"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Angels PregameAngels PostgameGamethreadsHalos Heaven PodcastsShohei OhtaniMinor LeaguesInterviewsHALOLINKSHumpLinks: Hot Stove Hot. Too hot?New http://www.yankeesfanproshop.com/authentic-giancarlo-stanton-jersey ,253commentsHanukkah Halos - Al Levine and Scott SchoenweisByStirrupsDec5, 2018,4:00am PSTShareTweetShareShareHumpLinks: Hot Stove Hot. Too hot?This winter’s Free Agent season is shaping up to be the antidote to last winter’s grumblings among agents, scribes and union bosses. Patrick Corbin was always expected to go high, but he actually went OVER lofty predictions. More important, his deal did not drag out to January/February. It has ignited December, coming right after some blockbuster trades.And Winter Meetings don’t even start until December 9th.The fires may be stoked too high for our comfort levels. That just means that we may have to get a little uncomfortable.Slurp up these Somebody-Has-Loaded-Too-Much-Coal-Into-The-Hot-Stove-HaloLinks:A Little Bit Of Angels NewsIt’s that time of year again, when Angels Stadium gets destroyed for alternate events. We begin with Golfing In The Outfield, December 13 through 16......Then, we get Trucking Through The Muck, which will be January through February. Pick your rainy evening Jam session..........(We really need to take advantage of the Monster Jam rough roads and winter rains, and stock some of those resultant puddles with some freshwater fish. Then I can use the phrase “Anglers In The Outfield” and fans can “can their own Trout”.)..........But of course. Scott Boras is going to allow Yusei Kikuchi to sign with the Angels, for whatever the Angels are comfortable paying, because Kikuchi and Shohei Ohtani both went to the same high school. Hell, almost at the same time! Makes perfect sense to me............ Billy Eppler adding to his FO brain trust..........Everywhere In BaseballThere are still some teams which refuse to trust Trader Jerry.............The great Willie Mays finished his career where it started, back in New York. He played a smidgen of games in each of 2 seasons (1972 & 1973), wearing his number 24. Yeah, he was great Joe DiMaggio Jersey , but not for the Mets. And that was never enough to convince the Mets to retire his jersey number. But since that ‘73 season, only 2 players have worn that #, Kelvin Torve in 1990, and Rickey Henderson in 1999 & 2000). Well, here comes Robinson Cano, who has been wearing #22 in Seattle, but had been #24 when a Yankee (except during his rookie year of 2005, when Tito Martinez was still active and wearing #24). Cano, back in New York, wants to go back to #24. Should Cano be wearing Mays’ Mets jersey #?..........MLB Winter Meetings are next week. Start gearing up. First installment, the AL East..........Wait. No. No it’s not. First up in the NL East..........(This may end up as another one of those times when all the divisions are published in time except the AL West.)..........Jeff Wilpon, when he is not out in the African jungle tracking gorillas, has decided to open up the wallets with the Mets now. Now, we all know quite a lot about the Wilpon‘s personal financial struggles. Oh, sure, they can blame Bernie Madoff, but all Madoff did to the Wilpon’s was tempt their greed for easy insider money, something that could only have come at somebody else’s expense. The Wilpons were happy to be greedy and inside the financial game. So this smells familiar to me. It reeks of the Marlins. Spend a bunch that cannot be afforded long term Mickey Mantle Jersey , win big, then cash out and dump all the too-expensive talent. Time will tell.......... Youth shall be served. Except when it comes to the money. That still goes to the older guys. Something has gotta give..........(Although one older guy is still doing quite well.)Forget Portland. MLB will expand to Montreal, although they should expand to San Antonio. Thus sayeth the the ESPN..........(h/t UniWatch) One of the most fun things I get to trip across as I go hunting each day, are those moments when some rare baseball artifact pops up and the researchers go digging to identify provenance. Such is the case with this historic photograph...........New Era might not be able to close that home town manufacturing facility in New York, sending the last of their work product for you and me overseas, after all. Laws and rules and such..........Hot StoveCorbin goes BOOM!It’s only December 5th, and already Patrick Corbin is off the boards, with the Nationals looking to beat back the Mets winter aggression with a blockbuster deal of their own (Corbin was supposed to wait until December 30th to sign in order to make MLB happy). Corbin gets 6 years, $140 million. (I’ll save you the math. That’s $23.33 million AAV.).....That would be the Nats outbidding the Phillies, who were not going to be outbid.....Especially since the Phillies were supposed to be in the ‘strong position’. Unless that rumor was coming from Corbin’s agent, smelling desparation coming from DC and a chance to snag another $20 million for his client.....Now you understand that eBay short story I gave you yesterday. And that deadly silence you are hearing from across the land are all the pro-labor collusion whiners from last winter.............With Corbin gone, there goes your shot at an affordable J.A. Happ...........Now Bryce Harper sits in the throne of mass love, and the Harper rumors are all over the place.....Magic Johnson led the Dodgers to Vegas to join the fray and woo Harper in person.....No he did not.....In fact lots of teams are flying in to Vegas to whoop it up on the company expense account meet with Harper and his team for heavy selling.....Humorously, among those would be the Chicago White Sox. The same White Sox that went 62 - 100 in the MiLB AL Central. Yeah, they want Harper love. They want it so bad they sent Jim Thome to lobby on their behalf. Now just think about that one a second. Thome spent 22 years in the Majors. 13 of those were with Cleveland. He was elected to the Hall of Fame just last year, and he was enshrined with a Cleveland cap. And the White Sox, who could have chosen a Frank Thomas or a Robin Ventura or, hell http://www.yankeesfanproshop.com/authentic-giancarlo-stanton-jersey , even a Carlton Fisk, chose a Cleveland Indian who once made a pit stop on the South Side..........Well, if the Mets are not looking to trade Noah Syndergaard “for a package of prospects”, what might they be willing to trade him for? Specifically, they will trade him only to fill certain roster holes. Which would be??..........Here is another of those 1-year deals that will rain upon us all winter. Robinson Chrinos signed with the Astros. Chrinos was the primary catcher for the Rangers.........The Duffle BagYu Darvish’s son, looking for advice from dad on how to lay off the high stuff.............(h/t reddit):Never give up your dream, kid!..........Two days ago it was Trevor Bauer and his drone (again). Yesterday it was Alex Gordon crashing into a deer...........Hot reddit find. Somebody is thinking about making a Josh Hamilton movie?? how does anybody even find such a thing?........Self explanatory tweet.......... MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester said Tommy Hottovy’s transition from advance scout to pitching coach has been smooth so far.Hottovy is the third pitching coach in the last three years for the Cubs, but he’s spent four years in the organization, working with pitchers on mechanics and game planning.“It makes it a lot easier when you have that relationship,” Lester said. “A lot of the stuff we talk about out here, we’ve already talked about.“He’s just got to adapt to being on the field,” Lester said. “It’s really easy inside and watching on TV but when you’re in the dugout, for all of us, it speeds up sometimes. Hopefully this spring is kind of a good learning curve for him as far as the mound visits and dealing with scheduling and bullpens and all that nonsense and dealing with our attitudes out there. It’s been really smooth getting to this point.”In his third spring start on Thursday, Lester gave up three runs on four hits, including two homers, over 3 2/3 innings against the Colorado Rockies.“He made good pitches Roger Maris Jersey , had good command,” Cubs catcher Willson Contreras said. “We were just trying to execute pitches.”Hottovy most likely already has a list of what he’d like Lester to work on.“He’s been a big part of the scouting reports, so he knows how we work and what we talk about and what we’re trying to do,” Lester said. “There’s no learning curve. It makes it a lot easier.”Hottovy has gotten an earful from the Cubs pitchers if the game plan didn’t go well.“We’ve got to make sure they know it’s their fault sometimes,” Lester joked. “It’s not always our fault — it’s usually the shoes or the glove or a coach, catcher, infielder. It’s never our fault.”The 35-year-old Lester is adjusting to his role as one of the elder statesmen on the Cubs.“At first, it’s kind of a hard pill to swallow, especially when you turn around and think you threw a fastball well and it says 90 or 91 (mph) as opposed to 95,” Lester said.NOTES: Nico Hoerner, the Cubs’ first-round draft pick last June, was the designated hitter on Thursday and went 3-for-3, including an RBI single in his first at-bat. Hoerner was limited to 60 games last season because of an injury. … There have been no wild bears or reggae bands in manager Joe Maddon’s camp this spring. Lester said the diversions break up the monotony of a long season. Stay tuned, though. Lester said the Cubs have already discussed a few theme trips. “What’s cool is he comes to us and asks us our opinions on it,” Lester said of Maddon. “I don’t think there’s been many, if any, that have been turned down.”