Tuesday Links

Weekends are fun. Filled with family time, fun, and the playoffs in some secondary sports league. Enough to make us drop the ball on links yesterday.

In arguably the most bizarre baseball player injury news ever, Yeonis Cespedes broke his ankle while tangling with a wild boar. Of course it happened in Florida.

For my money, it will be nearly impossible to beat the press release of Marty Cordova falling asleep in a tanning bed and burning himself too much to play. But Cespedes is giving that a good run for its money.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Billy Eppler snagged a high strikeout, high walk rate reliever who had been DFA’d by his most recent team. Kyle Keller, formerly of the Miami Marlins, is the newest member of the Angels bullpen. Heading back Miami’s way is 19 year old catcher Jose Estrada.

To make room for Mr. Keller, Jake Jewell was designated for assignment. I’d love to see his high ground ball rate one day feed Rendon, Simba, and Fletcher. I’m not sure what he needs to figure out, but he’ll need to clear waivers in order to do so in the Angels system.

Our Shohei Ohtani will see another Japanese star, Shogo Akiyama, make the move to the major leagues. Cincy was the last MLB team to have a Japanese born player on its roster.

Former Angels minor league signee and late 2019 camp cut Daniel Hudson snagged himself a 2 year, $11 million deal to return to the site of his playoff glory, Washington D.C.

But the Nationals weren’t done, adding Eric Thames to a one year deal a couple of hours later. Add him to the already signed Howie Kendrick, Starlin Castro and Asdrubal Cabrera and that infield looks a little crowded to add a Josh Donaldson.

Apparently all that’s needed to sign Josh Donaldson is meet his asking price. The fact that price has yet to be met and the number of suitors appears down by one might not bode well for the Bringer of Rain. Then again, he clearly has two suitors left and he only needs one.

This link here shows the free agent spending of each team this off season and can be used to look back at previous years. The Nationals have signed 8, count them 8, free agents, the most in MLB. The Angels are at a mere 3, but have spent more than almost anybody.

Looking for that post holiday sale for you or the baseball lover in your life? Well don’t look here, where bases from last year’s World Series are going for a cool 15 grand.

Always giving with his time and willing to give back, Mike Scioscia has been all over the RBI Academy in Compton since leaving the Angels dugout. I have it on eye witness authority. Never one to self promote, here is a link from last summer about the work he’s doing and happy to do away from the cameras and spotlight.

All those years I wanted Mike to stay under the halo as a community relations ambassador representing the Angels Foundation were truthful, and for reasons like this.

I know there’s a lot I miss. Feel free to add more.

Countdown to pitchers and catchers is 35 days.....