MondoLinks: Back in the saddle again

On behalf of SBN, I apologize to those who had to wait for Josh's excellent save with Friday morning links. But I want to thank Josh for, yeah, his most excellent Friday morning links. Great stuff, there.

Because, yeah, Thursday night was not so fun. I had committed my two hours of research, composition and linkage. I had done my editing. My typical blood-letting was in the books and it was time to wrap everything up with the bow of SBN admin stuff that they use to promote eyeball traffic. And a previously unknown bug within the SBN admin stuff immediately deleted 100% of my text, just in time for the SBN auto-save software to immortalize my article in the new, blank, format.

2500 words down the drain with a 5:30 AM wake up call staring deep into my bloodshot eyes. For the first time, I had to bug out and let you people down. I was just as pissed at that as I was about losing all that content. Sorry, again, for making you co-victims. It may happen again, but I swear that it won't be because of that particular bug (which may still be with us since I have yet to be notified of any fix), because I won't be trusting that tool ever again. Ever.

So enjoy the newer, cleaner, MondoLinks:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Text: Mike Scioscia spent some quality time over the weekend giving back, hosting some inner-city kids at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton. That, though, ended up exposing him to the media, which are bound to ask some obvious questions about this offseason. I would have put my money on Sosh responding with obvious answers, and he did not disappoint: "I think Billy Eppler is building depth as the offseason has gone on. There's always question marks with every team," Scioscia said. "There's no doubt a lot of focus was on our offense, and we do need to improve offensively. I know Billy is working very hard to try to bring some depth there, but you also have to maintain a pitching staff and maintain that depth there. Our bullpen held leads very well last year and that's important to us." or, in other words, 'Offense is cool and all, but I'll let Eppler worry about that after I am drowning in pitching depth'...........

Here, say...: Some person told something to OC Register reporter Jeff Fletcher. Fletcher felt so strong about it that he glued the notion to the back end of a tweet confirming the daily sunrise report (it popped up in the east, yet again) that Arte is not going in on LF Free Agent help. That tweet gets picked up and matriculates into a rumor. And, well, if there is a rumor out there, we might as well analyze it. So how would it work for us to trade for Rockies' outfielder Charlie Blackmon?............

Big Bang Theories: Target Field might get a new nickname, if Korean import Byung Ho Park works out as planned. He brings with him his Korean nickname, Park Bang.............

Big Bad Vlad: Should Vlad Guerrero be in the Hall of Fame? If you play the eyeball test, oh hell yeah. The man was a fierce force of dominance in the outfield with an arm that would make Yeonis Cespedes weep, and a scarier than shit offensive bat that rattled even the mighty Pedro Martinez. He is the epitome of a player who was dominant in his era. But if you play the stats, well, then maybe not so surely. Partly because at the end of the day, his final tallies trail many other players already passed over for induction. And, more partly, because we are jammed up with candidates already (getting skunked in 2013, and only 2 players in 2015, has not helped). My prediction is that Vlad is going to do better on his first ballot than many expect, mostly because it will give the voters (who tend to vote with their eyeballs, anyway) a chance to get back into the game with a post-PEDs hero..........

Caps and Groans: Here is a guy who clearly either missed the news, or chooses to ignore it. He insists that players should have the exclusive right to choose their HoF cap. As if the Wade Boggs fiasco never happened in the first place. I would also like to point out that, no, not everyone thinks first of the New York Mets when the name of Mike Piazza comes up...........

Busted: Cris Correa, then (now former) Director of Scouting for the Cardinals, pled guilty Friday of hacking into the Houston Astros systems and pulling their scouting information. Now we have yet to hear whether anybody else within the Cardinal organization had anything to do with this, but we do know two things: St. Louis had the Houston scouting reports and emails for the 2013 draft, where they were picking just ahead of Houston after the first round was complete. We also now know that Correa dived back into the Houston network to pluck their thinking - and their chatter about conversations with other potential trade partners - at the 2013 trade deadline. We will never know how having that data aided the Cards (and/or hurt the Astros). But we should, for sake of justice, assume the worst. And we should, again for sake of justice, expect a large punishment. Considering the power of the St. Louis franchise, though, such an outcome would be a bug surprise...........

Gambits: It might be worth a gamble for the top-shelf Free Agents still on the shelves to choose wisely and take a one-year deal. The next FA class is pretty weak and they would get to remain on the top shelf, but with a new set of shoppers and in a new set if financial configurations (a new CBA, different remaining payroll obligations, etc.) This could still be a part of Arte's list of options............

History: 10 cool morning minutes with your coffee watching a montage of every Baseball Hall of Famer............PLUS, an aerial shot - in color! - of Ebbets Field. For youngsters, Ebbets Field was the home of the Dodgers (initially the "Robins") in New York before they moved to Los Angeles. It was opened in 1913 and lasted until 1960. It doesn't look like this anymore............Before windbreakers and jackets, baseball players wore sweaters(h/t Uniwatch)..........