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Halls of Shame. I did some filtering and sorting and research on those 38 ballots that I found which (A) did NOT vote for Vlad, and (B) did NOT use all 10 ballot options. (Full disclosure: my data source come from Ryan Thibodeaux's BBHOF Tracker.)
Of those 38, 5 were from Boston-based writers, and 6 were from San Francisco Bay area voters. There were 3 each from Detroit, New York and Pittsburgh. Some of these 38 voters have serious baggage. Lynn Henning, Barry Stanton, Garry D. Howard, Larry Brooks, Alan Robinson and, of course, Murray Chass and Bill Livingstone.
Links:
A Little Bit (more) of Angels News
Hey, we don't suck! Nobody has had such nice things to say about us since The Great Hamboner of 2015.............
Yahoo. Matt Theiss shows up on the official MLB Top Ten prospects list for 1st basemen. Scroll down to #8. And then start thinking about the clock that is ticking against the careers of C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols..........
And, of course, all of this work to beef up the LAA infield is Albert Pujols' fault, driven by his unhealthy feet?.............
The Angels announced their Minor League coaching staffs over the weekend. The most interesting one for me is Sal Fasano. Coincidentally, I had just spent a heck of a lot of time on Friday trying to track down a good photo of Sal to use (legally) as one of my upcoming Links cover shots. I was figuring who would recognize or link Fasano tot eh Angels?? Silly me.........
Well, if the LAA off-season flying under the radar becomes a headline story on the radar, doesn't that mean that the LAA off-season is not flying under the radar anymore?..........
Mike Trout is pretty good at defense, too, considering he is above average at a premium defensive position. I still have a LOT of questions about how Trout is getting credit for catching fly ball BEYOND the home run fence. My suspicion is that he is getting credited below what he should for those, and he does those a lot...........
Speaking of Trout, catch Trout speaking as he formally accepts his AL MVP Award, suit and tie and all..........
Don't forget, there is still a Tim Lincecum out there who is busting his ass to put his career locomotive back on the tracks. Stranger things have come true, and this time around he could actually be going into a proper Spring camp with a proper off-season pre cycle...........
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Everywhere In Baseball
Number 1 story in all baseball from the weekend was the tragic death of yet another young ballplayer. Yordano Ventura was killed in a traffic accident early Sunday morning in the DR Condolences on behalf of all HH to the family and friends of Ventura, and also to our brethren over at the SBN site for KCR, Royals Review. We know the difficult experience ahead of you all..........
Number 2 story in all baseball is the tragic death of ex-ballplayer Andy Marte, who was killed in a traffic accident Sunday in the DR. Marte was 33 and had been playing in the Korean Baseball League. He is mostly remembered or his years in Cleveland and our condolences go out to the entire Marte clan............
Number 3 story in all baseball needs to be why it is that so many MLB names are dying in traffic accidents in the DR over the past few years? This weekend we had Yordano Ventura and Andy Marte. But who remembers Jose Rosario from last January? Who remembers Ramon Ramirez, also from last January? Who remembers Sandy Acevedo from 2016? Who remembers Oscar Tavares from 2014? Who remembers Oscar Acosta from 2006?..........I'm gonna starts by suggesting that MLB consider first-person eyewitness testimonials such as this....and this............(Well, in truth, at least a couple of clubs have been trying.)...........
Here's a guy who just missed the story completely. A Tim Raines finally gets into the HoF, done completely because we finally got enough voters who know how to look at his stats, and we are still trying to purge our collective dialog of the Lyle Spencers of the world, and Doug Glanville wonders if statistics alone still matter? Like - holy balls! - what alternate universe did Glanville just warp in from where it has ever been that stats alone were allowed to matter????..........
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Trade Winds
Mark Trumbo stays in Baltimore. Three years for $37.5 million, or $12.5 million per year of AAV. Good for Mark, considering what we have been seeing in the trend throughout baseball away from one-trick power ponies. And it had become clear to the Orioles that they were not going to be blessed with a free draft pick, after all, after extending a QO to Trumbo and then not seeing any other team willing to pick him up............
No pressure or anything. Casting about for a logical landing spot for Matt Wieters, is it true that we can only come up with on (the Angels) and thus force ourselves to invent a long shot by using the Rockies, just so that we can have more than one logical landing spot?...........
The Duffle Bag
Baseball needs cheese. Lots more cheese. It always ends well..........Oh, joy, yet another Major League Baseball team in red. The BLUE Jays, no less..........Oh yeah! I had forgotten. The Bud Selig on this year's HoF dais, sitting near Tim Raines, will be the same Selig that drove the owners collusion and kept Raines from getting FA contract offers at his peak...........Tobacco and baseball go back a long way...and that story is now at an end in Tropicana Field...........Public Service Announcement: The Oakland A's still suck, and look to keep doing so. "Lots of power, little defense, and platoon players galore." Has the world of analytics passed them by?..........Same with you, Sam Miller! Who sent out the memo declaring that the baseball world had stopped getting all pissy over WAR? Maybe I should introduce you to the still ongoing work of guys like Zach Crizer?..........A pro baseball team once adopted an abandoned boy..........
Halo-Oppo-ly
(On a 2-week hiatus while I deal with a teensy bit of travel time)
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