MondoLinks: Trotting Through Turkey Week

Short week. Only 3 days of attention. And I am not sure how many folks will even be hanging out in the morning shop these first 3 days. But at least YOU are here, so we will be doing the daily work of keeping up with some real and important news coming out of MLB even during this holiday week.

Today we have Comeback Player of the Year.

Tomorrow is DH of the Year (will Ohtani get any votes?). And it’s also the date for sealing the 40-man to protect MiLB players from the Rule 5 Draft next month. And that might drive some roster motion to keep up with.

So get some momentum rolling with these Welcome-To-Holiday-Season-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Signing Peter Bourjos to a minor league deal, to me, is not the real news there. It’s novel, sure, because of the Bourjos history in Anaheim. To me, the real news is that Billy Eppler is already ramping up on minor league signings with ST invites. I don’t have any numbers to back me up, but it feels to me that this roundup and experienced but non-premium Free Agents is a rising trend throughout MLB. Sure, getting a 25-man producer through this process is like hitting the lottery, but you will never win the lottery if you don’t play...........

It’s Rule Five Eve. After years of drought, once again we have a good problem to have, which is who to protect from loss by adding them to the 40-man. Look for a flurry of guys to get DFA’d, both out of Anaheim and throughout MLB......And around the League there are a lot of enticing names that might get exposed to the Rule 5 Draft..........

At this point we shall take a moment to genuflect before the Temple Of Trout. The closing line of this first podcast clip is the best part. It points out that Mike is 11 points ahead of all other MLB players in WAR since 2010 (guys like Robinson Cano and Miguel Cabrera), but Mike didn’t start until the 2012 season..........Of how about this??? “Mike Trout could retire for 5 years, get inducted in to the Hall of Fame, and STILL come back and get a multi-year deal”..........His 4th MVP runner-up outcome last week puts Trout in rarified air.....Trout is the first MLB player to finish in the top 2 in MVP voting 6 of 7 seasons.....Mike is only 3 Top-2 finishes behind Barry Bonds.....He is also only 3 Top-4 finishes behind Bonds. Although Bonds is not listed in that last link (Bonds has 10)......

Everywhere In Baseball

As we enter into the 2018-2019 Free Agent marketplace, there is a fear that last winter will repeat, pissing off the MLBPA (and some notable MSM writers) even further. In this preview, which explains that this might very well be the case, the TL;DR version is that a lot of guys who should have been highlights are coming into the market as damaged goods, or some important guys have skipped this market with contract extensions. But the article gives an excellent summary of the greater challenge that confronts the senior players entering FA: “The game these days is dominated by power and velocity and defensive speed, all traits that diminish with age.”............

This is the news that Angels fans everywhere want to see come true. The Phillies are looking to potentially spending stupid money this winter. The more stupid they are now, the less chance they will have any ability to offer up wagon loads of money to tempt away Mike Trout later. And that might be the tipping point that incents Trout to sing with Arte before his current contract is up..........

The big news on Bryce Harper is that the Cubs might be making a run at him......So I look for SI, which is dedicating its space to Harper and some run-up to the largest MLB contract in history) to add yet another headline today, giving them about 10 for their home page alone...........

Lots of people are interested in lifting Noah Syndergaard away from the Mets. But if that were to happen, the Mets would demand a huge prospect haul. In The Age Of Tanking, where building UP the farm system for a focused effort of opening up a short window of WS probabilities, gutting the farm system is not the thing that promises to happen anymore. So, no, the Mets probably will not be trading away both deGrom and Syndergaard..........

The Angels are among the (many, many, many) teams that are in on Nathan Eovaldi..........

Jed Lowrie’s new-found home-run power might help the 34-year old fetch a nice bonus in the FA market, and still that might be a bargain..........

How about some Big, Bold, Strategies for 2019? These are intriguing, although the one about combining Ohtani with an Opener is something we heard earlier this year. (That, by the way, would screw up observers even further, since Ohtani would not even be looked upon as a starting pitcher.)..........

You know, I give you people all kinds of opportunity to do great things, linking to every baseball job I can find. Well, for those of you who think that these are all silly, know that FanGraphs Managing Editor Carson Cistulli took that one for the Blue Jays scouting department. Yeah, foolish mortal, that could have been you.....In related news, FanGraphs, like HalosHeaven, is now being run by the fairer talent. Meg Rowley takes over. Maybe she can whip Rahul into getting busy over there..........

1969 was well before your time. I get it. But those who make the rules on which season held the best MLB uniforms know best that this was the finest season for unis, ever. Within the details of the entire article the Angels cap - the one with the halo on top - as the second greatest MLB cap of all time. (I would love to see New Era experiment with modern materials and manufacturing processes and prove that this can be brought back without all the 60’s crumpling.) But then you will also learn that the Seattle Pilots’ cap, also from 1969, ranks as UniWatch’s all-time favorite. (The Pilots only lasted 1 season, then moved to Milwaukee to become Bud Selig’s Brewers.)...........

Somebody (at the mothership) really wanted the Marlins to all-in with the neon in their new look..........

Something to point out to your football friends. The FOX extension of MLB broadcasts proves that even though MLB ratings fluctuate, they are still extremely healthy............

The Duffle Bag

Hit a walk-off home run, with the AFL championship game, over-celebrate during your home run trot as you near home plate, shatter your foot and have to be carried off the field. (Sound familiar?)............We have Dan Le Batard to thank for roasting the ass of idiot Michael Wilbon in response to Wilbon rejecting the last 40 years of progress..........