Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of the beginning of this blog. Thank you for reading. Now this is a compulsion and you're all to blame.
*Watch this video of the 2019 Astros' best moments. I'm going to link to it here, but I won't watch it until it's like 29 degrees with a 30mph north wind and sleeting. I'm not ready to watch baseball again just yet. I've watched maybe six minutes of television since last Wednesday night. This morning my wife came in to the living room (I wake up way earlier than her) and I was just sitting on the couch in the dark drinking a cup of coffee and she was all, "Are you okay?" And after about 20 seconds of silence I just responded, "I'll never understand how we lost this World Series." I'm not in a place to watch highlights right now. January? Maybe. Post-Baseball Seasonal Depression (PBSD) is real.
*Game 4 Hero Jose Urquidy was welcomed by Mexico's president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
*Hey this is a fun award: The Astros won the Wilson Defensive Team of the Year. This is better than Game 7, I guess.
But no. Whichever Astro wins an award in the next week or so deserves it. Their individual efforts added up to an amazing yet unfulfilled season, but it doesn't mean that they shouldn't be recognized for their outstanding effort. It's not a mistake that the Astros were heavy favorites in the World Series - they just didn't get it done. Their work over 162 games should not be minimized.
FanGraphs: Will Harris played well, didn't get rewarded. If you don't read this, just know that Howie Kendrick performed a literal miracle in the 7th Inning of Game 7.
*LMJ is back.
*SI's Matt Martell names one free agent every MLB team should sign. For Houston: Unsurprisingly it's Gerrit Cole. If not, it's Zack Wheeler.
*I'm sure there's nothing to read into here but not only did Oz Ocampo bounce for "different opportunities," but so did Manager of International Scouting Eve Rosenbaum.
*The Barves are going to go hard after Madison Bumgarner....right after Atlanta GM Alex Anthopoulos pisses off the MLBPA.
*The Athletic's Peter Gammons makes a compelling case for Dwight Evans in the Hall of Fame.
*Two former Twitter employees have been charged with spying for Saudi Arabia.
*Reveal: Who owns Silicon Valley?
*Politico: The massacre that spawned the Alt-Right.
*A Musical Selection:
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
