TuesdoLinks: Manager of the Year Day

What with the Free Agent class in play, the changes in front offices so many places, the influx of Korean and Japanese players, several team doing a rebuild, and a few teams still all-in as their windows remain open, this is proving to be a very interesting off-season already. It's far more in November than I am used to. I am amazed at the goings on so soon after the season has concluded.

That's going to make next week tough, when we have an extended holiday and far too much football clogging up the information channels. Here's hoping that the General Managers will stuff some turkey themselves and give us all a few days to chill, before diving back in with links. Poor turkeys.

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Angels Baseball

Simmons: I hope this is still up by the time you get to it today, but you can get a jump on Simmons merch by nabbing your jersey at the Braves team store, where they are doing a clearance at 30% off...........

More Simmons: Atlanta GM John Coppolella had some interesting things to say about the Braves/Halos trade last week. the whole thing was initiated and driven by Eppler, who recalled trying to get Simmons when he was with the MFY. And Coppolella actually thinks that the Braves improved at shortstop because (take a breath here): "...there is an argument to be made that we may be better in 2016 with Erick Aybar because he’s one of the best hitting shortstops in baseball with a career .276 batting average. We finished 30th in baseball in runs in 2015 and 29th in 2014, so we need to find ways to improve our offense. Erick is a good step in that direction..."

Tax Season: The Dodgers are just now figuring it out that blowing out the payroll has some serious consequences. As the LAT points out, the Dodgers have a luxury tax of $44 million. That's just the tax! How many top-tier free agents could YOU buy with $44 million?? The article also points out that Arte's lux tax still sits at $0, but lots of HH'ers are hoping to see that change this year before the new CBA opens up the ceiling anyway..........

Jose Briceno: What to do about Briceno? Assuming we keep him, he's pretty much a defensive backup..........

Trout Tweets: From now on, Mike, stay focused. Three airplane emojis only............

Albert Pujols: It cannot be denied that Pujols doesn't works his ass off for charitable causes. He is currently in Nashville to team up with Sam Bush and raise money for kids in the D.R............And while he is there, he has himself a new scooter for getting around post-surgery...........

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Elsewhere in Baseball

Presidential Medal of Freedom: Congratulations to Willie Mays and the late Yogi Berra, who were both named recipients of our nation's highest civilian honor. Berra was supported by a huge private campaign that did end up being successful, just a little too late for Berra to enjoy while alive. Yogi passed away a couple of months ago, on September 22...........

Baseball Biz: Yeah, I am fully with Hardball Talk here. When the owner of the Atlanta Braves is quoted in a business journal as stating that baseball is not a very profitable business, I call bullshit too. Until ownership opens their real books to public scrutiny and we can see clearly what they skim off for themselves as "expenses" this kind of stuff is just humor. In the case of Atlanta, it might be public relations running interference for thier Astros-style rebuild in place. And it won't hurt them in the local press as they rob the public coffers to fund their new stadium out in the suburbs. Meanwhile, as long as we are disregarding growing TV and MLBAM revenues, and as long as we are also ignoring equity, then all this is can be written off as pre-CBA posturing..........

Closer Costs: The word was that the Red Sox were heavily in on a trade for Reds reliever Aroldis Chapman. That didn't happen. The BoSux dumped a huge load with the Padres on Craig Kimbrel instead. So Cincinnati missed out on the Boston horde. Are they worried? Not at all. Maybe it's whistling in the dark, but the Reds now feel that heck, Kimbrel set a market. And since Chapman is so superior to Kimbrel, even though Chapman only had 1 year left on his current contract he should still bring some serious goodies..........

Easy Pickin's: There are a lot of teams out there that are mulling over the choice right now between a Zack Greinke versus a David Price. How can you lose? You can't really. I don't know about you, but if I were to be pressed I would take Greinke..........

G.M. Demographic Drift: MLB might be experiencing a bias when it comes to selecting the franchise architects. And it has less to do with analytics versus scouts. "Beyond the silliness of stats vs. scouts, the bigger issue might be whether MLB teams are eschewing qualified would-be GMs that are older than 40 or didn't graduate from a private, northeast college in pursuit of that goal. What will come of Gabe Kapler or Kim Ng or Logan White or the 20-year-old currently majoring in baseball at Lewis-Clark State College in Idaho? It's fair to wonder whether MLB has trended too far in one direction too quickly, and if organizations that look outside the box for front office talent will be rewarded while other teams have significantly narrowed their candidate pool."..........

Things That Make Me go Hmmmm...: Maybe putting a short leash on Jerry Dipoto was the right thing to do after all? Left to his own devices he has already hired on a new manager who has never managed, and now has turned over the directorship of player development for his entire farm system to a sports psychologist. Because, you know, advanced analytics are so yesterday..........He is also a busy, busy boy. Trades, trades and more trades. Who knows what the plan might be?...........

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Award Season

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Hot Stove Season

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