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THE HOT CORNER - HOT STOVE OBSERVATION
If things seem light, it’s not because I have short-timers disease. Things always slow down in MLB land as we approach the holiday week. It’s why I would tend to do DIY links at this time of year as well, since the little trickle of interesting news items is easily handled by the community with no need for a shepherd.
Thank you all for the kind things written yesterday. I never had even the tiniest of thought that you all did not fully appreciate the Daily Links. I did not need the pats on the back, but I welcome nonetheless.
There are interesting things afoot for the community, which may end up panning out quite nicely even if they drift away from this URL. Don’t surrender! This is the largest, most heavily-trafficked, liveliest, and most well-informed LAA-focused online community on the Internet and it didn’t get that way because of anything other than ourselves.
ANGELS
Mike Trout: Sporting News MLB Athlete of the Decade. Damn, we have been so blessed.........
So of course Mike leads the Sporting News’ MLB All-Decade team for the 2010s..........
Mickey Callaway hasn’t figured out an innings plan for Shohei Ohtani yet in 2020. But he sure is impressed with how much of an athlete Ohtani is............Because, yeah, as an athlete Ohtani is in rare company..........
Uncle Joe sportin’ the throwback logo..........
$325 million for Angels Stadium and the parking lot?............”The code sale price is more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules .cost”
HOT STOVE ACTION AND OTHER RUMORS
Ryu could (should) beat that Bumgarner deal. One of the replies makes a good point. With Ohtani in the mix and a 6-man rotation in effect, the workload on Ryu will lessen, as will his chances for wear and tear............
The Dodgers are really really trying hard to do some blockbuster thing. It seems inevitable that they will land a Francisco Lindor or a Mookie Betts before Opening Day. Cleveland shedding Trevor Bauer makes affording Lindor more likely, so maybe Lindor is out? And maybe that’s why the Betts rumors are now heating up?..........
ASSTROS NUTZ
JomBoy gives us an in-depth explanation and update............
BASEBALL THINGS IN GENERAL
With the rise of analytics taking over Front Office player personnel decisions, MLB has entered into Info Wars. Gathering data is a competitive edge. Data is now a commodity to be traded. And data corruption as a form of disinformation is already commonplace. Gathering the data is not free, however, and MLB recently got together and agreed to a new standard that is to be implemented primarily to prevent an escalation of cost in data gathering. MLB has agreed among themselves to outlaw amateur TrackMan data exclusivity. Read the article and be enlightened. And pay particular attention to the section that dives into what, if any, rights players have to the data of their own performance which is being used to control their own careers...........
I feel icky doing this, but equal time, right? Rob Manfred regurgitates all his usual and customary alarmist B.S. to justify all the hands-on weirdness he is imposing on our sport..........
And something that Manfred complains about is declining ratings and declining attendance. Let’s look into that, shall we? We all know (or, rather, we all should know by now) that the strength of MLB is regional fandom. While national media likes to see things in a national context, and new Yorkers such as Manfred like to think that theirs is the proper view of the entire nation, the truth is that A’s fans don’t care to watch much Braves baseball and Braves fans don’t care to watch much Royals baseball and on and on and on. Therefore, when you dive into the broadcast ratings and focus on regional stats, MLB is actually quite healthy. Much healthier than the NBA, in fact. And the things that the NBA are complaining about do not seem to be impacting MLB..........
($$) - Inside Scott Boras’ Winter Meetings in San Diego. There is a curious bit that serves as food for thought: Said Boras, “I had eight owners— I kept track of it — tell me, ‘That analytics stuff is the boogeyman. It’s not accurate. I’ve waited, I’ve watched it for three or four years. I can’t put my team together until February when I’m already locked in? I’m not doing that anymore.’” This might sound like bluster. Except … how else to explain the sudden surge in spending?.....Owners believe in results, not forecasts. It sounds like 8 Front Office analytics teams have lost the mindshare of their boss .........
There are some pretty good gems in this Christmas Wish List for Baseball..........
The Orioles Winter FanFest reads like the biggest shit show imaginable, and smells more like a clueless owner insisting the shit product he puts out there for consumption is still worthy of pillaging the consumers in his market...........
Andruw Jones was an excellent ballplayer with one complicated career. It makes for a complicated Hall Of Fame ballot consideration..........
Jason Giambi had a good career with enough flash to get himself onto the ballot, but that should be the end of it............
($$) - Get yourself a sub to TheAthletic, and follow along over the next 100 days as the greatest 100 baseball players (in their highly qualified opinion) ever is revealed. How far up the Top 10 do you think Mike Trout will make it? Keep in mind that this review gets to liberate itself from the shackles of pre-integration bias...........
STUFF
The Rangers shiny new ballpark catching on fire and burning like hell isn’t going to have any impact at all on Opening Day. Which tells me what about their Opening Day plans?............Stephen Strasburg, get your mind out of the gutter!..........At the end of the day, baseball players know that baseball is nothing but fun!..........Terry Francona, one lucky dude...........