HALOLINKS - Happy Birthday, Cookie Rojas...

MUST READ STORY OF THE DAY: Highlights from a Talk by MLB Advanced Media CEO Robert Bowman - Royals Review ...Where the revenue goes and how the future looks for MLB Advanced Media.
•The CEO of the MLB webites (known as MLBAM) gave an exhaustively revealing discussion of baseball's online business. Even more amazing, he gave it to a university business class and a blogger just sauntered in and took in the whole shpiel. Lots of revelations about the direction of MLB...

Happy Birthday, Cookie Rojas! Longtime Angels coach and one-time Angels manager Cookie Rojas turns 74 years young today. Cookie is the father of Angels broadcaster Victor Rojas. After years in the coach's box on the field, Gene Autry appointed Rojas manager when a visibly-depressed Gene Mauch retired during Spring Training with the axiom, "They say you can't win 'em all and I gotta ask 'Why Not?'..." With less than a month of preparation and a team in deep transition, Cookie managed the Angels in a down season, finishing with a 75-79. He was dismissed with 8 games left in the season after embarrassingly visiting the mound twice in one inning without realizing it. Moose Stubing took over for him and went 0-8.

The silver lining of Cookie's tenure as manager meant a much higher position in the June, 1989 draft for the Angels. That year the Angels took Tim Salmon with their ninth pick in the third round - a better record in 19888 might have meant the Kingfish being drafted by another team and the Angels being left wit the dregs of what was left. For example, the Indians picked two slots after the Angels and without Salmon available they picked some pitcher out of Virginia Commonwealth University by the name of Jerry Dipoto. Imagine being stuck with that guy around!!!

So thanks, Cookie, and many more!

Speaking of Crazy Draft Picks: -- Drake Britton, Boston Red Sox prospect, arrested on DUI charge

Red Sox pitcher Drake Britton, a 23-year-old in his first big-league camp, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and property damage.
•Doing 111 miles per hour (in a car, not on the mound) and driving off the road to evade the po-po.

Dusty Baker won't shake Kirk Gibson's hand?
They were fighting over the DH rule. National League eats its own!

Oh is there supposed to be Angels news? Oh, okay:
No Spring for Ryan Madson
•We already knew that, but the OC Register had to print something.

Where are they now? Failed Angel prospects of the 21st century
•Where are they now? Failed Angel prospects of the 21st century
Does it need any more explanation?

Angels play ITALY today at Noon, Game Thread goes up at 11 AM.

WiHaloFan's UPDATE:

The storm wasn't as bad as the weatherguys had forecasted, as we "only" had about 6" dropped on us. However, I live in a really small town (actually a village) whose closest neighboring town is about 5 miles away. The area surrounding where I live is 99% farm land. It's really pretty, but whenever we get a lot of rain or snow, we tend to lose our internet. It's not all bad, we expect to get indoor plumbing this summer!

As I've mentioned before, there are three things I'm really looking forward to seeing this season; 1) How well the pitching staff Jerry Dipoto assembled can perform, 2) Watching the offense beat the crap out of opposing pitchers, and 3) Seeing the outfield run down all of those flyballs the Halo pitchers allow. Angels get glimpse of terrific outfield trio - angels.com. "Josh Hamilton got right back in right field on Tuesday, giving the Angels a look at their projected starting alignment. Hamilton and left fielder Mike Trout flanked Peter Bourjos in center against the Reds, but the outfield defense didn't really come into play much. Trout, the only one of the three who had a difficult play, looked over one shoulder and then the other before making a running catch at the wall in the third inning. Manager Mike Scioscia said that he read it correctly the entire way, though, before making a difficult play with the fence looming." By the way, for those who watched yesterday's game...anyone else get REALLY nervous when Trout banged into the wall making that catch?

Actually, this is exactly how it used to be, that's why the Angels opted out of the MLB's Stubhub thing-a-ma-jiggy: Fryer: Angels' handling of Trout borders on the bizarre - The Orange County Register. "This is completely reversed from how it used to be: A seat for the Angels' home opener in section 529, row F, which is upper view above first base, is $84.50 including fees via Ticketmaster through the Angels website; a seat in that same section and row can be purchased at Stubhub for $50.40."

Five questions: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - The Hardball Times. "But, when Mickey Mantle was 20, turning 21, he hit .311/.394/.530 and his BABIP the next season dropped only about 25 points, and he was still able to come pretty close to repeating his earlier numbers by putting up a .295/.398/.497 line. And when Trout's teammate, Albert Pujols was 21 and in his first season, he hit .329/.403/.610. The next year he kept being awesome, and hit .314/.394/.561, which is probably only about the difference of a homer here, and a few doubles there. This small sample of players who hit as well as Trout when they were 20 were able to follow up their remarkable first full seasons with some pretty nice numbers the very next year. None of them exceeded their first seasons' numbers, even though they should have been developing more as players. "

Very long, but very interesting article about the Cubs' situation with the surrounding neighborhood: Local Interests Stymie Cubs’ Wrigley Restoration Plans - FanGraphs Baseball. "Overall, Green said the renovation will result in an additional $1.2 billion in economic activity and taxes during a 30-year period. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? A privately-funded stadium project that will benefit the city, county and state in the short and long term? Not so fast. The Rickettses need city approval for the project, and the approval process is gridlocked by Alderman Tom Tunney. Who’s Tunney? He’s the man who represents the neighborhood surrounding the ballpark, known as Wrigleyville."

Boring? How dare you say "boring"! Spring Training Long And Boring, Baseball Players Report. "Because March is the best possible month to invite wide player participation in the WBC, and because those players need time to get ready for the tournament and readjust afterward, spring training this year lasts about seven weeks. And the players are bored. "When you get to spring training, you're always looking forward to the season," Angels reliever Kevin Jepsen said. "You've been here for two weeks and you think, 'Dang, we still have a month left.' Sometimes it drags on."