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A major bucket of coal was thrown upon the stove over the weekend. Big signings, major player moves. Mountains of words written and opinions rendered all in the passage of a few hours. The baseball writers were, finally, enthralled.
Good for them. But we have more important things to attend.
Mike Trout reported yesterday. And he led into camp a host off fine talent assembling for the first time. The first full-squad workouts are today. And we have a squad that can compete. We shall have fun.
Have some Spring-Training-Rising-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Albert Pujols rolled into Tempe and as soon as Billy Eppler saw him climb out of his mega-SUV all slim and trim he whipped out his cellphone, dialed up Tampa Bay, and sent C.J. Cron off to the Rays to open up roster space. The move should now put Pujols at 1B when Ohtani DH’s, and Luis Valbuena at 1B when Ohtani pitches...........Coming back with the Cron deal will be this guy..........
So Eppler then went shopping. While browsing down the aisle of players “A” through “C”, he paid close attention to the bargain deals to be found on the bottom shelf of aging relics of former glory. Let’s see...Gary Carter.....Joe Carter..........Chris Carter...........CHRIS CARTER?! He’s still on sale? Done!!!..........Chris Carter to a minor league deal...........
Later on in his shopping trip, MUCH later, Eppler got to the “Y”s. And he went to pick up Eric Young as a 4th outfielder on a 1-year deal. No, wait! We already got an ERIC Young. He’s our 4th OF candidate but with a minor-league deal. Oh, what’s this? Right here on the shelf is another “Young”. Hmmm. Well, why not? Let’s get as “young” as possible. So he threw Chris Young into his shopping cart as a 4th outfielder on a 1-year major league deal. Eric drops to 5th. That’s a lot off Young depth right there, baby............
Christina Kahrl sees all this and can think only of the Angels landing “2016 NL HR champ Chris Carter”...........
But Eppler is merely dabbling with his franchise efforts with these Carter and Young moves. He is your new hero, and it is felt all the way through the organization. We are on the road to the Land of Formidable Franchises. And the ride is dazzling...........
Lest we forget, it’s still a long way to Opening Day. Lots can happen between now and then. So when a person writes that the “Angel’s bench is looking woefully thin”, keep in mind that it might look thin now. Well, slightly less thin after this weekend. Anyway, it will end up looking thinner than normal, specifically because of the multi-use power of Shohei Ohtani. But, hey, the writer is an Oakland fan so it is what it is............
Josh Paul is back. Our bench coach has the One Important Thing to teach his young charges. Make sure the play is over. We all paid a price for Paul to learn that lesson..........
Justin Upton will also be back. Upton chose to be back. And he is damned happy for it............
I don’t know who this Mike Scioscia is, but he is a much more savvy Mike Scioscia than the Mike Scioscia of 2008. “I think the important thing is not so much you have one guy who is the closer, because it can work other ways, but to have the depth of guys who will give you every night the arms you need to close games out.“.............This part of Sosh is particularly interesting: “I’ve never had a pitcher pinch-run. There’s more bad than good that can come out of it. But Shohei is not just a pitcher. He’s a guy that has the ability to do some of the things coming off the bench, whether it’s pinch-hit or pinch-run, and we’re definitely going to tap into that if it’s necessary, because we feel we’re not putting him at risk. It’s something he’s able to do.“............
Craig Edwards of FanGraphs hears of the plans for the Angels 6-man rotation, and finds that “Probability still suggests, however, that the experiment is doomed to fail.“..........
Cron says goodbye to all us fans..........
Everywhere In Baseball
It’s good to read that not all public officials are knuckleheads. Somewhere out there are State leaders who are happy to call bullshit on the plans of MLB to steal away taxpayer revenue to be derived from legalized sports betting..........Ad down in Florida there are some politicians who woke up and realized that Jeffrey Loria is a lying asshat who needs to be taken to court to pay up for cutting out on his post-sale obligations..........
No, Evan Longoria was not speaking to the Rays obtaining C.J. Cron when he said he felt bad for Rays fans. He was talking about the Rays trading away ..............And, no, Chris Archer was not talking about how excited he was that the Rays got Cron when he started pumping up the Rays chances this season. He was talking about his confidence in the Rays rotation. Which should make Jake Odorizzi feel great since Archer is left talking about a rotation that he is no longer a part of............
Sheryl Ring at FanGraphs making the same mistake about Rob Manfred’s statement as did Scott Boras. Manfred has said nothing that anybody, including every one of us, has not read in the mainstream baseball press regularly over the past many months now.
The David Wright story just gets sadder and sadder as time goes on...........
Hot Stove
The San Diego Padres just colluded with Scott Boras, Inc., to do that somebody-gotta-do-the-dumb-thing that happens at least every other year. The Pads lashed the next 8 years of their future to the likes of Eric Hosmer, and volunteered $144 million - AND their 1st round pick in June - for those platinum-covered leg-irons..........But, hey, at least one pro-collusion-theory writer is now happy...........No...make that two..........
Poor Jeff Sullivan. How to find a way to navigate the world that lies between the folly of the Hosmer contract, and the one-time-peer-and-friend Dave Cameron who now sits within the San Diego Front Office that committed that folly...........
The Rays were busy. Jake Odirizzi was traded away to the Twins............And after taking C.J. Cron off of Eppler’s hands, they DFA’d Corey Dickerson.
The Mets countered all this flurry with a Big Splash of their own. They signed Jason Vargas. On purpose. Somebody needs to share with Mets GM Sandy Alderson that a baseball season lasts all the way through September. Because that 2nd half of Vargas’ last year was worse than merely regrettable..........
You can forget it, Halo fans. You ain’t getting Manny Machado. We already have The Best Damned Shortstop in Baseball and Simmons isn’t going anywhere..........Because, as Cliff Pennington points out, “It’s Simmons. It’s always Simmons. It never will not be Simmons.“...........
The Rangers are back on the market for a closer. They thought that they had Seung Hwan Oh in their pocket. Now they know what the Cardinals were keeping to themselves. Ho failed his MRI...........
The Duffle Bag
The Cubs aren’t taking the bait in the ticket war started by the Brewers...........The Mets are playing this Tim Tebow gambit pretty hard this Spring. Should be good for ticket sales..........Joey Votto: definitely NOT in the best shape of his life............Cam Bedrosian - The Catman. There’s a lesson there. When you have enough money, it matter little that you don’t know much about how the world around works. Cats can climb down trees, too..........
OT: PEDs abuse in order to better use a push broom???