HumpLinks: Welcome to 2019

Welcome to 2019! A whole new year. A whole new season. A whole new time for fresh hope. An exciting time to watch Billy Eppler crank his machine and turn the 2018 edition into 2019 relevancy.

But I wonder. Is this the year that the Facebook crowd, the Booster crowd, and even the Newport Beach per-caps crowd finally figure out that time is a wastin’ and some albatross contract has Arte too shy to fix things? The happy glow and pretense cannot go on forever.

Nah. It’s OC. We have Disneyland for a reason.

Have some Keep-On-Smiling-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

In reviewing the Best Defensive Plays for every team in 2018...Andrelton Simmons owns the LAA highlight. Yeah, surprising............

Sure. Ok. GM Billy Eppler is “interested” in Josh Harrison. I’m “interested” in a lot of things. Eppler has been “interested” in everything that has gone everyplace but Anaheim. As Halo fans, we have to settle for all news meaning nothing, until it means something...........

Kole Calhoun going anywhere means very, very little anymore...........

Thank you, reddit...........Jo Adell shows why it’s good to be young, fit and in the prime of human health..........

Here is a new conspiracy theory for the Phillies stealing away with Mike Trout (whose WAR still refuses to increase, dammit.)..........

Yep. Shohei Ohtani really did force the hands of those who try to measure outcomes and weigh comparable productivity. As we predicted, he threatens to break the current machines.............

Everywhere In Baseball

Trader Jerry got himself his own Japanese superstar. Yusei Kikuchi signed a pretty long deal with the Mariners. Potentially, they can hang onto him for 8 years, for $109 million. It’s broken out into 4 guaranteed and 4 option years, but that would be an average of $13.6 million. Just a shade above Matt Harvey money............

Hall of Fame ballot tracking needs to be tracked, since the announcement is coming up on January 22...........

The Mariners are gearing up the “he said” side of the racial accusation mess raised by a former employee...........

In calculating TV viewership by sport, I sure wish that the numbers would be published for ALL viewers of ALL broadcasts of ALL events. MLB, in a 162 game season for 30 teams, plays 2,430 total games, PLUS the playoffs, All-Star Week, etc. I wonder what, if any, difference that would make?...........

Hot Stove

Instead of playing for the Angels for 500 peanuts, Troy Tulowitzki will play for the Yankees for those 500 peanuts. This kind of makes sense, since the Yanks are down one Didi Gregorious to rehab from TJ surgery. But Tulo is merely going to be enjoying super-premium stadium seating once the Yankees sign Manny Machado...........

The Padres are still dealing. Clayton Richard to the Blue Jays..........

Yasmani Grandal is still living the economics of baseball free agency, circa 1995, appropriately adjusted for inflation, of course..........

Yasiel Puig makes the Reds a contender??? The Reds lost out on the NL Central by almost 30 games last year. Woof...........

Hell yeah. I had always thought that the Cubs would be the leader in the Bryce Harper sweepstakes, and at least a player for Machado. Why so quiet??..........

There are still guys out there to be had...........

The Duffle Bag

Decator, Indiana residents selling T-shirts to raise money in order to rehab a youth baseball field? Let me be the one who breaks the news that Decator has less than 10,000 residents. They need to raise $1 million. If they charged $20 per shirt, every living soul in town has to purchase 5 shirts...........Hey, at least we were not one of the crummiest sports teams in the nation for 2018..........But Mike Trout was merely the 3rd best American athlete of the year...........ST merch collectors alert: the cheap-assed rubber logos of 2018 are being abandoned already..........