Tuesdolinks

News abounds in MLB land.

The big story was MLB dropping the hammer on the Houston Asterisks. There’s some pretty clear evidence both of the cheating and the toxic culture of the Houston front office.

Who figured blowing a 24-0 lead against the Chiefs would be the highlight of the Houston sports week?

For his part, Jeff Lunhow did issue a statement in which he accepts organizational responsibility but denies personal involvement.

Meanwhile in Boston a cheating scandal involving a sports team is nothing new. Next up to the gallows is Alex Cora. The Sox have gotten caught twice. Cora has been caught twice. This will require a bigger hammer.

Of course these two teams beat our crosstown rivals the Dodgers in their championship runs. Cody Bellinger wants folks to know that while they might have finished second each of those years, they did things the right way.

He better know he’s right. Words like that tend to blow up in your face quickly if other evidence emerges.

And, of course, it is never a bad time for the NY media to remind everyone who the real victims in this case were: the Yanks.

Stealing all this thunder were the SF Giants continuing to treat the Angels roster as a second source of players. First Zack Cozart was cut loose, proving the Giants used him to buy a first round draft pick. His roster spot went to recently DFA’d reliever Jake Jewell.

An option I seriously considered for my Eppler piece, Ivan Nova, signed a very reasonable deal to ply his trade in Detroit. The back end hurler snagged a $1.5 million guarantee with incentives.

Fangraphs took a great look at the Dodgers signing of Alex Wood. Yes, he’s a gamble, but when your team is stacked you can afford to have a player or two like him. I though the Angels could limit his workload through the sixth starter and occasional bullpen day and try to hit on some upside. Apparently so do the Dodgers.

But the Angels do have some upside about ready. Jo Adell talks about his chances of breaking through in 2020.

Sadly, promising young baseball player Fausto Segura lost his life in the Dominican Republic. At just 23 he had his best moments in life ahead of him, be them on or off the diamond.

The sun was out after 5 pm, the sky is blue in OC. It feels like baseball should be coming back soon.