Thor’sLinks: Shohei-Simba Day

Wow. Handing out candy is hard. I had forgotten. Sitting there doing the “one for you, one for me, two for you, three for me” thing creates such a sugar high that coming down is worse than a tequila hangover. This country needs a new Halloween candy purchasing program. One where the residents can sign up for a return policy so that they don’t get tempted should the trick-or-treater traffic not measure up to forecasts.

But that’s over. Awards are coming the way of Anaheim. On to the next holiday.

Let’s kick off the Thanksgiving-Season-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Congratulations, Shohei Ohtani, Baseball Digest’s American League Rookie of the Year...............

And congratulations, Andrelton Simmons, on winning his 6th Fielding Bible Award for Shortstop.............

Hey, that Joe Hudson that was waived to make room for Kevan Smith?.....Hudson cleared waivers, so we have them both............

Not a bad upgrade. Our new manager is far from the worst possible replacement player among all MLB skippers. Almost one of the best, actually..........

Never forget, Mike Trout led all center fielders in double plays this year. That’s his cred for GG consideration..............

I am going to keep this up here until the event, as a reminder. JeffJoiner directs us all to the annual opportunity for we fans to join the Halos in giving back to our community. The Groundskeepers are hosting their 12th Annual Canned Food Drive Friday, November 16th thru Sunday, November 18th at Angel Stadium.

Everywhere In Baseball

Sure, sure. I know that I said I would not cover the BoSux victory parade. But then the whole thing went all Boston and we need a reminder as to why it’s so utterly normal to despise that whole thing. You gather too many of the Pink Hat Brigade into the same corner of the universe and you are destined to get the franchise blowing $300,000 in booze to celebrate before they even leave LA.....Alex Cora smugly offering up oral derogatories towards anybody who dared doubt.....you get drunken fans throwing beer cans at the team and damaging the hard-win trophy.........

And let us contrast all that with the ongoing tale of Kang Jung-ho, one-time Pittsburgh Pirate rising infield star who has seen that star rapidly plummet as a consequence of his DWI episodes. Jung-ho has been converted into a Free Agent, as the Pirates declined his option..........

And Dodger fans still own the reputation for cheap shot thuggery champs..........

Not everybody who will be getting a ring got to ride on the duck boats.............

The greatest pre-postseason prediction sheet ever published (after the postseason was all over)..........

Ranking the post-season TV broadcast crews. What? Joe Buck comes in next to worst? What kind of crime is this? Red Sox + Dodgers + Joe Buck...what could go wrong??............

Free Agent signing season is officially open, with the Nationals signing of Trevor Rosenthal to be their new closer. That would be the same Trevor Rosenthal who held a showcase right here in Orange County, a showcase that reportedly went pretty damned well...........

And now that signings have started, we are officially late with stack ranking the 2018-2019 FA roster. But here we go.............

And with Manny Machado at the top of that list, how will teams react to how Machado performed in the playoff spotlight?.............

But the Mets, now that could be a bigger story than I have been sniffing out. Sure, the hiring of a player agent to flip sides and become GM is not the end of the world. But there are real ongoing concerns that may never go away, and it will be interesting to observe how players and agents deal with it going forward. For example: “...when Van Wagenen was asked about his relationship with deGrom at the press conference, COO Jeff Wilpon answered for him, telling reporters that the team had put measures in place for Van Wagenen to recuse himself from negotiations with his former clients. He declined to elaborate on what those measures might be or how they’d work......Probably because his answer could not be more obviously horseshit. The two most important player personnel decisions the Mets have to make in the next few years are what to do with deGrom and Syndergaard—how can Van Wagenen possibly run the Mets’ baseball ops department without at least having input on those decisions? And if (when) he does make those decisions, his experience as an advocate for deGrom and Syndergaard will influence his decision-making as their employer. Van Wagenen might be a mercenary, but nobody’s mercenary enough to compartmentalize to that extent.”.............

This is messed up. A collection of police officers from within the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force are being prosecuted for drug trafficking. That’s horrible enough. But to use baseball as the code language for their criminal activity??.............

The worst Minor League team, ever...........

Damn. We lost Willie McCovey. Godspeed, Stretch. There are plenty of us still here to make sure you are remembered.............

The Duffle Bag

Oh thank you UniWatch! They gave us this tip for a cool 2019 vintage baseball calendar....So I went looking and found it for sale .............You know, the Cape Cod League is kind of a big deal. Most of the time I post job openings as a lark, not expecting any fit for the readership. But because all those Hallmark Holiday Specials exist for a reason, I figure I would keep throwing them out there just in case somebody needs a miracle. This one would be that sort of miracle for any readers in the New England area. Scouting, MLB scout Liaison, and Assistant GM? Holy balls I hope somebody is out there who can use this link.............