Saturday, December 9, 2017

Saturday Morning Hot Links

*The FanGraphs 2018 Depth Chart projections are out and here are the Astros' projcetions. LOL at Altuve hitting .309. He does that before he actually wakes up.

*Well congratulations to the Angels and Yankees - they are your 2017 Off-Season Champions.

-The Angels landed Shohei Ohtani, sending Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto into a murderous rage that he will have to trade his way out of. It got salty in Seattle (but the point stands):






USA Today's Jorge L. Ortiz talks about how Ohtani alters the balance of power in the AL West.
In a stunning bout of amnesia, Richard Justice says the Angels are MLB's Must-See Team. Jeff Passan writes about why the decision is so stunning. FanGraphs' Jeff Sullivan says Ohtani is a game-changer.

A healthy Mike Trout should boost the Angels' offense (as will a healthy Carlos Correa, Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers, etc) but by my calculations Ohtani would need to post a 22-WAR season for the Angels to catch the Astros.

-A few minutes ago the Yankees traded Starlin Castro and some scrubs to Miami for adding $250m in payroll and slugger Giancarlo Stanton. He still has the no-trade clause with Miami, so Stanton has to waive it in order to join Literal Giant Aaron Judge in the Yankees' lineup.

Joel Sherman says the Yankees were all-in on Stanton after losing out on Ohtani.

*Six years ago yesterday Jeff Luhnow became the GM of the Astros. He and Brian McTaggart did some light reflecting.

*Hey Astros Spring Training tickets go on sale today.



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*Jimmy Breslin's on-deadline column of the shooting of John Lennon.