Thor'sLinks: Moreno No Bueno

Welcome to Anaheim, Billy Eppler. Is this what you thought you were signing up for? You do realize, don't you, that Arte Moreno is blaming neither himself nor Mike Scioscia for the results over the next two seasons. And we now know that it will be that long before Moreno funds you appropriately in order to do your job.

It's a sticky mess Arte Moreno has made out of this franchise, and he has fired staffers for far less incompetence It's only fitting that today we deal with National Maple Syrup Day Links:

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Angels Baseball

Grinch: Well, this is it, ain't it. Arte Moreno has gone on record as saying that he is not inclined to fill that hole in the outfield because of "economics". I am going to hold off on blowing my gasket because it's only December 17. But come March 17, man...........

Let's Nava see Joyce Again: The Angels picked up outfield depth by signing Daniel Nava to a 1-year deal. Nava is a 32-year old who came up with the Red Sox, and was waived off to Tampa Bay mid-year last season. Essentially, he is Matt Joyce 2.0. Maybe this one works out better than the last. Most interesting factoid: Nava has more World Series experience AND more World Series rings over the past decade than any other Halo except Albert Pujols...........

Un-skilled: Unimaginative. Unprepared. Underwhelming. How else to describe the LAA Front Office that has agreed to withdraw from competitive baseball, and then spent their valuable time picking through the bargain bin for a 32-year old -0.2 fWAR Daniel Nava for $1.375 million while the Baltimore Orioles sign 28-year old Hyun-Soo Kim for $3.5 million per season: "Kim batted .326 with a .438 on-base percentage, 28 home runs and 128 RBIs last year while playing in 141 of the Doosan Bears’ 144 games"...........In case you hadn't noticed, Korean baseball translates very well to MLB............

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Elsewhere In Baseball

Fashionista: What, really? You expected me to lead off with anything OTHER than a tribute to baseball STIRRUPS???? I don't what you are going to do, but Chrismas came early for me...........

Thumbs Down: Yadier Molina just now underwent a second surgery on his injured thumb, and will now be expected to miss Spring Training. Thumb injuries just suck, don't they. He really needs to baby this recovery.............

Arby's: For those of you trying to forecast payroll, and where Eppler is under any luxury tax threshold (if in fact, there actually is one this off-season), you need to know how to factor in arbitration awards. MLB Trade Rumors does their take. Compare with your own level of expertise...........

HoF: Yep. Hardball Times nails it: "The Hall of Fame tends to bring about a lot of arguing. Arguments over players like Jim Rice ("the fear") and Bert Blyleven (strikeouts are awesome!) went on for some time, as did the squabbling over Jack Morris and the importance of pitcher wins. Then we harangued each other about steroid users and the character clause. Now, over the next few years, the big Hall of Fame argy-bargy will be about relief pitching." Modern baseball is not a safe place for the value of bullpen guys, and Hall of Fame consideration brings out the knives. If you are fan of relievers, and truly want that blue-placard parking slot for their special contributions, read the article. It gives you advanced metrics to back up all your wishes............

Sulu! Raise shields!!: The Twinkies dashed right out to Home Depot and got ahead of the seasonal rush, scooping up enough netting to extend past the dugouts at Target Field. You know who is really, really, REALLY going to be complaining about this? even more than the fans? FOX Sports. Just paint yourself a mental picture of a MLB broadcast showing the batter, the catcher, the umpire, the dugout in the background with the coaches and managers at attention, and then all the fans beyond that filling the stadium and staring back at the plate as the background. Now repaint that picture as it will look in the future, and cover all that background expanse with netting. That is a historically fantastic sports image, now lost forever..........

The Northwest Pastiche: This deep into the offseason, FanGraphs takes a look back at the totality of what Jerry Dipoto Unleashed is capable of, and how that is working out. In simplest terms, not bad. 'Dipoto has found a viable middle ground between "going for it" and "rebuilding" that should enable him to quickly pivot toward a combination of dismantling the current nucleus and adding core pieces to the next Mariner contender when competitive circumstances dictate.'  One might think that he is imitating the Dipoto he wanted to be in Anaheim, architecting a workable product while building a path into the future. My take, though, is that going forward the dude is going to have to learn how to draft..........

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Hot Stove Season

Trying to keep up: Ok. The popcorn machine is starting to make noise again. Get it while it's hot and fresh:

• Third-baseman Todd Frazier finally found a new home, with the White Sox. The Reds have been trying to deal Frazier for some time. It took a third party to get involved and make it happen. It's a 7-player deal between the Reds, Dodgers and ChiSox. Complicated stuff. Too GA to do background on all the players and get a take on which side did Ok in the shuffle. The Reds get 3 random guys from the Dodgers. The Dodgers get 3 random guys from the White Sox. And down goes Frazier, to the White Sox...........Supposedly, the Angels were one team taking calls on Frazier at one point. Like, duh..........
• Second-baseman Brandon Phillips is in the middle of talks between the Reds and Nats as the Reds seem eager to trade away their entire team this winter.
• Will Middlebrooks latched on with the Brewers. The ex-Padre is hanging on to his career by the fingernails. Does anybody else recall when the BoSux faithful were all agog over the Power of Middlebrooks as one of the keystones in their youth pipeline?..........
• Speaking of hanging in there, Mike Napoli grabs a deal with the Indians. Most of the news around Naps last year was not particularly positive, and most of the fan commentary was not particularly kind. (Who knew that Boston fans could turn so quickly on their own? Oh, yeah, we all did.) But in the aggregate, Napoli still had an overall decent year. Not great. Decent. His strikeouts were actually down even though there was a lot of scuttlebutt about there being some anti-Naps strike zone at play. And 18 homers? Sadly, that would have 4th best in Anaheim last year. But think about tit. $7 million to run around on perfect grass playing a game and not having any great expectations burdening your shoulders? Suh-weet.........
• Bartolo Colon signs for a return engagement with the Mets, bringing his peculiar blend of pitching and comedy to Broadway for one more season..........
• Speaking of re-signing, Sean Rodriguez re-upped with the Pirates and Jerry Blevins joins Bartolo by inking back on with the Mets..........
• As regular as the morning milkman, Jerry Dipoto is still wheeling and dealing. He just picked up A.J. Schugel off the waiver wire from the Dbacks. This is the same Shugel that the same Dipoto sent to Arizona as PTBNL in the Mark Trumbo deal that brought us back Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs..........
• Public Service Reminder: Tim Lincecum will be one of those "left behind" players in January looking for any kind of hookup..........

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And now, being the full-service weekend linkage institution that we are, here is the obligatory moment we take out of each Thursday...for beer...(Hey, it's the weekend before Christmas. This is all about Nutcracker Ballets everywhere. Literally everywhere. So make your own Beer Fest, peoples!)

Friday: Nada..........

Saturday: Ugly Sweater Party at McFadden's San Diego..........

Sunday: Nada..........

Stay safe, everyone!

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