To what should be the absolute surprise of nobody beyond the unfriendly confines of Massachusetts, Corey Kluber (AL) and Max Scherzer (NL) won the Cy Young Award for their respective leagues. Nice of the BBWAA to agree with me, once again. And I can do this without the need to demand free hot dogs.
Also, our outsider’s group of the IBWAA came to the same conclusion. I swear, had they not screwed up the Manager of the Year vote, I would think that I constitute 100% of the IBWAA voting bloc.
But the saddest part of the CYA chatter each year is how we have no dog in the hunt. The last time we had any pitcher draw even a single vote for any place was 2012, when Jered Weaver came in 3rd with 0 first-place votes. We haven’t had a single 1st place vote since some home-town scribe tossed one John Lackey’s way back in 2007. Bartolo Colon in 2005 was our last CYA winner. So much for the MSM meme of “Mike Scioscia + catching instructor guru + CERA + Angels pitchers love Angels catchers”. Those same guys don’t have much respect for the results.
Have some Deep-Cy-Offseason-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
The big news here is the rumor that Billy Eppler is sniffing around the soon-to-be-a corpse Ian Kinsler. I read that and I’m like, HOLY BALLS! Why have a 36-year old 2B coming off a 90 OPS+ seasons, with only 1 year of service locked up costing $11 million and for which you have to trade away assets, when you can have a 34-year old 2B coming off a 119 OPS+ season, who is a complete Free Agent without any QO ties AND for whom you can have without losing any assets AND for less money AND for whatever length of contract you desire?? Who is that other cat? Howie Kendrick..............And maybe my fold brain is fossilizing and I am mis-remembering, but isn’t Kinsler the guy who when he was a Ranger, after a tight loss to Texas in Arlington late in the season in a tight pennant race shouted at our guys to “get the fuck off our field?”............If Eppler is willing to surrender assets and pay a 2B the north side of $10 million per year and doesn’t mind having a problem on his hands, take Dee “The Needle” Gordon of off Jeter’s hands..........
Better news comes from later in the day, when the rumors flipped to Neil Walker or Zack Kozart...........
Just in time for sending out cards, take your family to Angels Stadium for Holiday Photos in the Clubhouse! You can send them to all your Oakland fan buddies..........
The Angels ARE doing some international signings. Just not the one you were hoping for..........
Everywhere In Baseball
Here comes our pitch clock. I wonder if the clock pauses while batters step out of the box between pitches? I am also thinking that this might make for some fun in-stadium drinking games on those dull Wednesday nights, especially when Shooey is pitching..............
The Braves are about to get pummeled for getting caught screwing around with their international signings. The final list of penalties is still growing, but they are rumored to include “a substantial fine, restrictions in future international signing markets that amounts to being severe, and the loss of prospects signed from Latin America is basically guaranteed....including top prospect Kevin Maitan.“.....At least they didn’t do something REALLY bad, like committing a Federal crime and stealing data from another franchise. had that happened, wow, can you just imaging the punishment??............
And the shenanigans of the International system still go on, as the Pirates just found out...........
Scott Boras might end up earning a section unto himself this offseason. yesterday he was in prime form. Talking about Eric Hosmer, Boras bragged: “He’s Playoff-ville, Federal Express“......Then, about Jake Arrieta: “big squirrel with lots of nuts in his trees.“.....Speaking about the Cubs, and the deep pockets Boras wants to shame his way into: “This isn’t the Windy City. This is the economic hurricane in Chicago of what the Cubs have done.“.....But then we get to contract extensions with the Nationals concerning Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendon, and Boras acts all innocent bystander..........Not finished, Boras takes Derek Jeter and MLB to task concerning the gutting of the Miami payroll. Sure, Boras only cares about the fans and the competitive balance inasmuch as it pays his clients and himself, but at least we got that going for us...........
The Rule 5 draft is coming up in a month, and teams have until Monday at 5PM PST to set their 40-man rosters and figure out who to protect. This is the first year in a long time that I actually have cause to think anything about this within the LAA farm system. That’s progress...........
The Mets’ new theory: don’t let pitchers face batters a 3rd time in any one game..........
Hal Steinbrenner was cool with firing Joe Girardi, even if Girardi had brought home the WS trophy. That’s pretty harsh..........
This is fair. I agree with FanGraphs that the worthy candidate to vote in off the Modern Era HoF ballot would be Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Alan Trammell. Although the author then does a pull from off-ballot for Lou Whitaker where I would prefer Bobby Grich, Whitaker is still a class pick with a slightly better case than Grich, except for the part of a lack of recognition for Angels players..........
Ouch! The Tigers and Giants have to pay the luxury tax? For THAT result?..........
Sports Illustrated launching a streaming service, 20 years after they stopped being relevant..........
Hot Stove
Well, lookee here! The Twins just voided the contract of Dominican phenom Jelfry Marte, citing medical concerns with his vision. Marte is now a Free Agent, and was the #3 prospect of this latest International class. It was quite a coup for the Twins, originally. But, boy, this sure is fortunate timing for the Twins, ain’t it? Right when the opportunity to start the bidding war for Shohei Ohtani opens up we have the Twins, who USED TO BE MERELY 3rd richest in Int’l bonus pool monies (about $290,000 behind the Rangers) , suddenly have $3 million MORE added back to their pool! Hmmm..............
So imagine how pissed the Twins management must be to suddenly find out that the Players Union has figured out that it screwed up the last CBA, and Ohtani is not getting a big enough cut of the posting monies. This promises to delay the whole thing...........
FanGraphs does some number crunching and sees Ohtani working up to a 5 WAR player by the time he is 23? That’s half a Mike Trout, so where’s the beef?..........
Looks like Giancarlo Stanton hates the Cards and Red Sox fans, too?...........
Jerry Dipoto jumped at the chance to upgrade his 1B, snagging Ryon Healy from the A’s for a bullpen arm and an infield prospect. Don’t get excited. Healy is now Dipoto’s version of C.J. Cron.........
The Duffle Bag
The TL;DR take: Aaron Judge is a giant of a man who, when he doesn’t strike out, hits giant hard..............Looking for a job? How about working from home as a web content manager for the Trumedia sports analytics giant? (For the record, I notice that I qualify!).........Now that Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell in a jailbird, he no longer wants to talk about off the field stuff..........15-years old. 96MPH fastball..........Wiffle Ball, finally in the Toy Hall of Fame..........Remember when sporting goods stores were a real thing? Where were you thinking you were going to go for your next baseball mitt? Probably not Dick’s............