MondoLinks: A blizzard of baseball news

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Everywhere In Baseball

Cespedes: The Yoenis Cespedes signing by the Mets closes the chapter for all of us for a respectable bat to pair with the young, yet rising, Mike Trout. Those of you who had already moved on to a Dexter Fowler can now all get some air time. Cespedes signed for only 3 years, meaning that he still has a chance to play for every major league team in baseball before he retires.He does an opt-out after year 1 so there is a chance to fast-track his MLB tour. And his $25 million AAV goes into my spreadsheet and all we need now is for the balance of the Halos to get their 2016 payday and we will have a good estimation of what Arte might have had to pay for a 2016 player payroll..........Meanwhile, know that this was the best Free Agent class of the past 5 years, which means that we picked a very bad time to sit on the sidelines and watch...........

Top Priorities: Well, now that it's official and there is no way for the Halos to snatch one of the big-time power-hitting outfielders off the Free Agent market, we need to edit history somewhat and declare that what we really need is middle relief help. Yeah, that'll fix everything.............

CJ Wilson: For those of you who are no Southern Californians, you might not know that every year some promoter tears up the playing field and turns the stadium into a huge road track for things like motocross and monster truck racing. It's a super-cool event that is at least as raucus as a playoff game. We just concluded a Supercross event and, true to his love of motor sports, C.J. Wilson just had to be there............

Wilson on the Block: The Angel have one serious trade shot left, and that is C.J. Wilson. They have the depth in the starting rotation to take a chance without Wilson and they have a real need for a strong, every day, left fielder. This leaves Eppler with trying to plug Arte's hole via trade. Wilson is the bait, and there are a number of teams with outfielders who could be put on the block who could be a trade partner. Wilson has a no-trade list and would want to nix anything that makes his walk year look bad. And that's important because this is his walk year. Wilson knows it, and so do the teams in need of a starter. And it's beyond a long-shot for somebody to offer the Angels that left-fielder we need AND a big payday extension to Wilson to keep him beyond year 1. But teams are coming to Anaheim and inquiring about Wilson anyway, so maybe there's still hope..........

Haren & The Weave: Jennifer Lopez was performing at Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas this past Friday, and Dan Haren was there to document the fact that Jered Weaver was spellbound. Embarrassingly so.................

Frosty: There is just something about Mike Trout's absorption with weather that is freaky. Charming, but freaky. And, know for damned sure that Trout LOVES weather!  But, anyway, using one's cellphone while driving, in the middle of a historic blizzard, is not the kind of thing that tends to end well. Thankfully, baseball keeps Trout from chasing tornados throughout the central states during season. But when his career is over, look out! But, yeah, having the god of baseball fascinated by something as innocuous as the weather is kind of fun. Mike Trout, Reign Man...........

Trout Porn: Have some happy clicks, relishing in the career of baseball's best player..........

Cubanos: It appears that Major League Baseball will be taking a team, probably the Tampa Bay Rays, to Cuba for a Spring Training exhibition game to be broadcast back to the United States. Should be interesting...........

Snow Plays: Carlos Correa had never experienced snow, so why the hell not go outside with dad and frolic?...........

Sport Biz: Oh, how delicious. One of the banes of sports would be the whole idea of the Personal Seat License. PSL's are paying money for the right to pay more money. In this case buying season tickets to the sports team from whom the party has purchased a PSL. The whole thing is a legal logical fallacy since there is no reason to stop there. Somebody could simply sell the right to buy the right to buy the tickets. This could go on forever. But it's a great way to legally add another layer of revenue for a sports team, and was something that Georgia Frontieri jumped on to fund her team after it moved to St. Louis. The problem, however, is that her lawyers failed to put language into the PSL contracts that limited the arrangement to only while the team is homed in St. Louis. So, yes, those PSL owners have the right of first refusal for the tickets that Stan Kroenke thinks he is going to sell in LA. And in a class action tuit, they have taken the Rams to court to enforce their rights. This will create a fine mess for the Rams, because it creates a big mess for anybody in Southern California who thinks they want to buy season tickets. Kroenke could counter, I suppose, by assigning the "seats" for those STL PSL's to some stadium out in Yermo where he could park a television at mid-field...........