How's The Coup treating you?
*Kevin Cash won AL Manager of the Year, which I can understand. Though he should dedicate that award to Blake Snell in 2020 World Series Game 6. Dusty Baker got one single solitary vote for 3rd place.
*The Houston Astros are 12th in The Athletic's 2021 Power Rankings. Nick Groke:
[The Astros are] teetering on the edge of going for it again or regrouping. Maybe they'll split the difference and do both? Click's got a tough decision to make.
*In Jake Kaplan's latest mailbag, he addresses questions on a qualifying offer for Michael Brantley, a Correa extension, the rotation, Charlie Morton, the bullpen, and Jake Marisnick.
*More from Busy Bee Jake Kaplan: Who might the Astros protect from the Rule 5 Draft?
*Alex Cora had his second first press conference as the manager of the Red Sox and obviously didn't go into details of 2017 because that's only reserved for the Astros. Cora:
I deserved what happened this year. I'm not proud of it...In the end, I got my penalty and I served it.
And speaking of wonderful reunion stories with the Red Sox, J.T. Watkins - the former video room guy who was suspended for recording signals with the expressed intention of simply keeping it to himself - is back with the team as a pro scout. Don't forget that you can relive the entire sordid history of the Astros and sign-stealing because, as an Astros fan you know you love masochism.
*Ol 76-year old headass Tony LaRussa really dropped a "Do you know who I am?" at the cop arresting him for DUI.
*Wired: The latest COVID vaccines, deciphered.
*The Atlantic's Mansee Khurana: How Alex Trebek made a mundane game show brilliant.
*You may or may not know that I have watched the documentary Free Solo (available on Hulu and Disney+) over 200 times, in which Alex Honnold climbed Yosemite's El Capitan without a rope. It's insane. I give it 2.1 Escobars on The Two Escobars Scale of Documentary Greatness. I don't know what I find so fascinating about it, other than it's really cool to see people do cool stuff. I'll probably watch it again tonight after my wife goes to bed, like I'm doing something Naughty. Anyhow, Emily Harrington became the first woman to climb the Golden Gate Route on El Capitan in under 24 hours.
*NPR: The Secret Life of Grocery Stores.
*A Musical Selection:
