Saturday Morning Hot Links

It's FanFest today! Shoutout to everyone who will be at Minute Maid Park today, awkwardly avoiding eye contact. 2020 FanFest Sessions include:

"I'd Like To Comment On That But..." - 10:30am. Mezzanine.
"Hey Look At This Shiny Thing Over Here" - 11:30am. Torchy's Tacos.
"45 Weird Minutes With Orbit" - 12:30pm. Crawford Street.
"Dealing With Other Fans, A How-To" - 1:30pm. KidZone.
"Game 5 Highlights On Loop" - 2:15pm. JumboTron.

*Jeff Passan: Buzzers, Burner Accounts, and Conspiracies - Inside Baseball's Epic Day of Chaos.

*FanGraphs' Kiley McDaniel: What's next for the Astros?

*Current Astros Legend Joe Smith responded to The Athletic's Marc Carig, which said Baseball needs more people like Mike Fiers:
Disagree. Baseball doesn't need whistle blowers 2 years after. You have an issue? Step up address it in house and get it taken care of. (sic)

*Jim Crane told Chandler Rome he wants to have a manager in place by 3 February. The Killer Bs will help out in "any way" they can. Here's McTaggart's summary, in case you're paywalled.

Chandler Rome:
Espada's candidacy could be tainted by his presence on the 2018 Houston coaching staff.

Twenty people have contacted Reid Ryan regarding the managerial opening. Crane is running the show, with an assist from Ryan.

*GM candidates will interview beginning next week.

*Representative Bobby Rush (Democrat - Illinois) requested a Congressional oversight hearing on the Astros' cheating, and MLB's response. And before you lose it, know that Bobby Rush is a 73-year old Congressman from Chicago whose family moved there from Georgia in the Great Migration, joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1966, joined the Army, was a founding member of the Black Panthers, got his degree, Master's, and M.Div, and has been a Congressman since 1993. He is the only politician to defeat Barack Obama in an election. Bobby Rush is Actually For Real.

Also, a Congressional Oversight Hearing would also presumably (if Congress is an actual functioning body anymore) require evidence of other teams doing the same thing, which we all so desperately crave, with MLB's Anti-Trust Exemption possibly hanging in the balance. You want the full story? MLB having to do a full investigation at risk of losing that Exemption just might be the best option. Or you're of the opinion that Congress has More Important Things to worry about at best, and Congress is useless at worst. Let's find out.

Of course, there are about 1,329 issues to which Congress could devote its time that would be far more beneficial to the fabric to the country (and I would say this if the subject of the investigation was someone I spend 0.1% of my time thinking about, like the Padres, for instance) than this, but we all have bloodlust right now so whatever.

*The Athletic's Andy McCulloch wrote about The Week That Shook Baseball. TL;DR: The Astros, and Mike Fiers, blew it all up.

*ESPN: How the internet helped crack the Astros sign-stealing case.

*Justin Klugh: Baseball's integrity isn't emotional, it's structural.

*SI: Can MLB stop sign-stealing?

*Billy Wagner won't get elected to the Hall of Fame this year, but he's gaining momentum.

*Dusty Baker is a candidate for the Mets' now-vacant managerial opening.

*Both MLB and the MLBPA issued a joint-statement (presumably regarding Mike Trout) that said there's no therapeutic exemption for the use of HGH.

*Kyler Murray thinks he just might could be the next Bo Jackson.

*Amtrak asked two people in wheelchairs to pay $25,000 for a $16 fare.

*The Disturbing Case of the Disappearing Sci-Fi Story.

*A Musical Selection:



The Hot Links Playlist on Spotify has 254 songs running now for just over 16 hours.

Friday Morning Hot Links

Heading to The H this morning. Hot Links good for Saturday morning, maybe not Sunday morning. We'll see about Christmas Day. #NoDaysOffExceptWhenIOversleep #RiseNGrindCoffeeBeans #JordanSchafer4Lyfe

*The World Series banner will be unveiled on Opening Day, April 2 vs Baltimore (rings the next day). I personally think they should unveil it on March 29, Opening Day at Arlington. Maybe Les Douches would want to trade a home series then.

*Ah man, Larry Dierker's wife Judy recently passed away.

*Jon Heyman's newest "Inside Baseball" edition on the Astros features a note clarified by Tom Verducci and also has some cool Baseball-Reference research on Billy Wagner. So he linked to another article and then looked at Baseball-Reference for ten minutes? I'mma sue for Brand Infringement.

*Now considered one of MLB's "Super Seven" teams, David Schoenfield writes that the Astros should add another left-handed bat.

*Bob Bowman, who led MLB Advanced Media for the last 17 years, is out after years of "troubling workplace behavior." If you don't subscribe to the Wall Street Journal (and I can confirm that I do not), then this MLBTR piece has details. They're not pretty. Glad this scumbag is out and hey Selig it's kinda sorta on you.

*Yankees are probably going to add Gerrit Cole.

*A lot of players will go into the clubhouse between innings and break down video. Darryl Strawberry would go into the clubhouse between innings, but he would not break down video.

*RIP Dick Enberg.

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Binge out this holiday season with TEN of the best @astros games from this season! Manager @ajhinch joins @JuliaMorales in studio to break down the games! #AstrosPlayback pic.twitter.com/9DIi8UicvX

— AT&T SportsNet SW (@ATTSportsNetSW) December 21, 2017

Before you go:

Whos mans is this?? pic.twitter.com/mWYxaUUeh4

— Whistle Sports (@WhistleSports) December 21, 2017