Good morning. Pitchers and Catchers report in three days. They play an actual Spring Training game in 13 days.
*The Astros are excited about the addition of lefty Michael Brantley. George Springer:
I'm certainly happy to have him. He's an extremely professional hitter and extremely professional player. Seeing him on the other side for a few years and being a pest and being the guy who's always hurt us, I'm glad he's on our team now.
*Chandler Rome has some Spring Training questions like, "Will everyone be healthy?"
*For $44.99 you can get the base package from Fubo that will carry AT&T SportsNet Houston, with which you can watch Astros and Rockets games without a typical cable subscription.
*MLB.com: Sizing up each MLB team's vision for the future.
*Beyond the Box Score: When the Astros traded Ramon Laureano to Oakland for Brandon Bailey, they might have gotten hosed.
*Former Astros Great Josh Zeid is going to the Cubs' analytics side.
*Jay Jaffe: The sustained excellence of Frank Robinson.
*Want to apply for a job with the Astros for which you are supremely unqualified?
*This Italian soccer team was trapped at their training facility by angry sheep's milk farmers.
*Pitchfork: Why is a random 1994 Dinosaur Jr. song charting in Japan?
*A Musical Selection:
Note: I heard this song two years before I knew who it was. I was in a coffee shop in Ohio where I heard it, but wasn't able to catch it on Siri or Shazam or whatever. I asked the barista. He didn't know. No one knew. It sounded like Gorillaz, to me. I spent the next two years periodically trying to listen to every Gorillaz song. I'm not that big of a Gorillaz fan. Then, I was listening to Spotify Radio in class while students were working and it came on as one of them asked me - excuse me, *tried to* ask me - a question. I said to them, "Shut up and let me see who this is." Here it is:
*Don't forget you can follow the oft-updated Hot Links Music playlist on Spotify.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
