WeekEnd HaloLinks: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The time has come. A new day, a new year, are upon us. This is the moment to commit to something new, something important. Time to resolve.

I resolve to improve these dailies with content to go along with the rash of linkages. It's time to up my game.

What do YOU, as a fellow Halos Heaven member, resolve?

Then as if I had the power, I resolve for the Angels to commit to a complete overhaul of the season promotional program. Surely the world already has a sufficient quantity of red white and blue sombreros.

What would YOU, as King of Anaheim for a Day, resolve for the Angels to do in 2016?

Meanwhile, December, and 2015, are finally over. Let's get back to simple Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Know Hope: We all read how Arte was backing out of the Big Game Hunt for a major upgrade to his outfield via the Free Agent market this offseason. And we all reacted accordingly. Well, that might not have been the final word. Good things can happen when clever minds are put to the task. Maybe we have such a clever mind with Eppler? Because "...word is that the Angels are still in contact with the big guys -- Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and perhaps Alex Gordon, too. It's quite likely someone over there's still thinking about it." Yeah, guys over there, THINK ABOUT IT!..............

Trout Tastings: Just so that you don't forget, Mike Trout is still the kind of guy who makes news. Great young man. Great job, Parents of Mike Trout. Just last week a South Jersey family lost their home to fire, and all of their Christmas with it. This is the kind of thing that local news outlets cover well. So imagine the surprise when Trouty tracked them down on Christmas Eve and stayed to provide support and encouragement. Oh, and for all, Christmas presents! Like I said, good job Parents of Mike Trout..........

Dodgers are Finally Right: The LADs are close to breaking through their all-lefty rotation by signing 27-year old Kenta Maeda to an 8 year deal.  We don't know all the details yet, but the Dodgers will certainly owe $20 million back to the Hiroshima Carp on top of whatever they agree to pay Maeda............

Flashbacks: MLB gives us all the 2015 highlights in 5 minutes. "Drive. Home. Safely!".........Fangraphs goes back through their list of the best quotes of the year. Realize that, as a statistical community, there is a real selection bias at play. But those quotes make for a great read. Many serve as a fine foil to that which we perceive within the Halo coaching approach.............Grant Brisbee, a creator of massive and glorious content (however misguidedly skewed in favor of thing SFG they may be) up at the SBN Mothership, gives us his own takedown of his own stuff, and the article titles alone are worth the browse............

Meandering: This one takes the long road to get there. Here at year's end looks back in the  rear view mirror are common. FiveThirtyEight reviewed the more unusual charts, which is fun enough itself. But down there at #39 is the resutls of a study of all MLB teams since 1985 and how the win versus how they spend. In short, it's proof that what drives success is more about payroll than any MLB Commissioner wants to brag about (which is why they love to promote stories such as the Royals). And that chart links us back to the actual article it supports, the one Manfred wants you NOT to read. Which brings us around to the Angels, who are one of the subjects that launch the article. Inside the message itself are these profound words: "...the relationship between salary and winning can be drastically different among different franchises. Some teams don’t get results when they spend more..." And that's the key. It's not WHAT you spend.It's HOW you spend...........

A New Deal?: Here is a fresh perspective on the acquisition of Aroldis Chapman by the Yankees. Since the Yanks already had a pair of solid back-end bullpen arms, the initial reaction was that adding Chapman was going to create a laugh-out-loud overstrong bullpen. (Of course, opinionaters being what they are, given a few days that opinion can swing 180 degrees around.) But what if Joe Girardi starts to use that back-end strength to augment the health and stamina of his front-line starting rotation? More importantly, what if he does, and it works? We live in an age where the use of pitchers on a staff are still evolving. There is a chance there, in New York, for this evolution to get yet another kick, and we might see a day when pitching staff is fluid, and "roles" are antiquated..........

Adios: OT, but meaningful to anybody over 50. Wayne Rogers, who briefly played the role of Tapper John McIntyre in M.A.S.H. paired with the Hawkeye Pierce character played by Alan Alda, died yesterday at the age of 82. For those of you younger than 50, try to imagine all the eyeballs currently glued to 100 of your cable channels funneled down into one single hour of comedy/drama/satire/social commentary and holding the power to change a generation. For the first 3 seasons, Wayne Rogers was one of the anchors of that epoch................

Looking Forward: A reminder, this upcoming season MLBTV will be offering single game streaming purchases so you can catch an importnat game or two without subscribing to the entire season (or balance thereof). Except, of course, that these are only for out-of-market games. Dammitall...........

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This Date In Baseball History: 1923 - After having promised everyone that he would live to see the year 1923, holds true to his word and lasts until day, when he dies from heart failure..........1940 - Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis takes his first shot in teh barrage which will eventally destroy the Detroit Tigers farm system, but voiding a trade between the Tigers and A's and declaring benny McCoy a free agent. The Tigers were found guilty of hiding players from other teams within their minor league system. Over the subsequent couple of week, Landis will free 87 other players from Detroit's farm system.............1941 - Babe Ruth commits the maximum legally allowed for an individual and buys $50,000 in war bonds to help the U.S. mobilization effort. This effort will come in very handy in 12 months, 6 days.............1943 - Josh Gibson suffers a mental breakdown. He will recover in time for Spring Training..........1961 - Originally Navin Field, then Briggs Field, the Detroit baseball stadium is offically renamed Tigers Stadium. It will last another 38 years................1970 - Chub Feeney takes over as President of the National League. He will serve in this capacity for 17 seasons...........1974 - And over in the American League, Lee McPhail becomes President, lasting until 1984............1979 - The Mets name a new CEO, ridding themselves of the unpopular M. Donald Grant. The replacment, Lorinda de Roulet, will become infamous herself for impsing a new mascot on New Yorkers: "Mettle", a live mule wearing a straw hat.............1982 - The St. Louis Cardinals officially rename their ballpark Busch Stadium............2008 - The Dodgers put their organist, Nancy Bea Hefley, and their prime announcer, Vin Scully, on a float they sponsor and participate in the Rose Parade to celebrate their coming 50th season in LA............

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