The rain keeps falling here on Southern California. So much so that it is killing my xeriscape front yard. My timing on stuff like that never has been very good. The odd thing is that even though we are down to just the missus and I, and have completely overhauled our landscaping front and back yards, and took out our swimming pool last year, and even turned off all our irrigation for the entire month, we still have the city barking at us for using more water than our neighbors (no, I don’t have a slab leak). Either the city’s system is totally screwed up, or all those houses on my block are actually abandoned.
But...baseball. It’s February 5th. In exactly ONE WEEK, on February 12th, Pitchers & Catchers report to Tempe! The last time we saw these guys in anything but a PR role was back on September 30, 2018, when they defeated the A’s 5-4. We still have that 1 game winning streak intact.
Back to the Stirrups Grand Plan to Revamp the Promo Schedule:
Sundays remain Family Days. I would be deliriously happy to not have kids do in-game stadium PA announcing, but that is probably just me. I’d put more kids on the field (10 contest winners each week shagging balls during batting practice?), but I don’t want to distract players from their job or creating injury risks. Those LAA interns are already pretty sensitive about we clueless masses stepping off the warning track!
This is the day we hand out kids t-shirts, kids batting gloves, kids mini bats, etc. All of them labeled after the major Halos, of course, but with a twist. As with my other ideas, 50 of the items items are autographed by the player being featured that week and handed out randomly.
And, for the parents, this is where a whole new revenue stream of corporate sponsors can connect. Adults, who would not be getting any t-shirts, get coupon books instead. $25 off an oil change. $10 off a restaurant breakfast. Free food and drinks at the movies. $50 off a harbor cruise, 10% savings at the team store until it closes post-game that day. Stuff like that. You guys know what I am talking about, and can come up with 1000’s of ideas on your own. The Halos could market that weekly coupon book deal to thousands of companies with whom they currently do no business, and have no current channel for affordable engagement.
But the main idea is that if the parents bring their family to a Sunday game, the kids get swag, and potentially valuable and exciting swag, and the parents can recoup their game attendance investment (which goes INTO Arte’s pocket) with discounts on the things they do outside the stadium anyway (where the money comes from places OTHER THAN Arte’s pocket). Every week, a new book with different coupons.
Sundays are solved.
Have some Still-Soggy-Countdown-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Billy Eppler has raised the LAA farm system out from beneath the Mariana Trench, and into a Top 10 resource. Currently, the same Keith Law who once called our farm something way worse than last place, now has us 7th in MLB...........
Once upon a time we had TWO regular followers/contributors of LAA here on Halos Heaven, who were from the UK. I choose to ignore blaming #cesspool, and call all those now-missing HH’ers bandwagon fans. Most of them will be back when the Angels are playing Game 5 of the ALCS............
Matt Harvey is our season pivot player, and it’s not a good look. But after all the bad luck the past three years, we are way overdue for something nice to happen with our pitching staff. I, for one, am planning for good things. It’s what I do every year. It’s why there is Spring.........
Chris Russo puts Albert Pujols at #1 among Top 1B of the Past Decade. Brian Kenny puts Pujols at #2. As a card-carrying member of The He-Man Pujols Haters Club, I am honest enough to point out that Pujols ranks 10th in fWAR during that period, and he ranks 14th in wRC+. All his credit is coming off those final 3 years in STL, where he produced 19.2 fWAR and 164 wRC+. The last 7 years as a Halo have been 6.8 and 110, respectively...........
Everywhere In Baseball
The current President of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Jeff Idelson, is retiring. Idelson is the guy you see doing the HoF ballot result announcements every year. Keep in mind that the REAL power within the HoF is Chairperson Jane Forbes Clark. But, still, Idelson is the face......Which brings me to this nice reddit catch. In this HoF article, we learn that “The 1960 BBWAA election marked the fifth time in 24 years that the writers didn’t elect a Hall of Fame candidate”.....but.....”39 men [on that ballot would] eventually elected to the Hall of Fame...”..........
I, for one, would have worked hard to find some other winter league rather than volunteer to risk Venezuela in 2018-2019..........Take, for example, Dominican winter ball. Wild and crazy in its own right but infinitely safer.........
Remember the good ol’ days when you hid a bad glove/great bat at first base, and hid a great glove/bad bat at shortstop? Umm...not so much anymore..........
We still have a ways to go with technology, people. Having streams crash during a major sporting even in 2019, will be the stories you tell your grand-kids a few decades from now. Kind of like how I remember growing up in Norwalk, CA. as a 6-year old, and hearing sonic booms, having party lines for phone service, and going through power blackouts with enough regularity that even I knew where the candles were kept..........
2019 holiday caps are already leaking..........
R.I. P. - Bob Friend..........
Hot Stove
Guys are getting picked off the FA list now at an accelerating pace, and money is being spent, kind of.
1-year, $1.525 million to Chris Devenski, signing with the Astros............
1-year MiLB deal, with $1.5 million if he makes the MLB level, to Jerry Blevins, signing with the A’s..........
1-year MiLB deal, with $1.8 million (plus $1.5 million in incentives) if he makes the MLB level, to Francisco Lirano, signing wit the Pirates..........
Unknown terms, but a MiLB deal, to David Carpenter, signing with the Rangers. This is the David Carpenter who has not pitched since 2015...........
The Indians and Marlins completed a trade that sent Nick Wittgren to the Indians..........To make room, Cleveland has DFA’d A.J. Cole. Cole is out of options, so don’t even think about it.........
The Giants are looking to acquire Jacoby Ellsbury. This makes perfect sense, because I can never keep the straight Ellsbury from Evan Longoria. Having them both on the same team simplifies life for me, and that is what everything needs to be about..........
Joc Pederson is getting pretty popular..........
Ex-GM Jim Bowden is calling all around MLB, trying to track down the Bryce Harper mystery teams, with no luck. Bowden hasn’t been a Front Office exec for a decade now. How many current MLB FO contacts does he have left in his Rolodex? 2?..........
I haven’t written about Manny Machado in a while. Catching up, it might be that he has multiple offers, but he doesn’t consider any of them to be worthy bids..........
Finally, the market for highly-ranked international prospect Yolbert Sanchez opens for business today..........
The Duffle Bag
Different sports, different standards, same society. Go figger. But dwell on those NFL linebackers for a while Kyler Murray...........My first thought from this Bryce Harper tweet was that he was experiencing the joy of modern web page loading sluggishness. Ads load first, people.........Take your baseball quiz. What was your score? Anything less than 28 out of 30 is disappointing..........Dave Portnoy is struggling with the concept of property rights..........Why do intergalactic bad guys hate the Mets so much? Or are they merely trying to curry our favor?......... Yeah, the SF Giants certanily aren’t going to be using their stadium next fall. So the Raiders playing there seems like safe scheduling..........Mookie Betts is ALSO a two-way superstar..........