Thor’sLinks: Searching for the O-Zone

When watching home run highlights of Shohei Ohtani, it’s clear that he has power to all fields. His inside-out power swing in RH curveballs is particularly easy, driving balls deep over the right-field wall. With no spray chart easily found in the Internet, it’s tough to see where his power goes most often. Outside of a particular interest as an Angels fan for the chance to see many, many of those home runs wrecking the happiness of our opposing fans, why do I care?

Well, we already have The Trout Farm, for RH-hitting Mike’s occasional hard pull down the RF line. So that section is taken. The question is therefore put to you: what outfield section should be declared The O-Zone?

Yeah. I’m calling it. Halos Heaven has the distinction of being the place, and today is the day, when the genesis of the name for the Shohei Ohtani outfield fan support section is first made known: The O-Zone.

Have Some Brawny-Ohtani-Offseason-Links:

A Little Bit of Angels News

Infielders have moved to 3B before. It’s not as if it’s never happened. A crafty and skilled IF such as Zach Cozart should have no real problem...........

Umm, on the other hand, when is it news that a 1B needs to work on his 1B defense in order to make the switch to 1B, as appears to be the case of Albert Pujols?..........

Billy Eppler is now active doing that job he does so well, beefing up the inventory of pitching arms to minor league deals as we approach Spring Training. Welcome aboard Dylan Unsworth. Out of this we shall find a viable bullpen..........

On the other hand, too many catchers. Nice almost knowing you, Curt Casali..........

J.C. Ramirez still making progress on his healing process..........

Everywhere In Baseball

I am on record as agreeing that player payroll has lost ground against MLB revenue growth. And I am also on record as believing that Tony Clark is a paper tiger unable to even realize this growing disparity. Being neither an owner nor player, and enjoying the reality of supporting one of the most affordable fan experiences in all of Baseball, I really don’t have a dog in this fight, either way. But I do have enough life experience to know about enough labor battles and realize that Craig Calcaterra is right. Tony Clark isn’t doing his constituency many favors.......... That said, I still don’t understand Caclaterra’s opening lament why the luxury tax threshold, which has existed for years now and has actually gone up, is now considered some form of ‘soft cap’ when it was not considered as such in past off-seasons?..............

Major League Baseball Question Of The Day! Thank you Andrew Baggarly...........

Dioner Navarro deserves major props. Nothing, not even realizing a career dream, is more important than the loved ones in one’s life...........

I have seen Prince Fielder. I have seen Prince Fielder try to run. It’s clear that Prince Fielder is world class when it comes to the ingestion of food products (and by-products). So this might actually be must-see TV...........

What happens when there is so much information available to reasonably well-educated baseball players that they have all the ability to assess the market worth without needing an agent? We are close, are we not?..........

By the way, within that article about not needing an agent there is a link to ANOTHER Fan Graphs article which does a good job digging into the Player’s Union and their current bargaining deficit...........

Hmmm. That Colin Moran that I once advocated snatching out of the Houston farm system (before Eppler solved 3B with Cozart), might turn out to be a pretty good ballplayer after all...........

I suppose sports fans in Pittsburgh don’t have anything left to do. At least the baseball fans in that town have figured out what to do with their now-gross amount of idle time. Sit around and click e-petitions to send to Rob Manfred and get him to force Pirates owner Bob Nutting into selling the team. Because of course that will work...........Well, Gerrit Cole probably signed............

Hot Stove

Rob Neyer, speaking some truth. Wake up, bored MSM writers. There is a huge list of comps where big-ticket signings become unfavorable..........And do you know who else slipped up and spoke some truth? Buster Olney. Yes, everyone everywhere, big-spending players such as the Dodgers and Yankees have incentives this Free Agent cycle to trim back on their market aggression...........

But that doesn’t mean that it cannot be Blame Season, after all. Don’t blame Scott Boras.....Do blame Scott Boras.....Blame the system.....

But then there are still the Red Sox. It appears that they offered J.D. Martinez 5 years, ~$100 million. That’s about half of what Team Boras/Martinez feel he’s worth. They seek $180 million, and 7 years. Let’s go back to that paragraph above. The one where we talk about Albert Pujols’ contract. That Pujols contract was $254 million, 10 years. $25.4 million Annual Average Value. The Boras/Martinez target of $180 million over 7 years? $25.7 million. Sure, salaries go up every year, but is a 29-year old 13.7 bWAR Martinez really expecting the same AAV as did a 31-year old 86.4 bWAR Pujols??? It’s only been 6 years, and nobody but Arte wanted to pay Pujols even that much!..........

Jacoby Ellsbury getting cut from the Yankees for Rockies’ Ian Desmond?..........Maybe Ellsbury knows something behind the rumor..........

The Duffle Bag

Sam Miller has a cautionary tale for fans of the Houston Astros. Hey, it has happened.........Oh, wow! I want a 3D printing of Mike Trout robbing Jesus Montero!!!...........Brown won’t be hitting the town down San Diego way until at least 2020...........Willson Contreras - Chicago Cub - and Yadier Molina - St. Louis Cardinal - now have a beef. Something unheard of between the Cubs and Cards, I’m sure...........