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Welcome to National Arby’s Day! Since I am the 24-hour clock that only rings once a day, I cannot even try to keep up with all the beef on arbitration activity. So forgive me for not having up to date news on all this. It might prove to be a busy day but my official duties for the week ended last night. You people know how to keep things current as they happen in the comments below. And don’t just focus on Angel players, because for those negotiations that go to arbitration, arbiters rely heavily on comps around Baseball when choosing which side (player versus team) gets the decision.
I’m giving you a ton of stuff already, but arbitration news might double up the day. We here at HH can call B.S. on the whiny writers elsewhere. We got content to burn, so roast ‘em!
Have some Refuse-To-Be-Defeated-By-Slows-News-Days-Offseason-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Blake Parker and the Angels avoided arbitration animosities with a $1.8 million 1-year deal. Let the travel trailer jokes commence..........
And then Martin Maldonado signed for $3.6 million...........
LAA pitching prospect John Swanda, converted shortstop, getting some love on Baseball-America (insider content, via LAT writer Mike DiGiovanna, for some reason).........
Eric Young, Jr., giving a shout out to the Halos and us fans as he goes to his morning workouts. (Follow EYJ here.)............
I agree. Opening Day in 2018 is really about the Yankees and the Angels..........
Jaime Barria knocking on the door in Anaheim..........
A short MLB video take, the Angels being The Most Improved Team..........
I wonder how much money MLB Network pays Ron Darling and Cliff Floyd to be “guys who played the game” and yet remain so stubbornly ignorant?? Didi Gregorious and Jean Segura? Really?...........
Everywhere In Baseball
I would never had guessed that the Angels are one of the princes of the MLB draft over the last 53 years. I also would never have guessed that Hardball Times would still be abbreviating the Angels as “ANA”...........
You knew it was coming. MLB is investigating Miguel Sano over those assault charges against him by a photographer who covers the Twins. The Twins should be planning on not having Sano to start the season..........
In discussing whether or not it’s a fine idea to ignore the obvious HoF candidates in order to use your precious 10-vote limit on other candidates to keep them afloat for another day, why is there no discussion on all those voters who refuse to use all 10 of their choices??..........
Do you need to feel all grown up and experienced and everything this morning? Take a read about the challenge of trying to inculcate sabermetrics into Winter ball in Mexico. As soon as you realize that you are feeling all smug and superior because you know that we are well beyond those days, you can admit to yourself that you have evolved and matured..........
Here is the most fun thing I have read out of ESPN not penned by Sam Miller. It’s a list of all the HoF candidates on this year’s ballot, and how many existing HoFers to which they are superior...........
Another fun one is the journey of one obscure baseball out of one obscure event that happened in one obscure game, but had great meaning to one pro ballplayer. And that very baseball found it’s way back to that very player years later..........
H/T UniWatch, here is your MLB Opening Day logo. So imaginative it might have from from Rob Manfred’s mom.........
The 1990’s Braves don’t interest me, but an MLB documentary on Tony Gwynn? Yessir..........
In cord-cutting news, notice the growth shown by Hulu!. Keep in mind that ESPN is losing about 500K subscribers per month...........
Hot Stove
Randal Grichuk’s first stab at an arb off-season worked out well for him. He jumps from a near-minimum $557,200 in 2017, to $2.6 million for 2018.........
Scott Boras J.D. Martinez and the Red Sox are in a stare down contest as high noon approaches. Boras is doing his usual wait until the very end to force a franchise to panic move, while Boston GM Dave Dombrowski (having already seen that move often enough over the years) is doing his we already have an outfield thankyouverymuch and I am not falling for your schtick any more............
And about that schtick. FanGraphs is starting to come around to my way of thinking, that the Boras wait-til-late-and-get-one-owner-to-panic-and-create-a-stampede style of market manipulation has run its course. Certainly, it’s not proving to be very effective in a down FA market against now well-educated Front Offices. But that doesn’t mean that Boras is sitting still. He is still working the media channels. I pointed out some Jon Heyman bits yesterday (see the Links comments). Note how Heyman works the Top-tier competitive teams and pokes at their roster needs, wherein he suggests that the answer to their needs are Boras client after Boras client. (Martinez, Holland, Cain, Frazier, Moustakas, Hosmer, Gomez, Arrieta, and Lynn - all name dropped in that article - are Boras clients.) Boras, from behind the scenes, is trying to turn up the heat on the stove..........
Rumor has it that the Yankees pulled an Arte on Yu Darvish, offering him $160 million worth of contract but only if he accepted it within 48 hours. Darvish and his agent did not, and the Yankees pulled the offer. Part of this is important to keep in mind, and part confuses me. The part to keep in mind is the one that says that we do have clubs making offers, and it’s the player who is creating the inactivity. Now, sure, you can come back and say that the Yankees are low-balling, but are they really? Even at 7 years a $160MM deal would be $23MM per year. That’s more than doubling up his annual salary to date for a guy who is not a rare commodity. But that other part, the one that confuses me? I thought that the Yankees, like the Dodgers, are working hard to stay under the cap threshold so that they can reset in time for next Winter’s Machado/Harper led Free Agency class? And that the Yankees have only about $14 million worth of space remaining?? If so, why do we keep hearing about them (and the Dodgers) being mentioned with Darvish?..........
The Duffle Bag
Let this be a lesson to be remembered when you hear about folks hating on Baseball. People can find any sport boring if they are not bred into it. Even American football..........Baseball Reference has the oddest stuff hidden deep within the history of baseball. For example..........This is kind of exciting. In the new trend of high-intensity-hope-the-arm-doesn’t-fall-off training, Trevor Bauer threw an under regulation 3oz. baseball nearly 100mph!..........Hey. It’s Winter. It’s slow. It’s cold outside. Gerrit Cole is not going anywhere today. And it’s fun to diverge into food, so let’s argue about chowder..........Oh lookee. The Mothership is a union. We can all celebrate the promise of superior software development practices, right? RIGHT??..........
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