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The weather in Southern California is almost - almost! - more interesting than baseball news at the moment. (But I still like my Links better than theirs.) We need to get to Hall of Fame announcements and quick. Next week promises sunshine, and excitement, and controversy.
Meanwhile, try and locate those lost umbrellas and dig more Soggy Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
And to think that it was not too long ago when there were serious pockets of the country that slotted Mike Trout behind Adam Jones in discussions concerning center fielders. Where are those people now?...............I mean, really, how many of the players that other fans and managers and players and reporters have been pushing out in front of Trout the past few years are already being called HoF locks?..........
Vlad Guerrero truly was a highly feared batter in his time, as FanGraphs discovers by diving into his IBB rates. (I put this here in the Angels news section with the outside hope that he gets voted into the HoF next week, and goes in with an Angels cap.)..........
Matt Wieters, anyone?...........
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Everywhere In Baseball
Mayb e we should have some national dialog about the character clause in the HoF voting guidelines. Like reserving it for convicted felons or something. Because all it does now is confuse the hell out of everybody anyway................
Arb Season Alert! Remember that time that Jered Weaver got that record arb award? Watch it get absolutely smoked over the next few weeks...........
We used to have whole teams capable of batting for .300 or better. Not just for a day, Mickey Hatcher lovers, but for the entire season. What the hell happened?............
Here's a long one. Umpires, and that "human factor" that comes with them, have a strike zone bias in favor of teams playing at home. Think about TAHT the next time you look at some player's home/road splits..........
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Trade Winds
Remember yesterday when I was making fun of Jerry Dipoto and all the wheeling and dealing he has been doing since unshackling himself from Anaheim? Well, Dipoto himself is saying that he is almost done with his revamp................
And what does that almost-done-Dipoto-revamp look like? Uh, over at FanGraphs, they notice that it looks a lot like the Royals of pre-2016 vintage. Strongest in outfield defense..........
Scribes love to post quotes from players about how players don't care too much for all these advanced analytics. That may be true, until those players need to find some way to justify a shiny new mega contract. Ain't that right, Yeonis Cespedes?..........
Colby Rasmus just signed with the Rays. This means something to us. It means that the Astros, who issued Rasmus a QO, just got themselves another draft pick............
The Duffle Bag
Texas wants a "bathroom bill". Apparently they think they are smarter than North Carolina. Say good-bye to All-Star Games and Super Bowls? (The solution to this is way too easy. Just make all bathrooms common to all, and all stalls private. Duh.)................Cricket needs StatCast. We need to know Exit Velocity and Launch Angle, or I don't believe it..........I wanna go shopping at the thrift stores where this reddit member's mom goes shopping!..........I love baseball books (how many do YOU own?). Here is a review of the latest..........Fortune smiles upon Yasmani Grandall..........Another cute reddit find. This one about the 1880 Reds getting kicked out of organized baseball for playing in Sundays and serving beer to their fans............
Halo-Oppo-ly
My 2016-2017 Winter Project: Monopoly for the Rest of Us. You, too, get to try your hand as Arte Moreno-bags. We begin with the properties.
Alright...home stretch. The final properties. Think of this as our...ummm...Hall of Fame District.....
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