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I did not expect this. The GM meetings are usually dull, with most of the focus on award news. I know. I am the guy with the shovel who digs through the info mines every year.
But this week, wow. I dumped 6 pretty decent links simply because I was already way over the line in content. So I cannot keep pace. It’s a good problem to have.
And it’s gonna be your problem, starting tomorrow. My oldest, RubixQube, is getting married this weekend. You will be on autopilot until that is over. DIY Links for all! But like I said, there is a lot of news to round up. Things are hopping right now. Take advantage.
For today, here is a monstrous amount of Choke-On-
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.
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Shohei Ohtani is rehabbing from surgery (TJ, in his case) quite smoothly. Oh, and so is that other guy...........
However, Alex Meyer is going backwards and being shut down until around Christmas time. No need to panic, yet..........
I dunno. Call me pig-headed. But I just don’t see how making recognition for individual accomplishments a popularity thing makes any sense. Mob rule is how we end up with the Kardashians. But it is what it is, and Andrelton Simmons really needs our help..........
We could depend, instead, on Trout’s standing among his peers, who should know best. Right? RIGHT?? I mean, them experts should be the true source of all knowledge as to how a 5-tool, inner-circle HoF producing, MLB-leading WAR per game machine is significantly more worthy than a guy whose singular skill is swinging bats as a replacement for AL pitchers. Sure, they are. Just ask them...........
Hmmm. Does Mike Trout deserve some MVP consideration? What does Ron Darling think?..........
Brad Ausmus, “cerebral”. Read this profile and gain some insight into how having a Billy Eppler-ed Front Office should mean that we need to ignore much of what Ausmus went through in Detroit..........
Ok, we have a few months of traction since the June draft. What’s the way too early report card for LAA look like?..........
The bullpen is a priority this winter. That’s good to hear. It felt like an afterthought last winter. If I were Eppler, though, the bullpen wouldn’t be my FIRST priority. Maybe not even my second priority. But third, yeah, that feels about right..........
Everywhere In Baseball
Billy Beane gets the inaugural MLB Executive of the Year. Accumulated via a couple of decades worth of back taxes, for sure..........
Working hard to counter Beane would be new Mets GM BVW, who counters with the bold move to consider Tim Tebow as a Big League savior............Some people are not amused...........
Jerry Dipoto is also looking to defeat Beane as Exec of the Year in 2019. His plan? After blowing up the Seattle farm system in 2018, his move is to blow up the big league roster now.....Well, all except Mitch Haniger, Edwin Diaz and Marco Gonzalez (you know, the guys you wanted)......Oh, and Robinson Cano. Nobody wants to take that one off of Dipoto’s hands.....In other words, tanking the MLB team ala Cubs and Astros. Color me crazy, but shouldn’t that happen before one tanks their farm?..........But the other side of the coin is that this makes for a good source of talent to be redistributed, something that MLB has been lacking since, well, since the Marlins did their dump just some number of months ago..........
I would think that this would shut up Giants fans. They had to dive into the Dodgers Front Office to find their new President of Baseball Ops, hiring Farhan Zaidi. Does this mean that Kin Ng needs to take her resume back south to LA now that SFG has passed her by? Oh, wait, the Dodgers already have that one on file..........
As if there really was any realistic outcome of anything different. Just because the Angels need pitching, it was always silly talk to think that CC Sabathia might do his final year out of Anaheim. Just days into the FA market, Sabathia re-upped with the Yankees for $8 million.........
No, the guy you really WANT is Patrick Corbin. Technically, you want him BACK. Recall that we drafted him in that amazing 2009 LAA June draft class. But we shipped him off to Arizona along with Tyler Skaggs, Joe Saunders, and Rafael Rodriguez...all for Dan Haren. I should point out, as well, that Corbin is yet another LAA choice of recent vintage that had to undergo TJ surgery. At least it’s now behind him. Unelss we sign him. Then he would tear the UCL in his non-throwing arm..........
This does not bode well for teams hankerin’ for Bryce Harper. Scott Boras and he apparently turned down a last-day offer from the Nationals supposedly between $300 and $400 million..........
I wonder, when the full voting is revealed, how far down the stack was Jacob deGrom in NL MVP voting? Sure, he wasn’t a finalist, but that just means that he was not in the Top 3. He could have been 4th. His season was sick, although his team was shit. So I can see why this would not be one of those rare years when a pitcher takes MVP honors away from a guy who produced like Christian Yelich. But I can’t see deGrom legitimately being lower than 4th or 5th on the list..........
On the AL side, Scott Boras is all up in arms because J.D. Martinez was “snubbed”. What a crock. (I did throw shade on this up above.) The three named finalists were legit multi-dimensional contributors. Martinez will get plenty of MVP love, just not enough to make him a Top 3. But Boras is gonna Boras, and pimping clients is what a Boras should be doing. It’s the job..........
Oh, interesting. The GM’s are going to do something productive this week, after all. They will have a breakout session to discuss what to do about sign-stealing via electronic means..........
Wow, that didn’t take long. Just days after the Angels hire away bullpen coach from the Astros, a guy who is also disciplined in pitcher development and health, but the Houston miracle run of good rotation luck comes to a screeching halt. Lance McCullers, Jr. is to undergo TJ surgery and will be lost for the entirety of 2019. For those not counting at home, McCullers is a Halo killer. In corollary news, ain’t it grand that Shohei Ohtani had that same surgery, will miss the same season, but because he is a two-way phenom he will still shine bright as DH all frikkin’ year!?!..........
Dangit. Had it not been for Bryce Harper making a spectacle out of the idiocy of umpire Laz Diaz, Jaime Barria would have garnered Worst Called Strike for 2018, Second Half..........
Be careful there, young whippersnappers taking over baseball. There are limits to all that power that comes from breathing the ether of an MLB Front Office. Age discrimination is a real thing..........
If MLB were to expand, I can see why expanding to the Dakotas would not be a good idea. But why not the South?..........
This slays me. It’s a chat with the Cardinals’ hitting coach, Jeff Albert. “When I was a younger, there was a DVD called Hitters on Hitting...” Albert goes on to discuss other things, but I stopped there for a long pause. When I was younger, by way of comparison, it was long, long long before DVDs. Honest as all hell, back in the 60’s we had instructional books that looked a lot more like the DMV handbook, but in comic book form. THAT was how we studied the craft. Jeff Albert is only 38..........Sticking with coaches, it sure must feel good to be wanted when you are an MLB coach, especially with all the churn among the ranks of your bosses, MLB managers. And at this time of the year, especially so. So here com the Reds. Unable to beat ‘em, they are hiring ‘em. Not long after hiring away the playoff-Brewers pitching coach, the Reds have hired away the playoff-Dodgers hitting coach. I am following and linking to coaching changes because we do have some current interest in that market..........
I’m so confused. Here is an excerpt from a book titled The Story of Baseball in 100 photographs, and the excerpt runs on for 1000 words, but only 1 photo..........
Maybe that TV mega contract gravy train isn’t going to derail soon, after all..........And FOX is sticking around..........
The Duffle Bag
Not a bad idea. A Minor League team in Santa Barbara..........(h/t reddit) Right after Bill Mazeroski walks off the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 7 of the 1960 WS against the Yankees, these people celebrated the very definition of nosebleed seating...........Sorry, dude, but the Angels mascot should be an Angel, which is defined as the lightest thing in Creation. If not that, then The Rally Monkey. About 7 pounds in real life, but about 4 ounces as getting the stuffing shaken out of it in the hands of kids in the family section.........Mookie Betts is having a really, really good month..........Chicks still dig the long ball, which is why all these strikeouts are dispiriting..........
