseman Jake Bauers and Astros catcher Max Stassi (who is somehow still rookie-eligible despite having appeared in at least one Astros game every year since 2013—talk about unbelievable achievements) have played very well in relatively limited action, but at this point, anyone but Ohtani or Torres winning AL Rookie of the Year would be a surprise.

NL Rookie of the Year: Seranthony Dominguez, Philadelphia Phillies

The current leader in WAR among NL rookies on both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference is Brian Anderson, whom I bet you’ve never heard of. There are three reasons for that: First, he plays in Miami, which means nobody’s ever seen him play. Second, he doesn’t have one exceptional skill or attribute to point to, like Juan Soto’s power or age. Anderson is hitting .288/.363/.429, which is the Sheldon Willis of batting lines: He’s got to like you, and then forget you the moment you’ve left his sight. Third, his name is Brian Anderson.

In the past 25 years, there have been three MLB players named Brian Anderson. There have also been three minor leaguers named Brian Anderson, a big leaguer named Bryan Anderson, and three more minor leaguers named Ryan Anderson. One of the previous Brian Andersons, the ex-Diamondbacks pitcher who once missed a start because his arm got stiff during a 20-minute cab ride to the ballpark, is now doing color commentary on Tampa Bay Rays broadcasts. But he’s not to be confused with the Brian Anderson who does play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers and certain national games on TBS. That Brian Anderson never played in the big leagues.

The point is, Brian Anderson the Younger has a good statistical case for Rookie of the Year, but he’s not going to win unless he changes his name to something more memorable. Among position players, Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader (.272/.340/.413, nine stolen bases) has been solid, and Reds outfielder Jesse Winker is walking more than he’s striking out, which is extremely cool.

But for me, this is a two-horse race between Soto and Phillies reliever Seranthony Dominguez. (You know who has a memorable name? Seranthony Dominguez.) Soto isn’t in the headlines every night anymore, but he’s still hitting .301/.411/.517. And the reason he isn’t up near the top of the rookie WAR leaderboards is because he’s only played in 51 games (compared to 97 for Anderson) and because he’s getting killed by the advanced defensive metrics, which are notoriously unreliable, particularly in small samples and particularly for corner outfielders.

Right now, Baseball-Reference has Soto at seven runs below average in 51 games, which prorates to about minus-20 through a full season. Soto is not Mookie Betts, but Carlos Lee on crutches wouldn’t put up a minus-20 in left field. I expect that Soto will win this award, and everyone will walk away happy.

July 20, 2018 Page 32 of 38

Even so, I’d vote for Dominguez instead. Every so often we have a conversation about what it’d take for a reliever to win the Cy Young, since relievers pitch so few innings they’ll never lead the league in WAR. Dominguez, a reliever who’s thrown just 33 2/3 innings, is leading all rookie pitchers, AL and NL, in fWAR, and he trails only Oakland’s Lou Trivino in bWAR. Dominguez has a 1.60 ERA and nine saves against six walks, and he’s pitching in incredibly high-leverage innings. Dominguez is third among rookie pitchers in WPA, trailing Arizona’s Yoshihisa Hirano and Trivino, both of whom pitch in much lower-leverage roles and have thrown more innings. Dominguez’s gmLI (the average leverage index when he enters the game) is not only highest among rookies, it’s fourth-highest among all relievers.

Dominguez, a multi-inning stopper, is Philadelphia’s bullpen. Closer Héctor Neris got himself demoted after his ERA neared 7.00, lefty killer Adam Morgan and veteran setup man Tommy Hunter have both blown up in big moments, and free-agent signing Pat Neshek missed the first three months of the season due to injury. The Phillies, having just missed out on Manny Machado, are rumored to be interested in veteran relievers like Zach Britton because Dominguez has been forced to hold the roof up pretty much all on his own.

AL Manager of the Year: Alex Cora, Boston Red Sox

The only constant of Manager of the Year voting is that we don’t know enough about the inner workings of the clubhouse to make informed choices. That’s why Manager of the Year is usually a proxy for “team we didn’t think was good at the start of the year but turned out to be good anyway.” By that logic, Seattle’s Scott Servais feels like the frontrunner.

But I’d go in a different direction. Each of the past two years, the Red Sox won 93 games, but capitulated in the first round of the playoffs. So Boston fired manager John Farrell last offseason and replaced him with Cora, a first-time manager. And lo and behold, the Sox are on pace to win 112 games, and as far as I know, there’s been no clubhouse-destroying drama. I have no idea how much of that is Cora’s doing, but from a results perspective, it feels like you can’t ask for much more from a manager.

NL Manager of the Year: Dave Roberts, Los Angeles Dodgers

All but six of the teams in the American League are bad. Of those six exceptions, the Astros, Red Sox, Indians, and Yankees were all expected to be really good, which makes it tough to find a compelling Manager of the Year narrative. Not so in the National League, which is wide open on all fronts.

There are three managers with a shot to take young teams to the playoffs for the first time after their franchises’ extended absences: Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell, Atlanta’s Brian Snitker, and Philadelphia’s Gabe Kapler. Kapler is the flashiest and manages in the biggest market, and just like in state and local elections, name recognition matters in the Manager of the Year race. But even though the Phillies are successful now, Kapler is still polarizing, and he’s still shaking off the bad first impression he made as a manager. Jim Riggleman also deserves a lot of credit for taking over a Reds team that started the season 3-15 under Bryan Price and going 40-38 in his first three months on the job, but Manager of the Year winners tend to come from playoff teams, and a 40-38 pace down the stretch isn’t getting Cincinnati to the postseason this year.

So I’d go with Dave Roberts. After last season’s 1-16 stretch and a heartbreaking World Series loss, the Dodgers’ 16-26 start to the season should’ve broken them, particularly considering that during that

July 20, 2018 Page 33 of 38

time, many of the team’s cornerstone players—Kenley Jansen, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner—were hurt, ineffective, or both. In spite of all that, the team has turned it around and is in first place in the NL West at the All-Star break. Roberts, who’s been in the Manager of the Year conversation every year since taking over the Dodgers (and won in 2016), seems like a very calm, reassuring figure. He’s level-headed without being aloof, which feels like exactly the kind of leader you’d want to bring a club out of a tailspin. You could argue that, unlike Riggleman, Roberts was at the helm when his club dug its hole, and therefore shouldn’t get as much credit for digging them out. But it would have been very easy to let the first six weeks of the season turn into a death spiral, and Roberts didn’t let that happen.

FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES

LOVERRO: MLB needs to sell its own brand, not worry about Mike Trout

By Thom Loverro

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Mike Trout is just a guy from South Jersey. Like his buddies growing up, he went to the Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series parade in 2008 and was there for his Eagles at the Super Bowl in February, trying to blend in as just another Eagles fan. He’d rather you didn’t even know he was there at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Oh, and Trout happens to be the greatest baseball player in the game today — just ask Bryce Harper. But while he may be his generation’s Babe Ruth, he is no Bambino when it comes to lifting the game up onto his shoulders.

He’s more Lou Gehrig than Ruth, more Roger Maris than Mickey Mantle.

If baseball needs a Messiah to save it, Mike Trout is not the chosen one. A disciple maybe, but not The Man — which seems to disappoint baseball commissioner Rob Manfred.

At a Tuesday luncheon with baseball writers before the All-Star Game at Nationals Park, Manfred was asked about the lack of marketing profile a player like Trout has compared to, let’s say, the average NBA player.

Manfred responded that you can lead a player to Madison Avenue, but you can’t make him sell.

“Mike’s a great, great player and a really nice person, but he’s made certain decisions about what he wants to do and what he doesn’t want to do, and how he wants to spend his free time and how he doesn’t want to spend his free time,” Manfred said. “That’s up to him. If he wants to engage and be more active in that area, I think we could help him make his brand really, really big. But he has to make a decision that he’s prepared to engage in that area. It takes time and effort.”

July 20, 2018 Page 34 of 38

Trout’s employer — the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim — came back with a surprisingly forceful response. “We applaud him for prioritizing his personal values over commercial self-promotion,” the team’s statement said. “That is rare in today’s society and stands out as much as his extraordinary talent.”

This is such a misguided debate and underscores Major League Baseball’s failure to understand how to market and promote itself. Manfred talks about making Trout’s “brand really really big.” The Angels call it “self-promotion.”

The brand, though, that baseball should be promoting is not Mike Trout’s or Aaron Judge’s or even Harper’s. The brand Major League Baseball should be promoting is Major League Baseball.

I know this runs contrary to the NBA blueprint, proven successful, of promoting stars. But Major League Baseball has something that both the NBA and the NFL don’t: A brand that is part of American culture from the time kids are born until old age.

I went to the smartest man I know when it comes to marketing — Marty Conway, a sports business and marketing consultant who has worked for Major League Baseball, the Baltimore Orioles, the Texas Rangers and American Online. I am biased because Conway teaches a Business of Sports Media course with me in Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management program, one of several courses he teaches in the program.

He, more than anyone I’ve met, understands the religion of baseball — and how to spread the word.

“The commissioner’s Mike Trout comments and the way he directed them were ill-founded and I say that because one of the things I always experienced working with players on any level in any sport, you could not take a player and put him in a situation commercially that he wasn’t comfortable with because it would come off as completely inauthentic,” Conway said.

“Whatever Mike Trout’s personality is and his own personal choices are, to try to take somebody like him and put him in the commercial mix is a mistake to begin with,” he said. “It’s just not going to be his persona.

“If you are Mike Trout and his representative, what is there that they would have said yes to? Because if you look at the recent track record of Major League Baseball’s marketing, why would he opt into anything they are doing, because they are not doing anything really well. There is nothing for him or his representative to raise their hands and say, ‘Yes, I’ll sign up for that because you’ve been so successful.’”

Conway said Major League Baseball doesn’t seem to value control over its own brand — and how to market that brand.

“They have outsourced their marketing, at least at the major league level, to their clubs and said market the game as you see fit in your territory,” he said. “So you have pockets where it is done well and a number of pockets where it doesn’t do well. I think baseball should consider taking a step back and say, ‘We own the brand baseball. We may not own the Orioles or the Nats or the Dodgers, but we own baseball.’

July 20, 2018 Page 35 of 38

“There are 30 major league baseball teams,” Conway said. “There are something like 255 or 256 minor league affiliated teams. And if you mix in about 60 independent baseball teams, you are now talking about maybe 325 baseball clubs around the country. Baseball is played in every state, and probably multiple times in every state. I don’t understand why baseball can’t craft a multi-themed campaign. If it is a $10 billion industry for major league baseball, plus minor league baseball and independent league baseball, maybe a $12 billion or $13 billion industry, take their marketing dollars and own the brand of baseball … if the NFL or the NBA had access to that many affiliates, they would be crushing it.

“Baseball has something no other sport has,” he said. “There is a Little League World Series, a College World Series and a Major League Baseball World Series. Baseball has brand almost from the cradle to the grave. Getting the MLB brand integrated into baseball in general can’t do anything but raise the brand of baseball and evangelize it all over the country.”

The best way for baseball to sell baseball is to recognize the value of its own brand — and stop worrying about Mike Trout’s brand. He doesn’t seem worried about it.

FROM FORBES.COM

Doctors Clear Angels' Shohei Ohtani To Throw Again

By Barry Bloom

Doctors have cleared Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani to begin to throw again, the Los Angeles Angels reported on Thursday.

The two-way player has been utilized of late as a designated hitter or pinch hitter, but he hasn’t thrown in a game since injuring his elbow against the Kansas City Royals on June 6. He was diagnosed with a Grade 2 tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in that elbow, often the precursor to Tommy John ligament replacement surgery.

“Shohei Ohtani had his six-week re-evaluation today with Dr. Steve Yoon at the Kerlan-Jobe Institute,” the Angels said in a statement. “His ligament continues to show improved healing. He has been medically cleared to begin a throwing progression. We will update specifics regarding his progression and rehabilitation schedule at a more appropriate time.”

Ohtani is expected to resume DHing this weekend, but there's no timetable for him to resume pitching.

The Angels start play again after the All-Star break at Angel Stadium on Friday night when they open a 10-game homestand against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, who lead the American League West by five games over the Seattle Mariners. The Angels trail by 14 games, nine in the chase for the AL’s second Wild Card berth.

Ohtani was cleared and returned as a hitter on July 3. Since then, he’s batting .250 (6-for-24) with a homer, two RBIs, a stolen base, three walks and 10 strikeouts. The homer and steal helped win games on the weekend of July 6-8 at home over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

July 20, 2018 Page 36 of 38

Overall, Ohtani’s hitting .283 with seven homers and 22 RBIs in 157 plate appearances.

He finished the break with four consecutive pinch-hit appearances, including three games at Dodger Stadium. The DH is not utilized for interleague games in National League parks.

It has already been six weeks since Ohtani received stem cell and platelet-rich plasma injections in the elbow. Ohtani went on the disabled list June 11. He had been told to refrain from throwing a baseball since then.

Last season, in Japan, the Nippon Ham-Fighters negotiated Ohtani’s playing time as he dealt with ankle, hamstring and evidently the elbow injury. A right-handed pitcher and left-handed hitter, he was limited to 25 1/3 innings off the mound, but made 231 plate appearances.

After last season he had a PRP shot in the elbow and was diagnosed with a Grade 1 sprain of the UCL. The Angels were aware of this when they signed him to a contract this past December, paying him a $2.31 million bonus, the minimum of $540,000 and a $20 million posting fee to the Fighters.

Because of the elbow, the Angels had been trying to manage Ohtani’s pitching. His last four-inning start on June 6 was just his second in 17 days. He has thrown only nine innings since May 20.

For the season, he’s made only the nine starts and is 4-1 with a 3.10 ERA, 20 walks and 61 whiffs in 49 1/3 innings. He had a high-water mark of 7 2/3 innings and 110 pitches in a home win over the Tampa Bay Rays on March 20.

FROM BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

A changed stance has done wonders for Kole Calhoun

Elevation has been key for Kole Calhoun, and by not doing just that earlier this year, he fell into a prolonged slump. He’s reworked his batting stance since returning from the DL and the results have shown.

By Patrick Brennan

There are rarely times when I get to talk positively about a hitter that’s slashing .187/.237/.319 and in the middle of a career-worst season. But, such is baseball, and here we are anyway!

The 2018 season has been a disaster for Angels right fielder Kole Calhoun. Overall on the year, he’s seen a disappearance of power, a decline in plate discipline, and some bad luck.

Only eight hitters in baseball with as many plate appearances as him have been worse by fWAR standards (Jose Pirela, Trey Mancini, Lewis Brinson, Chris Owings, Dexter Fowler, Alcides Escobar, Victor Martinez, Chris Davis) and only four by wRC+ (Brinson, Owings, Escobar, Davis).

July 20, 2018 Page 37 of 38

The best way to start this would be by figuring out some of the underlying issues that Calhoun has dealt with in 2018. To my surprise though, there wasn’t much on the surface. His exit velocity is slightly up, his hard-hit rate has seen a big jump, and most of the underlying plate discipline numbers seem in line with his career standards. Looking at his results by pitch type, a lot of his issues seem to be stemming from fastballs, something our Chris Anders pointed out back in May.

Pitcher’s aren’t attacking Calhoun in a drastically different way. He’s seeing fewer curveballs more sliders, and more fastballs, but none of those changes are more than three percentage points in either direction. The most dramatic shift in Calhoun’s production has come against four-seam fastballs. Since 2013, Calhoun’s first full major league season, he has never posted a wOBA below .360 or a wRC+ below 140 against four-seamers. This year? His wOBA against the offering is .147 and his wRC+ is -3.

With a minor hamstring injury popping up in early June, Calhoun got a much needed break both physically and mentally. After a three week hiatus, he got a quick rehab stint in triple-A (in which he didn’t strike out once in 20 plate appearances) and was back in the Angels lineup. The improvement has been drastic, as he’s posted a 147 wRC+ since his return. And it seems to be because he found his timing on fastballs again.

Calhoun vs FB, pre-DL: .214 wOBA, .332 xwOBA, 88.8 MPH EV, 9.1 degree LA Calhoun vs FB, post-DL: .404 wOBA, .431 xwOBA, 92.1 MPH EV, 20.6 degree LA

Narrowing that down, let’s see how much improvements there has been against higher velocity.

Calhoun vs FB >95 MPH, pre-DL: .217 wOBA, .274 xwOBA, 89.0 MPH EV, 3.6 degree LA Calhoun vs FB >95 MPH, post-DL: .664 wOBA, .585 xwOBA, 92.8 MPH EV, 14.8 degree LA

Elevating the ball seemed like one of the root issues for Calhoun’s early season struggles. Once the elevation in his swing headed south, so did wOBA. Now that the elevation is back, the results are too.

In the middle of these struggles, the best guess for the source of the problem was an injury. And that might have been the case with the hamstring issue. But related or unrelated to the injury, Calhoun came back from his rehab stint with a brand new set up at the plate. The changes in the stance are extremely glaring.

July 20, 2018 Page 38 of 38

Calhoun now stands in a more ready position with his arms sticking out and more frontward. He also now stands in more of crouch.

The changes are clearly helping Calhoun elevate the ball more. And the success is correlating right in line with it, which the Angels need badly. Playing in a crowded AL West and deep AL Wild Card field, the playoffs are likely out of reach for them, . But with amazing core pieces in Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and a few intriguing starting pitchers, a good Kole Calhoun would be more than welcomed (and probably needed) to develop a contending lineup.