September 8, 2017 Page 1 of 12

Clips

(September 8, 2017)

September 8, 2017 Page 2 of 12

Today’s Clips Contents

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIME (Page 3)

 Blake Parker has been a surprise out of the bullpen for Angels

 Albert Pujols has bruised bone in knee, will rejoin Angels in Seattle

FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER (Page 6)

 Albert Pujols diagnosed with bone bruise, cleared to play for Angels on Friday

FROM ANGELS.COM (Page 7)

 Inbox: Who would start if Halos play WC Game?

 Pujols has bone bruise, cleared to play Friday

FROM ESPN.COM (Page 9)

 Albert Pujols to rejoin Angels on Friday after getting treatment on knee

FROM FOX SPORTS (Page 9)

 Leake back into fire as Mariners host Angels

FROM SB NATION (Page 11)

 Justin Upton, the , and when perception is reality September 8, 2017 Page 3 of 12

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Blake Parker has been a surprise out of the bullpen for Angels

By Pedro Moura

The boy had quit , saying he no longer found it fun. He preferred other activities that can fill an 8-year-old’s time away from school.

But while spending this summer with his mother and stepfather in Anaheim, young Jude revealed that he was again interested.

He didn’t really say why, but he offered a hint late one evening in July as he sipped an Icee at his stepfather’s locker at Angel Stadium.

“Blake,” Jude said, addressing Angels relief Blake Parker. “I’m just so glad you’re in the big leagues.”

“Why’s that?” Parker asked as he tied his shoes and readied to head home.

“Because we get stuff,” Jude said, referring to the drink he had nabbed from the clubhouse kitchen.

Jude appreciates the present. Parker, 32, knows the struggles of the past. Over the last decade, he’s pitched in places such as Hawaii, Mexico and Iowa. Last winter alone, he was claimed off waivers three times.

His surprise season with the Angels started March 22, when he literally started striking out everyone. Between that afternoon and opening day, Parker recorded 17 outs, all . Only one hitter he faced reached base. It was spring training, sure, but it was a stretch of dominance typically unseen near the sport’s highest level, and it secured Parker his first opening-day roster spot.

Now, wielding a tight splitter and firm fastball velocity, Parker has 76 strikeouts in 61 innings, a team- best 2.36 earned-run average and a 0.85 walks-plus-hits-per-innings-pitched (WHIP), which is tied for sixth-best among major league relievers.

“The way he pitched in spring training,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, “we didn’t know how he hadn’t been in the big leagues for 10 years.”

Sometimes he was unlucky, sometimes he was hurt, and sometimes he pitched without confidence. Now, as a product of his past, Parker possesses a sense of self-reliance rare among his major league contemporaries.

Rather than purchase coffee each day, he makes his own cold brew, buying beans in bulk, soaking them in water for 24 hours, and filtering out the grounds. He's left with a fresh pitcher every day, and he leaves it in the clubhouse kitchen for all to enjoy. September 8, 2017 Page 4 of 12

This spring, he purchased an RV in case he needed to shuttle between triple A and the majors. Rather than sign a short-term lease, he figured he’d just live on the road. Instead, he and his wife, Jordan, along with Jude, have spent the season parked within a mile of Angel Stadium.

To limit their exposure to negativity, at least two of his teammates have deleted their Twitter accounts or removed the application from their phones. Parker embraces it. On a few late nights this season, he has opened the app to respond to fans ripping him, unusual behavior for a pro athlete in 2017. When one fan wrote that Parker had the worst beard he had ever seen, Parker retweeted it without comment to his 4,000 followers.

To another man who complained that Parker cost him $1,000 by allowing a late , he replied, “You should quit gambling, it’s a bad habit,” and sent along the national gambling helpline.

“I want them to know that I see them, I hear them, but it doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I guess it gives me my own satisfaction. … I try to be funny with it, and at the same time take the edge off and joke around.”

He acts the same way toward his teammates. In mid-May, as fellow reliever Cam Bedrosian neared a month on the disabled list for an unexpectedly severe groin injury, Parker trolled him.

“Bro,” he began, waiting until Bedrosian looked at him. “Are you ever gonna pitch again this year?”

“Yes, I am,” Bedrosian said.

“When?” Parker asked. “In September?”

Now, his teammates are repaying him. Late-inning relievers often work out later than other members of the bullpen, and last week as Parker took the field for a stretching session in Texas before a game against the Rangers, Bedrosian and Jesse Chavez were headed the opposite direction, having already finished their workout.

“See you in the ninth, closer,” they said in unison, as they headed back to the clubhouse.

::

In the fall of 2003, longtime St. Louis Cardinals Tom Pagnozzi became a volunteer coach at his alma mater, Arkansas. Parker was a freshman backup catcher for the Razorbacks, and the two took to each other.

Once an All-Star, Pagnozzi hurt his shoulder in July 1998. Doctors informed him he’d need significant surgery to repair his rotator cuff. Facing a lengthy rehabilitation at age 36, he retired. Around Christmas in 1999, he received a call from his former manager, . In New York, Torre had a problem: His ace, Roger Clemens, and his catcher, Jorge Posada, were not getting along. Torre sought a backup to catch Clemens every fifth day. September 8, 2017 Page 5 of 12

Pagnozzi endured spring training the following season with six cortisone shots but lacked a long-term cure. At the end of March, the Yankees released him. Over the years, Pagnozzi came to regret not having the prescribed surgery.

“I figured, who’s gonna want me at that stage?” Pagnozzi recalled. “That’s what ended my career.”

He imparted that message to Parker: “Play as long as you can. If you quit at 35, you've got plenty of time to go to work.”

So, no, Parker never contemplated quitting baseball. Shagging batting practice one July day in Minneapolis, several Angels relievers discussed when they planned to retire. Parker told them he intends to play as long as he can.

“I don’t think I ever want to stop,” he said. “There’s no amount of money you could give me. I just love playing the game. At the end of the day, every person that I’ve talked to that is done playing wishes they could come back and play.”

To explain how he proceeded past a decade of scuffling along in obscurity, Parker pointed across the Angels’ clubhouse to Mike Trout, the team’s superstar center fielder.

“He knows, deep down in his heart, that he’s good,” Parker said. “I feel like I’m the same way. Obviously, I’m not on Trout’s talent level, but I know deep down that I am good enough to do this. Even though you don’t think so, I do, even though I’m just a nobody from Arkansas.”

Parker thought of an August night in Washington when he heard a heckler shout to Trout that Bryce Harper was better than him.

“I mean, OK, he never said he was better than Harper,” Parker said. “That’s your opinion. But with him, with anybody, you can’t let that get to you. Because once that starts to diminish your own confidence in yourself, you’re screwed.

“It’s like that quote about the boat, how the water is all on the outside and it stays above the water. Once it gets in, the boat sinks. If you let it all bounce off you, you’ll be fine. But once it affects you, you’re done, slowly but surely.”

A few winters ago, Parker’s parents convinced him to undergo a hair-replacement operation. It did not work as intended, and it left him with a significant scar spanning the back of his head in the shape of a toothless smile. It’s visible when he’s not wearing a cap, and he takes it off each time he takes the mound, showing the scar as he faces second base and prays.

Parker prefers not to discuss the operation, but he understands why people ask. He doesn’t let it flood his boat.

“Here’s what I take away from that deal,” said his father, Richard. “I take the fact that he doesn’t care about the scar; he doesn’t care what happened. He keeps his hair short and he’s not afraid to take off September 8, 2017 Page 6 of 12

his hat. That’s what I love about Blake. I’m telling you, I love the kid because he just doesn’t worry about it.

“Every time he turns to second to say his prayer, that thing shines, and I see that big smile on the back of his head.”

Short hop

Designated hitter Albert Pujols has a bone bruise in his sore left knee. Team doctor Steven Yoon examined him onWednesday and administered a lubricating injection into the knee. Pujols, 37, has been cleared to play Friday in Seattle.

Albert Pujols has bruised bone in knee, will rejoin Angels in Seattle

By Pedro Moura

The Angels announced Thursday that designated hitter Albert Pujols has a bone bruise in his sore left knee.

Team doctor Steven Yoon examined him on Wednesday and administered a lubricating injection into the knee.

Pujols, 37, has been cleared to play Friday in Seattle. The Angels were off Thursday.

Pujols suffered the injury sliding into second base on a first-inning double last Friday in Texas. He played four more games while coping with it, then returned home Wednesday for the examination before the Angels' series finale in Oakland.

Pujols has struggled this season, hitting only .244 with a .682 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, by far the worst of his career. But he has hit third or fourth all year long and continues to drive in Mike Trout and teammates.

His 93 runs batted in lead the Angels, who began Thursday a half-game behind Minnesota for the American League's second wild-card playoff spot.

FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Albert Pujols diagnosed with bone bruise, cleared to play for Angels on Friday

By Jeff Fletcher

Albert Pujols, who left the team Wednesday to have his sore left knee checked, was diagnosed with a bone bruise and cleared to return to the lineup Friday in Seattle, the club announced Thursday.

Pujols received an injection of a lubricating fluid to alleviate the discomfort. September 8, 2017 Page 7 of 12

Pujols, 37, was hurt on a slide into second base Friday. He continued to play through Tuesday before returning to Southern California for an exam.

Although Pujols has been limited in his running all season, the only other time he’s missed with an injury was in May when he hurt his hamstring.

Lately, Pujols has been enjoying one of his best stretches of productivity of the season. In his last 26 at-bats, he has 13 hits and 14 RBI. He has hit .350 over his past 14 games, with three homers.

For the season, Pujols is hitting .244 with a .289 on-base percentage and a .394 slugging percentage. All three would be career-lows. He has 21 homers.

The Angels have remained positive about Pujols’ production because he has driven in 93 runs. He has driven in 17.9 percent of the runners he’s had on base, which is the second highest on the Angels (C.J. Cron, 18 percent).

FROM ANGELS.COM

Inbox: Who would start if Halos play WC Game?

Beat reporter Maria Guardado answers fans' questions

By Maria Guardado / MLB.com

Who pitches in a winner-take-all Wild Card Game? -- @OHLChampion2014 via Twitter

Garrett Richards appears to be the Angels' preferred starting option for a potential American League Wild Card Game. After missing five months with an irritated nerve in his right biceps, Richards came off the disabled list on Tuesday and threw 52 pitches over 3 1/3 innings against the A's. The Angels could have had him come back on normal rest and pitch Sunday in Seattle. Instead, they opted to use their off- days on Thursday and Monday to shift his start to next Tuesday, which puts him in line to pitch the Oct. 3 AL Wild Card Game. Barring any setbacks, Richards should be fully stretched out by then, giving the Halos a front-line pitcher to deploy in the one-game playoff.

If the Angels don't make the postseason, did it really cost them that much to obtain Brandon Phillips and Justin Upton? -- @joeflorkowski via Twitter

I think the acquisition cost for both was quite palatable for the Angels. Bringing in Phillips was a pretty low-risk move, as the Halos managed to get an upgrade at second base in exchange for journeyman catcher Tony Sanchez and minimal cash considerations. The trade for Upton cost the Angels one of their best pitching prospects, 23-year-old right-hander Grayson Long, but it seemed like an appropriate price for an impact bat. If Upton doesn't opt out, the Angels will be on the hook for the remaining $88.5 September 8, 2017 Page 8 of 12

million on his contract, which runs through 2021. Still, the final year of the deal would be Upton's age-33 season, so I don't think you'd expect to see a huge drop in performance toward the end.

How did the Angels persuade Phillips to come to Anaheim? -- @amelieinparis via Twitter

Phillips admitted that the decision to leave Atlanta was difficult, as he was raised in Stone Mountain, Ga., and relished the opportunity to play for his hometown Braves. He deliberated over the proposed trade for a few hours, but he said his family ultimately convinced him to waive his no-trade clause and approve the move to the Angels.

"My family made the decision for me," Phillips said.

Where does Yunel Escobar fit into the lineup when he returns? -- @MJSteele57 via Twitter

I think it would make sense for Escobar to go back to batting leadoff for the Angels, which would allow Phillips to drop to more of a run-producing spot, especially since he has more power than Escobar. The Phillips-Mike Trout-Upton-Albert Pujolsgrouping had been working well, though, so we'll see if manager Mike Scioscia will be willing to tinker with it to accommodate Escobar.

Any chance Michael Hermosillo or Jaime Barria come up in September? If not, when is their ETA? -- @nmbaseball52 via Twitter

I don't expect Hermosillo or Barria to be brought up in September, as neither of them are on the 40-man roster and the Angels already have 36 active players. They're not far off from the Majors, though. Hermosillo and Barria both made the climb from Class A Advanced Inland Empire to Triple-A Salt Lake this season, so I think you could see them in Anaheim as early as 2018.

Pujols has bone bruise, cleared to play Friday

By Maria Guardado / MLB.com

The Angels announced on Thursday that Albert Pujols has a bone bruise in his left knee, but he has been cleared to play Friday, when the club opens a three-game series against the Mariners in Seattle.

Pujols missed the Angels' 3-1 loss to the A's on Wednesday after flying to Southern California to be evaluated by Dr. Steven Yoon. Imaging performed on Wednesday revealed the bone bruise, and Pujols received Viscosupplementation, a lubricating injection, to help alleviate the discomfort in his left knee.

Pujols hurt his knee while sliding into second base on a double on Friday night in Texas. He played through the ailment for the next four games, though his running appeared to grow increasingly pained.

The 37-year-old slugger is hitting .244, with a .682 OPS, 21 home runs and a team-high 93 RBIs in 127 games this season. He has started to heat up at the plate of late, batting .323 with three doubles, four home runs and 25 RBIs over his past 22 games. September 8, 2017 Page 9 of 12

Since joining the Angels, Pujols has had three offseason surgeries in five years to address various lower- body injuries.

Worth noting • Right-hander Daniel Wright cleared waivers, and he was outrighted to Triple-A Salt Lake. Wright, 26, had been designated for assignment by the Angels last week.

FROM ESPN.COM

Albert Pujols to rejoin Angels on Friday after getting treatment on knee

ESPN.com news services

Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols will rejoin the team Friday for a weekend series against the Mariners in Seattle.

After getting extensive treatment over the past two days for a knee injury he suffered while sliding into second base in last weekend's series with the Texas Rangers, he has been cleared to play.

"Albert was seen by Dr. Steve Yoon regarding discomfort in his left knee," the team said in a statement Thursday. "Imaging performed yesterday revealed a bone bruise. He was given Viscosupplementation and will return to the club on Friday. He is cleared to play."

The 37-year-old Dominican slugger, who missed one game with his ailing knee, was hitting .244 with 21 home runs and 93 RBIs in 127 games this season before being sidelined this week.

Pujols hit his 600th career homer in June, becoming the ninth player in major league history to reach the mark. He now is sitting on 612 home runs.

FROM FOX SPORTS

Leake back into fire as Mariners host Angels

SEATTLE — It’s a good thing Mike Leake works fast: The ’ recently acquired right-hander barely had a chance to catch his breath before he was thrust into the American League wild-card race.

Starting two days after his Aug. 30 trade, Leake went seven strong innings for the Mariners, a 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Now fellow wild-card hopeful Los Angeles Angels (72-68) come to Safeco Field on Friday to start a three- game series. If Leake was genuinely hoping for a breather, that can come later. September 8, 2017 Page 10 of 12

Los Angeles enters the Friday game against the Seattle Mariners one game back of the in the American League wild-card race. The Angels held the second wild-card spot before a 3-1 loss at Oakland on Wednesday.

The Mariners (69-71) are four games behind Minnesota.

“There’s plenty of baseball left,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Obviously, there’s series coming; the Angels are ahead of us in the standings, in the wild card. They’re playing very good baseball.”

With Seattle having just absorbed a three-game sweep at the hands of the AL West-leading Houston Astros, Leake’s start Friday against the Angels only magnified in importance. For the season, Leake is 8- 12 with a 4.14 ERA in 161 innings.

“(He was) outstanding,” Servais said of Leake’s debut. “I would love to see that every time out, but he was really good. … He’s been a nice addition.”

Leake earned a win in his only career outing against the Angels, allowing one run in eight innings on May 10, 2016, at Anaheim. However, current Los Angeles players are hitting Leake at a .339 clip, led by former National Leaguers Justin Upton (.412, one homer in 17 at-bats) and Andrelton Simmons (.438, one homer in 16 at-bats).

Angels right-hander Ricky Nolasco (6-12) enters his Friday start with a 5.08 ERA in 156 innings. However, he also comes into the contest tied for the team lead with 11 quality starts (six innings or more, three earned runs or fewer).

Nolasco is a bit of an upswing, as he is 2-0 in seven starts since Aug. 1. Moreover, Los Angeles is 5-2 in those starts. That is a substantial improvement from a woeful stretch in May and June that saw the 34- year-old lose seven consecutive decisions.

He is 2-4 with a 4.36 ERA in nine career starts against the Mariners, including 1-0 with a 4.07 ERA in four meetings this year.

The bad news is that Seattle sluggers Nelson Cruz (.440, four homers, seven RBIs in 25 career at-bats) and Robinson Cano (.333, three home runs, four RBIs in 24 career at-bats) have feasted on Nolasco.

The Angels’ bullpen is coming off a hot month, when it posted a major-league-best 2.18 ERA in August. That is more impressive when you look at the string of injuries sustained by the relievers, with Huston Street, Andrew Bailey and Cam Bedrosian missing time.

It has forced Angels manager Mike Scioscia to be flexible with his bullpen, maybe more flexible that he would normally be comfortable with. In Los Angeles’ three wins in September, three different have recorded saves (Blake Parker, Keynan Middleton, Eduardo Paredes).

“It’s much cleaner and much easier when you have a dedicated setup guy and a dedicated closer,” Scioscia told the Orange County Register. “Now you have three or four outs a game matching up September 8, 2017 Page 11 of 12

(between the starter and the setup man). It’s not like it’s rocket science, but now we’re managing 10 or 11 or 12 outs.”

The Angels got some good news with Albert Pujols getting cleared to play against the Mariners on Friday after sitting out Wednesday due to a sore left knee. He is hitting .244 with 21 home runs and a team- leading 93 RBIs.

“He slid into second base in Texas (on Sept. 1) and just irritated (the knee) a little bit,” Scioscia told MLB.com. “He’s been playing on it and swinging well, it just affects some of his running.”

FROM SB NATION

Justin Upton, the Los Angeles Angels, and when perception is reality

The true impact of trading for Justin Upton goes beyond addition and subtraction.

By Jeremy Klein

You can do a lot of things in one month. You can start a new diet or end an old one. You can start a new workout regimen or decide you no longer have time for said regimen. You can pick up a new hobby, make some new friends, and generally engage in a whole host of activities that can have a profound impact on your life.

To us mere mortals, a month is a long time, enough time to achieve a whole variety of goals and aspirations. But for baseball players, a month is… still a pretty long time, but maybe not as long as one may think. Yes, an individual player can completely alter the course of his season with one especially hot or cold month. But as far as MLB teams are concerned, a single player is just one of many trying to push the boulder up the mountain. Even the best of the best (non-Mike Trout division) can realistically help his team to at best an extra win over the course of a month, and that’s only when compared to his replacement-level brethren. To swing a team’s outlook takes time, and at this point in the season time is in short supply.

On August 31, the Los Angeles Angels acquired outfielder Justin Upton. Upton falls somewhere in that “best of the best” tier, or maybe a tick below. Over the course of his career, he’s been worth anywhere between one-and-a-half and six wins above replacement in a given season, per FanGraphs. Over the last few years, he’s settled in as roughly a four-win player, save for a 2016 campaign marred by a vicious first-half slump.

It’s probably fair to consider Upton as about a four-win player who is currently performing a little ahead of that pace this season. Adding a player like Upton is as good as a team can expect to do in a waiver deadline trade, and the Angels are no doubt thrilled they were able to make the addition. But the guy Upton replaced is no slouch. In order to make room for Upton (and his salary, it would seem), the Angles let Cameron Maybin go on waivers to the Houston Astros. September 8, 2017 Page 12 of 12

Maybin is not Upton. Ever since his 2011 breakout he’s been about a two-win player, combining average-ish hitting with average-ish defense into an average-ish output. Over the course of a full season, the difference between Upton and Maybin is stark. It could easily be the difference between a playoff birth and a September shutdown.

But over a month? Variability aside, the math tells us that the difference just isn’t that great. Swapping Upton in for Maybin may help the Angels to an extra win over the course of the month, which may be the difference in getting the Angels over the hump and into the wild card game. Of course, the Angels may play well enough that they would have made the playoffs even with Maybin, or they may play so poorly overall that adding Upton becomes trivial.

Yet something seems off about that. There’s something about adding Upton to the middle of the Angels’ lineup that makes them just seem more formidable. Before adding Upton, the Angles featured just one player with an OPS above .800. They still looked like the 2016 Angels, a team that struggled to a 74-88 record. Before adding Upton, the Angels were still Gilligan’s Island, but with Gilligan being joined solely by the rest.

Now, at least the Angels look like a team who should be challenging for the wild card, at least on the position player side of the ledger. With the additions of Upton and Brandon Phillips, the Angels can send out a lineup with roughly average or better players at every position, save for the ongoing Albert Pujols saga. The two additions combined with better play from Kole Calhoun and C.J. Cron give the lineup depth that it hasn’t had in some time.

Of course, not everything can be attributed simply to adding Upton, and the Angels still have to navigate this month with a starting rotation that can charitably be described as full of question marks.

But Upton is the catalyst. Without him this is still a lineup of Trout, Andrelton Simmons, and a group whose upside is “not bad enough to waste all of Mike Trout’s prime.” Upton may not be significantly better than Maybin this month. In fact, as while Upton has played pretty well since the trade, Maybin has been doing pretty well himself.

But adding Upton leads to the perception that the Angels are flat out better. Cameron Maybin is a fine player, but adding someone as good as Justin Upton just gives the Angels the feel of a much better ballclub, one with greater potential to make some noise over the final month of the season and into the playoffs. The math says that the perception of the Angels as a significantly improved team is just that: perception. But in reality, it now doesn’t feel so strange to say the words “Los Angeles Angels, playoff contender.”