Thursday Morning Hot Links

Apologies for the lag in posting but (a) traveling and (b) not much had happened other than feverishly watching Tibbs' HOF tracker. More on that below. Monday night I did get to hang out with my Lima Time Time co-host/star Patrick McLellan. You should have been there, it was fun. 

*The Batguy wrote up details of actual discussions he had with three BBWAA members who left Bagwell off their ballot.

*Meanwhile, the indispensable HOF Tracker has 84 known ballots (~19.3%), and Bagwell is sitting at 90%. Considering that the difference between Bagwell's Actual 2016 percentage (71.6) and Bagwell's Known Ballot percentage (75.8%) was 4.2%, if that margin holds, we're all going to Cooperstown next summer.

*Ken Rosenthal says the team that doesn't sign Edwin Encarnacion will be the one that blows it. Jim Ralph Bowden says the Indians, Blue Jays, Rangers, A's, and Astros have made offers to Encarnacion, with Cleveland, Dallas, and Oakland as the likeliest destinations. Jon Heyman suggests the Astros are not currently involved.

Have the Astros made an offer to Encarnacion? I firmly believe that they did, but then got Beltran on a shorter deal. So saying the Astros made an offer, but not indicating when that offer was made, is a tad misleading. Unless of course the Astros have recently made an offer to Encarnacion, then whatever they're going to score 20 runs a game.

*The Rangers continue to lurk.

*FanGraphs' Dave Cameron: Maybe the Astros don't need Jose Quintana (or any other starter)

*FanGraphs' updated Steamer division projections sure are fun.

*The Astros will play on Sunday Night Baseball at Yankee Stadium on May 14, the night the Yankees retire Phil Nevin's Derek Jeter's number.

*Campbell University's Jim Perry Field is getting some upgrades as they host the Astros' Carolina League team for the next two seasons.

*The Red Sox signed Matt Dominguez to a minor-league deal with an invite to Spring Training.

*The Long, Lonely Fall of Rashaan Salaam