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Ok, things are happening. We had the first Awards handed out this week - rookies yesterday and managers today - and the Qualifying Offer time limit zipped past with most players rejecting a guaranteed $17.2 million. But the one guy we really wanted Billy Eppler to take a shot at chose to be one of the very few players to ever accept such an offer. Just our luck.
But keep reading, people, because on these two subjects, and a lot more, I have Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
I guess it just had to be, huh? The Inland Empire 66'ers, Single A affiliate of ours and home of our Grayson Long and Taylor Ward, is changing their official name to "The Inland Empire 66'ers of San Bernardino". Some nuts don't fall far from the tree..........
Neil Walker accepted his Qualifying Offer from the Mets yesterday. You can stop dreaming now..........Funny thing, though, this means that Walker is now facing the potential 2017-2018 infield Free Agent class. Not as paltry as this year's. I hope it works out for him, but the odds actually got a wee bit longer. Maybe he knows something about the new CBA that we don't know?.........
So, with Walker off your radar, here's your Plan "B". Sign Justin Turner. Sell Yunel Escobar. Maybe Minnesota. They are suffering at 3B, and might like a package that includes beefing them up at catcher. I wonder who they have for a 2B? And I wonder whether or not there are any trade rumors that might reveal anything about his availability?..........
Shane Robinson and Corey Rasmus somehow managed to clear waivers and get to remain within the organization.Exciting, huh? I know, what was baseball thinking?? Well, think of it this way: fans of the Bees in Salt Lake City should make good use of them and have a better shot at a more successful season next year.
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Everywhere In Baseball
NL Rookie of the Year is Corey Seager, by unanimous choice. That makes 17 RoY winners for the Doyers, crushing the rest of MLB. But then, hell, the award is named after a Dodger RoY...........
AL Rookie of the Year is Michael Fulmer. Fulmer (part of the price the Mets paid for Yeonis Cespedes) can now go collect his trophy, and return to his off-season job as a plumber..........
And, what with baseball all agog over Seager and Fulmer, for some perspective know that Seager's rookie campaign netted him 6.1 bWAR and Fulmer, although a pitcher and measured by different standards, 4.9. Mike Trout's rookie season in bWAR? 10 point effing 8.
Also on the RoY, looking at the vote tallies, I have to wonder again. How the hell is it that the BBWAA assigned affiliation for the Angels, based in Anaheim, is the Antelope Valley Press located up in Palmdale? For the non-local, that's 80 miles away and at least a 90 minute drive through the jaws of LA traffic, assuming a tailwind.
Today is Manager of the Year Day. Angels fans need not wait up (Jeff Bannister, Terry Francona or Buck Showalter). My money is on Francona. Not simply because I think he is really good and deserving (which I do), but simply because of how BBWAA voters are. Bannister won last year, Showalter has three already, including the year before last. Francona only has one, despite 7 playoff appearances in 12 years of managing, with 3 WS appearances and 2 WS titles. So this is the year the writers cycle the award and feel good about themselves for doing a little catching up. (For the record, Mike Scioscia has won twice, and received AL MoY votes in 11 different seasons so far.).........
Moving along to other awards later this week, MVP Awards quite often go to the lesser accomplished. It's the way subjectiveness works. We have seen it with Mike Trout already, and his wasn't even the worst example. But what might be fun is that Trout will the guy who makes this list 2 or 3 times before he is done..............
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Trade Winds
QO Rejection Day. Qualifying Offers are those rare things that are almost never accepted. Even when the salary market is driving up the Offer, that same rising market sits out there on the other side of that Offer and looks even more promising. Since the QO level is set by previous pay rates, the only way we should have been expecting large numbers of Offers being accepted would have been if the salary market was in obvious decline. Ha! That's Easter Bunny stuff. And so it is, with the vast majority of Offers being rejected yesterday. Too bad this FA class is unaware that they are really not extremely talented. It's got Ian Desmond level opportunities for disappointment written all over it..........
Speaking of Desmond, he sure is one dude who is little troubled by the lessons of history. Nobody wanted him when he was a year younger. He did pretty good last year for the first half of the season, and not so good in the second half. And we won't know how much of that first half bump was loving the AL. Looking at his splits last year, he seems to still struggle against most NL competition. His highest annual salary was $11 million back in 2015 while still with the Nationals. He made only $8 million last year. So turning down $17.2 million can only be explained by a guy who can still taste that once-offered $104 million, 7-year deal from the Nats that he rejected back in 2013..........
About those QO's, Ken Rosenthal argues that, in this season of CBA negotiations, MLB and the Player's Union should just nuke the thing altogether. Rosenthal is old enough, but apparently not mindful enough, to recall the time before compensation when small-market teams were losing all their talent to the big-market teams for free. That wasn't so fun, either............
With the trade for Cameron Maybin, my now long-running Yeonis Cespedes dream has finally died...........
Jeremy Hellickson has a thing going with 11/14:
Jeremy Hellickson on November 14th each year
— High Heat Stats (@HighHeatStats) November 14, 2016
2011: won AL ROY
2014: traded to Arizona
2015: traded to Philly
And, adding to that, yesterday on 11/14/2016 Hellickson accepted the QO from the Phillies.
The Duffle Bag
Stadium lost, now found. Well before bolt-on mega-complexes............The articles about viewership through NFL are legion. Not so with baseball. Thanks, NFL idiots, for giving America back it's favorite pastime..........Mainstream Media seems to be noticing a trend among front office decision-making staffs. Any decade now we will all suffer whiplash as they determine for us that the baseball triple crown is not stuffed with priceless jewelry..........