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I am not going to be beating this horse eternally, whether living or dead. Some nasty cyber crap went on between franchises. We know for fact they went one way, and eventually it might come out that it went both ways. Or maybe that will never prove to be true. The main dude is 4 years in prison with his future career in his chosen profession taken away forever. That's pretty harsh. I don't see how the Cards benefited (below) but I do see how the Astros gain. And I see any gain for the Astros to be a loss for the rest of the AL West, who could all be collateral damage.
I'll continue to follow into the future but might not report or link to anything more unless it turns out to be what I feel is significant and compelling. And I am not going to be running around forever calling the Cards "cheaters". I have first-hand experience in how exasperatingly silly that is and I am not going to be a part of it.
We got here. It is what it is. We move forward. I give a wrap up of the latest today and then I'm done with it. Do yourself a favor and dine on some Links:
A Little Bit (more) of Angels News
More LAA fantasy scouting. Most interesting, to me anyway, is the notion that a Kole Calhoun has gained so much respect that he would cost more than a "...Dexter Fowler, Kevin Kiermaier, Keon Broxton or Hunter Pence.".........
Just a heads up: Cameron Maybin is switching his representation to some big guns as he approaches Free Agency after this season..........
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Everywhere In Baseball
Let's do a little roundup on The Cardinal Way. Analytically, the Cards picked the very sport in which to cheat..........Chris Correa sent out a missive yesterday owning up to his jackassery, but claimed that he found the Astros had done likewise back to the Cards' internal systems and MLB wouldn't listen...........MLB then responded by calling bullshit on Correa's claims. Considering that Correa is permanently branded a guilty cheat jailbird untouchable, MLB will forever have the benefit of the doubt here. Until they don't..........But at the end of the day, yeah, we all lose in this deal..........Except the Astros. The Astros make out pretty good in all this............
Am I missing something? Notably, how the Cards might have benefited from that hack? Where are their returns from that draft on this list? I do get that what went down was wrong, and I am on record that the punishment was light. But did they screw up any advantage they might have actually had?.........
The Astros, though, man. Never forget that they intentionally tanked in order to exploit draft pick and draft slotting advantages and have leveraged those resources to the hilt in opening up a competitive window for themselves. Recent trades and signings have molded them into a high-contact hitting monster. And now they get more draft picks AND the bonus money to spend signing them. The NL West should be sending all of us AL West fans special gift boxes this Valentines Day for having MLB move the Astros out of their division just in time..........
The PCL has a reputation for warping offense to the plus side. And everybody thinks that it is a home run hitting paradise of a league. HBT digs into that theory and turns it on it's head. It's BAPIP..........
What? Our LF platoon of Maybin/Revere is getting much love. Ok, so they are not projecting to be monsters. But relative to what we have been stuck with for the past two years, come on! Give us a participation ribbon or something!!..........
Minor League pay is still a major embarrassment that the riches of MLB can easily rectify. But greed, left unchallenged, will always win out. And, in this case, it's not just the greed of the MLB owners. It's the greed of the MLB players, too. $12,000 a year? For all of the time commitments required to retain employment and advancement opportunities? Sure, you can pull the "at will" card or the MLB mega payday card for the top 1%. But consider this: of what value would Matt Thaiss and Jahmai Jones be to us as farm prospects getting in their development years, if they were our ONLY two minor league players and other 99% of the minor league rosters throughout all of baseball didn't even exist? Never forget that the entire minor league system was invented by Branch Rickey for the explicit purpose of driving out cost from developing pro players. It still works at that goal..........
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Trade Winds
Mike Napoli wants a multi-year deal. He's only 35 and he is still hanging in there as kind of a Mark Trumbo Lite..........
Remember how, not too long ago, the idea of a power-hitting monster playing first base as defense was considered baseball gospel? This off-season has exposed that fundamental, big time. Teams are investing in different kinds of production, at different positions, instead of dumping fortunes on Boog Powell types..........
The Rangers one-time answer to our Mike Trout, Jurickson Profar, might be on the move to the Rays. If he does get moved, and the Rangers don't get back something blockbuster for him, we should downgrade some of those past Rangers farm system ratings.........
Aha! Now we might have an idea as to why the Dodgers failed to nab Brian Dozier from the Twins. The Twins could have been asking for 3/4's of all the real estate in Brentwood. Really? All THREE of the Dodgers' top prospects? For a guy who will hit the FA market after only one year?? By getting Logan Forsythe from the Rays for only Jose De Leon, the Dodgers got twice the time of services for 2/3's a Dozier at only 1/3 the price............
The Duffle Bag
Even as the Oakland Raiders had the rug pulled out from under them concerning their plans to move to Vegas, the Oakland A's are gearing up for an announcement this year on where they think they will end up...........Drip drip drip...the cable world keeps losing subscribers..........MadBum a beast? Nah. Compared to Nolan Ryan, he's merely a My Little Pony toy...........The Padres are getting clever with the departure of their last remaining in-town major sports competitor..........Showalter admits defeat. This should prevent him from having to answer that same question for the next 20 years..........Terry Francona is a pretty cool guy.............Glad I got my last visit in to this baseball institution before it all fell apart..........
Halo-Oppo-ly
(On a 2-week hiatus while I deal with a teensy bit of travel time)
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