:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63261084/491066194.jpg.0.jpg)
The best part of coming back after DIY Links is also the toughest: finding out all those things you people grabbed without me. I go scouring around and round up my stuff, then go scan the DIY link rodeo, and walk back half of my browser tabs (and I am sure I missed a few).
The glass half empty would be to whine about the wasted time. The glass half full would be to celebrate the great work y’all did. But I am neither. I pride myself in being “a glass-all-the-effing-way-full kinda guy”. It’s true. It’s all about dodge the ‘C’ word 4 years ago. So I sum up last night as being delighted at how well you did, AND that I got to catch up on the world of baseball, too.
For my part, I would like to congratulate myself for making great new friends this weekend from all over Southern California, all of which show lasting promise. If you are reading this site as a result, yes, I mean YOU. And your spouse. Thanks for being great people, and stick around.
I would also like to congratulate myself (and you people, too) for applying the pressure necessary for MLB, led by the Blue Jays, to start getting smart on their treatment of MiLB players. Yes, the only reason they are doing that is because Halos Heaven is THAT powerful. Come at me, Manfred, and prove me wrong! Ha!!
Until that ever happens, have some Let-Me-Do-The-Driving-HaloLinks:
A Little Bit Of Angels News
Andrew Heaney: Opening Day DL.............Tyler Skaggs, Zack Cozart and Justin Upton still hope to be ready for Opening Day. If true, that would figure to make them productive somewhere around early May............
PeBo continues to be our random guy surprising you with an unbelievably hot Spring Training...........
Kole Calhoun still tinkering...........
In this FanGraphs review, we find out how Guby learned to throw the slider that landed him in the LAA broadcast booth. And how Garrett Richards learned to throw the slider that landed him onto the DL and, eventually, into Padres brown...........
I cannot pass up Matt Harvey’s performance Sunday. We pretty much know that Billy Eppler is not looking to bring in a Dallas Keuchel, and he has admitted as much. So who we got is what we get. But wouldn’t it be chilling to see Harvey back on top of the world? I promise that if he gets there, and the Halos are close to a playoff spot, that second sentence in this paragraph is going to come back and haunt us.............
Cody Allen FTW. That might just be a phrase we read a lot this year...........Trevor Cahill, though, kinda mercurial in ST..........
Luuuuke. Arte Moreno IS your father.............
UniWatch lets me down. Sure, there is a great smack-down of Disney and the current red blight, but to pick the 1971 uniform while admitting to avoid all the better other choices is just sad.............
“Wait...what?? Are we playing baseball or just making shit up in public?”..........
Our 66ers won’t be as cool as The Tacos, but with that one already taken the choice of Los Cucuys holds promise. I think we could have had more fun with the imagery, though............
Albert Pujols, for all the warts that have developed of late, remains the owner of one hell of a brilliant career...........
If you subscribe to The Athletic, you can catch up on all the Spring Training results to date out of Tempe while you were sleeping...........
Everywhere In Baseball
One thing I DO wish to bring back up from yesterday would be MLB’s decision to test new tech for pitcher/catcher communication. I read it. Typing on a watch so that the pitcher can read on a watch. So the pitcher wants to shrug off the call and types back. Round and round they go. Times marches on as we all sit there watching them type back and forth. The umpire finally goes to the mound to see what the hold up is. And we learn that the pitcher is dyslexic, while the catcher can only read and write in Spanish. So I have an equally clever idea. Pictures. It’s been done before..............
Oh, and that pitch clock thing? Keep in mind that the official MLB rule book already has a time limit between pitches [12 seconds, Rule 5.07(c)], one that is LOWER than what is being trialed (20 seconds) and one that is already ignored. Looks like the new clock being trialed is being ignored, too.............
Manfred dangling $1 million to the Home Run Derby winner might not be as impactful as he hopes. To doesn’t move the needle for Aaron Judge. Seriously, MLB. It’s 2019. Make it $10 million and have it all go the charity of the player’s choice..............
The Yankees don’t have a two-way player of their own, and the MFY fan community is feeling left behind. So they need to invent their own, and they choose C.C. Sabathia. Umm, Sabathia’s career SLG is .314, and after more than 100 PA’s. There. Fixed. “They could have had one if they wanted, and way before everybody else. But nah...”..............
Bryce Harper’s hitting 2019 Spring Training hitting streak, that one where he doesn’t get a hit, officially ended. He got hit.............
Dustin Pedroia, having sat his way through the 2019 Red Sox WS winning season, is back to contributing again from the bench seats............
To the surprise of absolutely nobody beyond the inner circle of Dodgertown, Clayton Kershaw will not be the 2019 Opening Day starter. It’s kind of a big deal, since he had started 8 straight, which is pretty special. We should care about such things since Kershaw is pretty much Mike Trout’s only peer for the past 5 years............
Do NOT be confused by some random guy surprising you with an unbelievably hot Spring Training. ‘Cuz it happens, and it don’t need to mean anything............
Milestones to watch for in 2019.............
I can’t understand how we can live in a world where the DH to the National League is still considered revolutionary, if not heretical, and yet we can find articles which wish to sweep away the tactical impact of requiring a pitcher to face three batters come hell, high water, or the next inning...........
The Duffle Bag
The Blue Jays need to find money to pay their MiLB guys. So they can’t afford any clubhouse TV smashing. Not like the Phillies. Thus, no Fortnite..............Taco Bell hot sauce saves another life............You already knew that Angel Hernandez was in mid-season full idiot mode. And MLB is in the same spot. Gotta suspend any manager who calls out the village idiot in public. Even if it’s only an ST game, which is supposed to be developmental and educational............