WeekEnd HaloLinks: Halos have their stocking stuffed

Well, here we are at Christmas weekend. I hope you all remain safe, healthy, and enjoy good times with family and friends. And may all your sugarplum dreams come true.

I have a Shohei Ohtani poking up out of my stocking, so I already know I am one happy dude.

Before we begin, a minute of silence please in memory of the late, great, Dick Enberg. Enberg died yesterday at the age of 82. Damn but his play-by-play of some really crappy Angels seasons (from 1969-1978, plus 1985) was such a brilliant part of summer. The Halo shines tonight, my friends.

Have some Verry-Merry-Offseason-Links:

A Little Bit of Angels News

The Angels are already stronger now relative to the rest of Baseball than they have been in a while. Although I still don’t understand why a STL filling one hole is more compelling than an LAA filling three AND nabbing the best overall prospect of this year AND the best International prospect of last year..........

Um, in the department of Pace Of Play, the Angels batters were THE SLOWEST in all of MLB last season? A focus of the article is Daniel Nava, but this is AFTER Nava had left the Halos. So the LAA batters have only themselves to blame..........

Everywhere In Baseball

My best UniWatch find of 2017! (There is another cool one, below.)..........In the left-most column is some news about Baseball installing a light to indicate to everyone the scorekeeper ruling of hit versus error. Read all about how upsetting such as advancement was to players and managers. LOL..........But then, smack in the middle, there is a second article. And this one observes how baseball offense jumped up in the midst of what is supposed to be a ‘deceased ball” era. Both of these are from 1938...........

It was a great day for odd stuff. On the one hand, we learned that Daryl Strawberry made it a point to sneak off and have sex between innings of live baseball games. He would do this by first scanning the women fans in attendance in seats close to the field. Then he would send franchise employees off to pimp (literally) his interest. And then he would have teammates cover for him while he “partied” in the clubhouse...........On the other hand, we learned that Rick Bosetti, career outfielder, achieved his personal goal of urinating in the outfield of every MLB park in his era..........

MLBAM and BAMtech lost their head guy, because that head guy had headcase behavioral problems in the workplace. Read the linked article and learn that it took Commissioner Manfred 6 months to figure out what to do. I don’t have a WSJ subscription any longer, but I am led to understand that in the source article there is a bunch of far more damning stuff........

A sad tale out of Florida, where a softball player who had been hit in the face by a line drive, dies 2 weeks later from his injuries. It’s the kind of story that makes me feel especially blessed. I was smacked so hard by a line drive playing 3B in Little League that to this day you can tell when I have gone too long without sleep because the outer white of my left eye goes bloodshot..........

Whoa, what’s this? Not all of those RSN’s that Disney just picked might remain under ESPN? Looks like at least some of them could get spun off to local cable providers. That would sure end up being a down-market career drag on some broadcasters, going from being employees of Fox to Disney to Comcast Omaha..............

Hot Stove

The new CBA, and luxury threshold violation rules, are major buzzkills on the hot stove season. Well, yeah, that and the fact that this was a shitty FA market that we all saw comping several years away. And also that there is a trend away from overpaying 30-something sluggers. And also that Baseball now has several years under the belt in locking up youthful talent that it has, and focusing payroll investment on minimum wage up-and-coming talent..........

Do you remember the old days when every player at the end of their contract would reject their Qualifying Offer as a matter of default, because nothing was going to deny them their easy payday on the open market right in front of them? Yep, so do all these guys.........

And, sticking to the theme of a new FA market reality, now what is Eric Hosmer supposed to do?..........

If you wish, you can focus on those things that “The Super Seven” teams still need to do this offseason. I am going to sit here and dwell on the reality that we live in an era where Baseball has an elite class of franchises so well established that they get a special name..........

Jhoulys Chacin has found a new home in Milwaukee..........

The Duffle Bag

Curt Schilling is probably the most fun guy in the department store return lines...........Once again, I fail to make the list...........Nice UniWatch find: a ticket stub for a mid-season exhibition game between the Angels and the Salt lake Gulls. By the way, note the Derks Field.........Job Offer, closer to home: The Oakland A’s need a software developer. I am pretty sure, however, that this is a particular skill rather easy to come by in their part of the country..........Another Job Offer: The Marlins are in need of an Analyst to work in Baseball Operations. You might want to look hard at what they are paying. And get something in writing, with a guarantee. Just sayin’..........Just 2 days after I get safely back from Denver, where I drove past Coors Field regularly, there was this..........Wrigley Field, 1961, Los Angeles. LA Angels home game. Casey Stengel watching the action...........