WeekEnd HaloLinks: It’s a Mike Trout Wedding Weekend

Young Master Trout and Mistress Jessica will be married this weekend, certainly with many LAA players and officials in attendance. We at Halos Heaven wish nothing but the very best, and much happiness, to the charming couple. And thank you both for being so great.

And, hey, wouldn’t it very nice of Shohei Ohtani to give the Trouts a sweet wedding present??

Let’s jump to Congratulations-To-The-Trouts-Offseason-Links:

A Little Bit of Angels News

While Jerry Dipoto is getting all the press (more on that below), Billy Eppler is the one building the franchise without imposing any risk. Eppler’s strategy is nothing but upside. Maybe great upside, maybe moderate upside, but ONLY upside..........

Everywhere In Baseball

Waa waa waa.........Some MLB teams are pissed that they had to fill out a bunch of paperwork at the behest of Shohei Ohtani, and were immediately dismissed anyway. It’s as if they had to jump through a hoop even though Ohtani already knew he was going to reject them. Sucks to not have absolute control over the chump players, doesn’t it Mr. MLB boss man?! Tough shit. And my theory is that the Ohtani camp can hang on to that paperwork for the day he can opt to become a Free Agent, so he now has some good inside info on his potential standing anywhere, and he got it without worrying about tampering charges...........

Once again without a shiny new stadium to promote to the fan base, the A’s might once again be staring directly into the abyss of relocating far, far away. My guess would be only as far as Portland, leaving them in the AL West and preventing any need for major realignment before MLB is ready..........

Just in case you have some kind of urge to flip to sour grapes mode if we miss out on Shohei Ohtani, no, he is not going to suck. He is going to represent uncharted territory.............

Jeff Sullivan must be pretty excited right about now. He, of Lookout Landing roots and a seemingly front-runner for Ohtani, has long been writing for FanGraphs as one of our favorites. In his excitement he found an odd coincidence that has him all a’twitter. It’s a hell of a long way to go to explain that a pair of twins share a rather unique production profile in MLB history. But, hey, like I said, he’s a giddy guy right about now so forgive him..........

ESPN is reporting the uptick for streaming and out-of-home viewing of live sports content. And 33% jumps are appealing...........And to think that this number might still be grossly under reported..........

Hot Stove

Tyler Chatwood is a product of the LAA farm and development system. We traded him to the Rockies back in 2011 for Chris Iannetta. Last month he became a Free Agent. And yesterday he signed with the Cubs for 3 years, $38 million...........

We have another coincidence here. Giancarlo Stanton has apparently agreed to be traded to any of 4 teams. And those 4 teams just happen to be the 4 teams that were in the League Championship Series this past season: the Dodgers, Cubs, Astros and Yankees. Ok, about 4 seconds have now passed. Now is about the time you should be realizing that this means he has crossed off the Giants and Cardinals and all the chatter of the last 2 weeks mean nothing. Except those parts which say the Dodgers are secretly in the lead. That one still is in play...........

To start on the Ohtani topic, let’s hit you with a rumor. The list of Finalists is rumored to be down a threesome of the Padres, the Mariners and the Angels..........I am still curious about such a list, because the Padres have no bonus money at all, and no DH option. The Rangers, who used to have the most bonus money, would be seeing that money power buying them very little more than a ‘thank you for your participation’. So is Seattle’s bonus advantage truly meaningful?..........

And about that bonus money. Of course you already know that Jerry Dipoto - who had already announced the Seattle was going all in - went all in. He gutted his own prospect inventory to snag Dee Gordon. The important part was that they also gained another $1 million in bonus buying power. In so doing, they got a player who plays positions already blocked with the Mariners (Dee Gordon), intending to flip him into some kind of centerfielder (unless he doesn’t end up trying to flip him to the Angels)..........

So Jerry has tanked his farm system, added about $53 million in payroll for a player who starts as the worst CF in the AL West, on a team that is already seriously old and full of potholes, beefed up on bonus money that might not mean much to his primary target, and risks being left with little more than a chance at a bigger bonus payout for the international draft next year - for kids who won’t make the MLB team until after he has been replaced as Seattle GM............

Oh, and consider the historical parallels here. Foreshadowing a little?............

I know what you are hoping for, but know that there are MLB rules to the amount of bonus money can be added to the international pool. It’s an additional 75% of the original allocation. For the Angels, that means that the max the Angels can reach, even if Eppler wants or needs to, is $3.67MM..........

The Duffle Bag

One more thought about that Rafael Palmiero announcement of a comeback: Raffy last played in 2005. Jered Weaver was a rookie in 2006 and Weaver’s entire career has been played out. Palmiero has sat out an entire career..........Not all MLB have plans to extend netting. One such team would be our LA Angels............Whoa, this is cool! A vintage photo of an island that was a baseball stadium (h/t UniWatch). We need more of those!.........