Thor’sLinks: Babes in Busted Arms

I can remember as if it were just yesterday. Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs, Nick Tropeano, Andrew Heaney, J.C. Ramirez, Matt Shoemaker. Behind them were Alex Meyer, then even Parker Bridwell. Each of these guys were young, with flashes of brilliance, and huge upside. With seasoning, and time to get through a tad of health challenges, we looked to have years worth of a great nucleus for starting pitching. Lots of depth.

But...”a tad of health challenges”.....The tad grew into a mountain. The mountain became a full mountain range. That promise never materialized. Time ran out completely for Richards and Shoemaker. Bridwell was a ‘one-and-done’. Shohei Ohtani arrived and immediately became the tallest, most elegant peak of the Sierra Traumatius Mountains.

It’s 2019. Skaggs remains brittle.....Tropeano remains brittle. And here we have Heaney, still brittle...........For his part, we won’t get to learn how brittle J.C. Ramirez might still be until at least June...........(And, yes, Ohtani won’t get his reset until 2020.)

I’m sure these guys are all great people. And I am glad they are living their dream of being an MLB ballplayer. But after all these years..........why can’t we be more like the Astros, where guys almost never hurt and pitching depth just piles up on top of pitching depth???

-HaloLinks:

A Little Bit Of Angels News

Master Mike is still #1. Duh. But notice where Bryce Harper now sits...............

Young Trout is also one model human being. Basic, plain, excellence. Such a good young man that we should all be proud, not just of his class, but of his parents for bringing such class into society............

Spring training workouts have moved well beyond jumping jacks, and the Angels are out there leading the way..........

Shohei Ohtani isn’t complaining about his pay raise......But Ippei Mizuhara should consider asking for extra pay, as a team trainer...........

Albert Pujols 2019 milestone watch...........

Everywhere In Baseball

This Hunter Pence resurgence happening for the Rangers is gonna bite us in the ass..............

If YOU, the fan, could change anything about MLB in order to improve baseball, what would it be? I would consider changing commissioners...........By the way, pay attention to the demographics in that random sampling of baseball fan interviewees..........

Nothing wrong with this. Sure, it adds to game length, but if teams are going to run out more and more flame-throwing pitchers per game, I have no problem with batters forcing more and more pitches out of that ongoing parade of arms...........

It’s always heartening to hear that an athlete rages with the competitive fire and belief in themselves. Adam Jones has that, I will grant him. But it’s also important to be real. Jones needs to realize that his defense has been on decline since a peak in 2014. His offense remains respectable, but he should probably move to a corner outfield spot. Baltimore did that with him a little but last year. He should rush to claim a stake at RF in Arizona............

It’s official. No more August trades. So what are we going to do about it?............

Astros juicing? This truly IS a surprise..............

Giggle giggle giggle.....Jurickson Profar, now with Oakland, is now an under-the-radar LA MVP candidate?............

Maybe I am alone on this, but this is one great idea for recognizing a particular segment of society. Not because I suffer deafness. I do have one friend who does but it’s not even that. To me, it’s a fabulously brilliant way to leverage many elements of the sport and convey the intended message. The uniform manipulations are fun and engaging, desirable even. But IMHO the best part is the inning if silence. It’s impactful, while also being uniquely intriguing for a baseball experience. It would be bestest if some guy hit a home run for the home team and all the fans rose and did nothing more than raise their hands and arms to the sky. No roar. No clapping. Not even a whisper......

$5 beer for everyone! Helloooo, Toronto!............The Burlington Bees are letting fans choose the beverages, but do they get to choose the price, too?...........

Here is the deal. In 50 more years, Major League Baseball will have expanded to 40 teams. There will be 4 leagues. 2 of them will be for players 32 years of age and younger. They will play for their own World Series title. It will be the athletic epitome of the sport. The other 2 leagues will be for players 33 years of age and older. It will be the Senior Circuit, and play for its own championship. And the societal debate will all be about which pair of leagues is more relevant in terms of marketing, merchandising and viewer spending.............

I have been staring at this article at the top of TheSportingNews for 5 full months, practically daily as I do my searching. DAZN is supposed to revolutionize streaming. MLB is all on board. So we have some initial reports on the actual DAZN experience...and not so revolutionary after all............

The Duffle Bag

Chris Iannetta always did strike me as one cool cat................Great UniWatch tip: Doc Ellis always wished to be far more fly on the mound............In tonight’s episode of Real Housewives of Major League Baseball, Jose Canseco accuses ARod of cheatin’ on J-Lo with his own ex-wife.....Jessica Canseco calls bullshit on Jose.....And in the cliffhanger, Jose challenges ARod and Jessica to a lie detector face-off! Brought to you by the fine folks at Enron............Track and Field has Michelle Jenneke, and baseball now has Hans Crouse. WE gotta get these two together and see what happens..........