Thor'sLinks:Stuck in the CarGo hold

We all know that the Angels need an outfielder. We know that Arte won't authorize the expense of any of the Free Agent outfielders on the market this Winter, due to their current price tags and the bowel movement he exercised all over his own budget with the Josh Hamilton fiasco. We know that leaves us with the scrap heap or a trade. And we all know that trading a pitcher is the last big card they have to play this offseason.

And we all know that the Rockies have one extra outfielder...for sale even.

So if nothing else is going on in Baseball, let's tweet the obvious: the Angels have talked to the Rockies! The surprise - to anyone who just arrived into the week of January 11th - is that the target of Eppler's affection is not so much Blackmon, but Carlos Gonzalez. To which Arte replies, "Yeah, cool! I LIKE him! Now find me a version that doesn't take me $12million over the luxury tax threshold." (By the way, the only way this opening is any fun is if you ignore FanGraphs.)

Have a straw or two of Desperation Links:

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Everywhere In Baseball

Arby's: Three Halos are going to be bumping up the roster payroll over the next couple of weeks, having gone ahead with their due diligence and filed for salary arbitration. Garrett Richards and Kole Calhoun will get pretty decent raises...........By the way, a total of 156 players filed for arb, and you can track them all here.............

Stoopid: I see that the Hall of Dumb Ideas is still inducting new members. The year's class includes one from Anaheim, where some executives actually had the cajones to scout out Angels Stadium as a potential temp home for NFL football. Where do we start? The nightmare from the 1990's NFL abuse of the stadium? The horrific reconfiguration that we had to tear down after they crapped on us? The rotting framework that is Angels Stadium now, causing Arte to make plans to evacuate the same facility? the fact that the rock pile and right field wall are now in the way? The destruction that will happen from some 20 games tearing up the field each of the next couple of seasons? Calling themselves "Los Angeles" while playing in Anaheim???.......

Missed Opportunity: It occurs to me that we almost had a miracle save for our rebuild this offseason. C. J. Wilson failed to win the Powerball last night (thus denying all of us the unending joy of GirraficPark). Had he won, he retires! And we free up $20million for Left Field!! We should all have bought him an extra ticket...............

Fiddle Dee Dee: Listen up, Johnny Giavotella! It was just months ago in our lifetime that Dee Gordon was a 1 WAR player, too. You two are the same age. Gordon just threw up a 4.9 WAR season. And he is now being rewarded with $50 million. You can do it, Gio. I know you can............You know who doesn't know you can? Grant Brisbee, up at the SBN Mothership. While we here at HH may think that left field is our biggest remaining hole, Brisbee thinks that you, Giavotella, is our biggest hole. Don't listen to Grant, Johnny. He is just jealous, hoping Eppler frees you up so that you can fill the hole Marco Scutaro left in his heart.............

Rankled: I tripped over something new yesterday. Rankometer. Check out this Hardball Times review of the Hall of Fame candidates this year, as visualized using Rankometer. Then, for jaw-dropping giggles, check out Mike Trout...........

Mysteries of the Universe: Some people don't know why the outfield market for Free Agents makes no sense this year. For clues, those people might need to open a dictionary, and a history book or two. Or, perhaps they could take a refresher course in elementary math, where they will see that pretty much every buyer has pretty much spent up to their limit already.........

More Mysteries: Another reason that maybe today's players are not getting paid, is because the owners are still paying some of yesterday's players? Like, seriously, how many of you can even remember seeing Bret Saberhagen play?...........

Youth Shall Be Served: We have had some pretty damned good players in the last 5 crops of Top Prospects. Mike Trout remains the top story, but even well beyond him, Baseball is going to be a lot of fun for the next decade..........

OT: This is what life is like every day for all of us HH editors. Being rich and powerful totally sucks.........

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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...

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

Saturday: Founders Tap Takeover at Whole Foods market, downtown LA............San Diego Beer Fest kicks in at Liberty Station............

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

Stay safe, everyone!

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