MondoLinks: Got weather? Whither Trout?

Over the weekend we had National Bobblehead Day. There are tons a fantastic bobbleheads in the sport, most of them in their own museum. Maybe in my next life I will get to be a bobblehead designer. That would be fun. I have always had an  affinity for them, especially the very old ones (h/t UniWatch). So innocent. ................

This might be a little extreme for a title. The idea that active starting pitchers have virtually no shot at the Hall of Fame does raise a good point about our modern era. We have modern Hall standards, we have modern pitching roles, and we have modern career arcs (contracts, TJ outages, team hopping, etc.). But we do have a few guys who are quite accomplished, and at least one who is as feared on the mound as Mike Trout is feared everywhere else on a baseball field............

Murray Chass has shriveled down into a bitter, hollow, pointless, pile of coal dust. He has proudly submitted an HoF ballot that is blank, which technically says that he feels not one candidate is Hall worthy. Of course, when you read his post and get to the part where you learn how he has voted over the years, and why, you find that this is pretty much always the case. All that is left of what once was an honorable legacy is his ability to stir the pot of Hall of Fame voting. He has devolved into abusing his ballot as a weapon of childish protest. Truly, he should be stripped of his vote until he demonstrates that he can be a relevant reporter of Major League Baseball again.............The Sporting News does have an easy fix for this kind of self-aggrandizing showboating: change the rule and eliminate the option for submitting blank ballots altogether...........

The WBC changed the rules for their tournament, just in time for a team such as USA to safely dig deep into the domestic pitching talent pool and just keep running new all-stars to the mound every few innings as the tourney goes deeper..............

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Jerry is still going Dipoto crazy up there in Seattle. I swear we need a dedicated database to keep track of just his busy little remodeling job. It's almost as if he has a couple of years of trade desire pent up and needing to get out of his system up there in Washington. His latest came over the weekend, when he picked up pitcher Yovani Gallardo from the Orioles in exchange for outfielder Seth Smith. Gallardo was a rock solid starter for years before a mediocre 2013. He seemed to recover for a couple of seasons and then tanked again last year. Dipoto must be hoping for a pendulum swing back to bolster his chances. Being down an outfielder, and being up one in the starting pitcher rotation, it only makes sense for Dipoto to flip his Nathan Karns for the Royals Jarrod Dyson. (We have bigger things to worry about than whether or not all this stuff is actually working in Seattle's favor.)...............And, by the way, he ain't over.............

Orioles GM Dan Duquette made the news a while back stating that the O's were not interested in signing Jose Bautista because Baltimore fans don't like him. Apparently, after sleeping on it, Duquette feels the need to try and walk back that statement. He doesn't get very far, actually...........

Poor Mark Trumbo. Even his own ex-GM is more interested in having the draft pick than having his slugger back. Duquette is out there praying for somebody with a high pick to sign Trumbo, and doesn't want to spoil his opportunity.........

The Duffle Bag

Interesting (to me) that the first renderings of the Texas Ranger's new air-conditioned stadium don't show the happy attendees in anything other than the same Texas heat they are hoping to escape. Most of the locals are noticing a rather fair design parallel to Houston's ballpark................Oh, shoot. It looks like we must have gotten outbid for Manny Ramirez' comeback..........

Off Topic: This is super cool father-son stuff. I wonder why we don't have this going for raking an infield?...........

On Topic: Whenever I trip across stuff like this happening, I make it a point to call out my role here. I am an aggregator, who finds the stuff that other people post and bring it to your attention. And in between I say a few words that come from my own keyboard. I make no bones about the fact that The good stuff ain't mine, and I am servicing the Internet clickage counters on behalf of all the best content creators elsewhere. Except for Bleacher Report and FanSided. I stay away from those places. They don't have any best content creators...........

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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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