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Slow weekend for Angels news, but the rest of baseball was not as sleepy. I've already got relatives in town for the week, and I am not getting any sports immersion into my life. None. The past couple of hours spent putting this together were the first since Thursday night putting together WeekEnd Links. No football, no baseball, and I don't care about basketball anyway. And nothing makes one long for beating the bushes to drum up links like hosting out of town family for 12 hours in Disneyland when the place is running at 95% capacity and lines are nearly 2 hours long. You cannot imagine my disappointment in learning that I didn't miss anything all weekend long.
But folks, I do know that there is still time to lend a hand for this Thanksgiving season and help fellow HH reader Sargeant Bill Crook and his family, who hosts Orem Owlz players, in his efforts, raise money to take new baseball equipment to underprivileged kids in the Dominican Republic: https://www.gofundme.com/dominicankids
Let's have some Thanksgiving Links:
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In Baseball
New Doyer Dean: The Dodgers are expected to announce their new manager today, and the big surprise is that it is most likely to be the Padres bench coach Dave Roberts...............
Hiccup: Poor little guy. Hiccuped all the way through his rendition of his national anthem. Not being too familiar with the national anthem of Australia, nor with Australian accents, I was grateful somebody explained to me what was happening............
Grandiose: Anymore, talent is not enough. You have to con the coin out of an owner's pocket through dazzling marketecture. Consider Yeonis Cespedes, whose agent team went to work and created a multi-media coffee table book. "In a bow to technology, the book also has a video player embedded inside the front cover. Executives who push the 'play' button are treated to an array of Yoenis Cespedes home runs, jaw-dropping throws and other highlights set to music."............
Pro Zack: Something amazing happened last week. Jack Arrieta won the NL Cy Young Award. No, that wasn't it. Arrietta was a fine choice. But Arrieta winning meant that Zack Greinke did not, and it's pretty damned rare that anybody who put up Greinke's season failed to win the CYA. It's so unusual that not just one, but TWO statheads went after the historical oddity. And more traditional observers are in agreement over Arrieta, but still shaking their heads at how Greinke's gaudy season was not enough. One of those is the LA Times, so duh....Another example is more like a sportswriter's attempt to be Switzerland...My favorite is the one who notices that Greinke's WHOLE season should trump Arriet'a half a season. I laugh, because this is an argument that we make around here a lot, about a center young center fielder............
Utterly Utley: As we all expected MLB to do as soon as Utley did his takeout slide a few weeks ago, MLB is working on a rule change to deal with Chase Utely takeout slides. They had better hurry, because Utley is still in demand for 2016............
Post-TJ Awareness: How to care for pitcher's health? After Tommy Surgery, inning-restrictions are all the rage. But is that wise? "Across the league, there is a ton of concern on overworking pitchers in games throughout the season, but it appears MLB is taking a backwards approach to pitchers’ preservation. The league is treating pitching arms as if they are anything but healthy. This results in weaker arms that have not developed enough arm strength. In turn, the pitching arms are unable to handle the most standard of workloads. Tim Keown of ESPN.com wrote about the emphasis on inning-limits and pitch counts. He believes that limiting innings pitched merely produces 'pitchers that are overpitched and undertrained' ."
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Award Season
Shutout: Except for a Silver Slugger, Mike Trout was pretty much shutout of the post-season awards this year. Blame it on the times. Trout is just so yesterday. But that doesn't mean he is not The Greatest..........
Minor Awards: The Esurance assemblage of oddity awards came and went. Trout is not the Best Major Leaguer, the Best Everyday Player, The Best Defensive Player or have the Best Performance or have the Best Moment or make the Best Play on Defense or Offense...........The first All-StatCast Team was also announced, and Trout didn't make any of those roster slots, either. But, hey! Garrett Richards made it as Starting Pitcher for his 3,086 rpm curveball...............
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Hot Stove Season
40-Man Rosters: Late Friday night MLB rules defined the deadline for adding players to the 40-man rosters. This is how teams protect players from the Rule 5 draft. Our Angels added Victor Alcantera..........
Day O' O'Day: Every O'Day has his day. And Darren is one hot commodity. He has been tied to the Athletics, and to the Dodgers, and to the Nationals, and to the Braves............
Feelin' Blue?: Wouldn't that be the nuts? The Dodgers, who nabbed Zack Greinke away from Anaheim with their larger checkbook, just might find themselves beat out of their own ace and learn all about the mercenary nature of Zack, as their nemesis the Giants have come calling...........
Lackey Luster: John Lackey has had his fill of the American League and doesn't want to come back. He would prefer to pitch for the Giants or the Cubs. Those would be either the he beat in 2002, or a team now being managed by a coach he pitched for in 2002..........
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