Camp is open, and baseball is back to dominate the news.And the Angels are promising to be shifty.
I missed the entire Academy Awards event last night, which is the first time that has happened to me in decades. I also happened to miss all the rain that came pouring down yesterday. From what I am hearing now, the only thing I should feel bad about was not getting wet.
Too bad the Angels moved their camp to Tempe, because the way I avoided the rain was to hang out in Palm Springs. After admiring some vintage furniture, vintage architecture, and vintage trailers, I would have enjoyed the chance to admire some vintage first baseman. Oh well, let's indulge in some links:
Elsewhere in the Heavens of Anaheim: Jerry Dipoto and team are whipping out their laptops and taking on the new Commissioner. While Rob Manfred wants to discuss outlawing the shift, Dipoto announces that the Angels are going get even more aggressive in defensive shift re-positioning, even in the middle of counts.....................
I love eager beavers. And we got our share of players showing up early in Tempe.............
David Freese is our 2015 BSOHL...............
Alden brings us a recurring tidbit, that the Halos "took a peek" at James Shields but Art didn't want to go beyond a 3-year deal. You all might want to keep that in mind as you drool about next year's FA pitching class..............
In ex-Halo news, Mark Trumbo was one of the minority numbers among players who won his arb case, making him something of a rarity over the past three years...And, also, it looks like John lackey wants to stay longer in St. Louis................
Albert Pujols appears to be slightly math-challenged. In an interview with the OC Register, he proposes that he might have to retire before the 2020 season (his contract runs through 2021). His reasoning seems noble: his daughter is an extremely talented gymnast and the Pujols' are aiming towards the 202 Olympics in Japan. But his math seems, er, odd. Because his daughter is 9 now, and she will be 14 in 2020. And the Olympic rules are pretty clear on this, gymnasts must be 16 years of age, at least............
Matt Shoemaker is going to be big news this season, as this first interview and review suggests. He started out at this point a year ago rather anonymous. Now he enters Spring as a major linchpin in the rotation, and with some celebrity. It's a great story. The question of the moment is whether or not Shoe can continue his success. And, for his part, he has no reason to doubt himself. For our part, the question going forward that we need to consider is how he is going to adjust to a League that is educated enough to have already adjusted to him?..........................
Not to be lost among all the activity over the past few months signing some arms and trading for yet more, is the challenge now posed to young Hector Santiago to hold on to any slot at all.
Around Baseball: I never understand this. Why do players create an artificial timeline for getting a new contract, such as the way Jordan Zimmerman is doing with an Opening Day deadline? Somebody clue me in as to how that works in a player's favor. Please.................
Terry Collins, Mets manager, must be the only guy with more unrealistic optimism than Lyle Spencer. I mean, like, exactly WHO has expectations of the Mets playing in October???...........
James Shields is apparently very happy about signing with San Diego. But it is now apparent that he and his agent didn't play their hand optimally this off season. for example, he failed to take a higher offer from the Giants, which would have been a much better chance for a ring while he was at it...............
Trevor Bauer appears to have built himself his own drone. Pretty cool! We have our first drone buzzing around our neighborhood as of just 3 weeks ago now. Even for a guy who was an RC maniac in his youth, as I was, it's kinda surprising to witness, especially at night. Oops. Back to the subject. MLB has grounded Bauer's drone in ST camp. Does the FAA know that MLB has taken over controlling air space in certain parts of America?............
_____________________