The Arizona Diamondbacks have made no secret of their willingness to at least listen to offers for superstar first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Goldy is entering the final year of his current contract Joe DiMaggio Jersey , and even at the highest salary of his career ($14.5 million for next season), would still represent excellent value for money.When Jack looked at Goldy’s trade value, he concluded even just one year was worth “a hitting prospect in the 51-75 range or a pitching prospect in the 26-50 range.” And that estimate did not include an additional piece of value: if the team trades him before Opening Day, his new team will get to extend a Qualifying Offer to Goldschmidt at season end, likely netting them an additional draft pick for 2020. But now, we have the first tangible and specific reports of possible trade partners, rather than vague and generic “We’ll listen to anything” comments. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Atlantic last night:The Cardinals may initially seem a little bit of a surprise, as at firt glance they have a perfectly serviceable first baseman under control, in the shape of Jose Martinez. He batted .305 last year, with an OPS+ of 124, and is not even arbitration-eligible until next year. However, he was defensively poor, even at first, to such an extent that the Cardinals ended up largely moving Martinez to the outfield in the second half. An interesting quote from veteran infield instructor with St. Louis, Jose Oquendo in that piece: “I always say that it’s my belief that when you have Gold Glove-caliber infielders, you have to have a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman.” Paging Mr. Goldschmidt...In Houston, the incumbent is Yuli Gurriel, and much like Martinez, he was serviceable with the bat, and less so with the glove. Despite being 34, he has similar service time too, mostly because Gurriel did not make his major-league debut until the age of 32. He was overall worth 2.2. bWAR last season, so a likely five-win season from Goldschmidt would represent a nice uptick for the Astros. Not that he has any say in the matter, but I suspect that Goldy might not mind a return to the Lone Star state, having gone to high-school in the Houston area (and being an unsigned draftee for the Dodgers at that point - we dodged a bullet there!), then on to college at Texas State. Both teams are in a contention window. The Astros reached the ALCS this year Mickey Mantle Jersey , before being beaten by the Red Sox. The Cardinals didn’t make the post-season, but posted their 11th consecutive winning season, and at 88 wins, weren’t far out in a very competitive NL Central, so Paul would help them over that. Somewhat related, last week David Schoenfeld of ESPN came up with this trade involving Goldschmidt and the Cardinals: Paul Goldschmidt and Zack Greinke for Luke Weaver, Dakota Hudson and Jose Martinez. “Two potential starting pitchers plus a replacement for Goldschmidt -- and it would allow them some financial flexibility after dumping the $104.5 million left on Greinke’s contract.”So, what do we think? Feel free to brainstom potential trades involving either team. What would be looking for? What seems like a fair exchange? And do we look to tie Greinke into the deal, for that sweet payroll flexibility? This week was Adam Kennedy. Who noticed?"WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Angels PregameAngels PostgameGamethreadsHalos Heaven PodcastsShohei OhtaniMinor LeaguesInterviewsHALOLINKSWeekEnd HaloLinks: Down to the last 2 weeksNew,114commentsThis week was Adam Kennedy. Who noticed?PSTShareTweetShareShareWeekEnd HaloLinks: Down to the last 2 weeksThe 2018 season officially came to an end on October 28th. The very first team to have pitchers and catchers report in 2019 will be the Oakland A’s, with a date of February 10th. Between those two dates are 105 days. As of today, we are at Day 90.All this to show that Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have burned through 86% of the offseason without making up their minds. Even if they both sign today, it leaves guys such as Josh Harrison with only 14% of the negotiating season to get teams to spin up and engage in negotiations and compete for services. What media outlet will be the first to blame Team HarpChado for costing their union peers, guys like Harrison, real money? My prediction: not a single one of them.Back to the Stirrups Grand Promotional Overhaul PlanIDEA ,2# MONDAYS:As I stated yesterday, a fundamental tenet of my plan is to have a regular cadence upon which the fan base can understand and plan around, without having to pore over web pages all the time. So yesterday was First Fridays!, which claimed the first Friday home game of the month for one special trinket giveaway concept. That was to catch up with an idea that the Angels actually did roll out last year but do not appear to be repeating.As an outline (without diving deep into each at this time), my cadence would be to keep the MLB tradition of Family Day on Sundays, and add Appreciation Night on Mondays, Tech Tuesdays, World Day Wednesdays. Monday through Wednesday tend to be lower attendance games and something consistent for those, with something consistent AND cool in the mix, can create a nice tradition around early week night games.Wednesdays and Thursdays are more difficult, since those (along with Sunday late afternoons) tend to be the travel days for going back out onto the road (unless the first stop is just a couple of hours away). I’ll get to Wednesdays and Thursdays later. Let’s start with Appreciation Monday.This is a promo http://www.yankeesfanproshop.com/authentic-giancarlo-stanton-jersey , not a giveaway. There are 8 Monday home games this season, all of which are 7:07 PM start times. 8 is a nice number. It lines up perfectly with (1) police officers, (2) fire & rescue, (3) military, (4) public education, (5) emergency medical, (6) disaster relief, (7) volunteer service organizations, and (8) individual community heroes. Each night would focus on celebrating each service. A pre-game honoree, ceremonial first pitch, 7th-inning stretch event, jumbotron recognitions, and a super-steep group ticket/meal package discounts (ie. your military discount grants you up to 4 package tickets for upper deck seating plus food 7 beverage for $10 each or something). Mondays are Appreciation Night.-HaloLinks:A Little Bit Of Angels NewsLots of Ohtani coverage at the Honda Center. We lead with Shohei and company arriving.....Shohei pre-game.....Shohei hanging in the clubhouse.....Shohei watching warmups.....Shohei announcing opening lineups..........Shohei in his Ducks/Halos jersey mashup during the ceremonial puck drop............Shohei autographing his mashup jersey for charity....And Shohei reminding Arte that he wants to play in the World Series..........Oh, hell to the YES. Except for the fact that Mike’s WAR remains stalled each winter, looking at his stats pages makes for jaw-dropping Trout porn. That factoid #5, about career OPS+, let me save you the clickage. Mike’s career OPS+ starting with his 2011 season would be:To place that into historical context, here in the MLB career leaderboard..........(Note: The reason that Trout is currently 9th on the all-time career OPS+ list, and not 8th, is because of Barry Bonds. Before his PEDs era, Barry Bonds was at a career OPS+ of 163 (from 1986 through 1999). His career AFTER he started to juice, beginning in 2000 at the otherwise declining athletic age of 35, Bonds had an OPS+ of 221 (from 2000 through 2007). That 8-year span of OPS+ is the equal of Babe Ruth from 1920 through 1927, when Ruth was 25 to 32 years of age. This means that Barry Bonds, from the age of 35 through the age of 42, was the equal of none other than Babe Ruth himself Roger Maris Jersey , but Babe Ruth required his athletic prime to equal Bonds. That’s how Bonds ends up with that overall career total OPS+ of 182. But, yeah sure, there are still those who believe that it was all about MLB expansion, and new stadiums, and that steroids don’t improve batting.)..........But let’s get back to Mike. Bill James explains that Trout is already the 6th-most likely HoF player active in all of MLB. That means that there are only 5 other active players who have entire careers worth of work product that surpasses what Trout has done already. Mike Trout is 27 years old, having only just walked through the door into his prime years. To put that into context, the AVERAGE current age of the last 3 Rookies of the Year in both Leagues is just a hair under 24.............The Angels are losing one of their minor league educators to the Marlins..........Of all these top-drawing MLB teams, my guess is that Arte keeps the Angels as the best value by a wide margin. Notice also that three of those top 6 play in 3 of the 4 oldest stadiums in MLB. Think about that for a while.........If Matt Harvey is “fixable”, this guy might have the “fix”..........Everywhere In BaseballWell, now, this is just brilliant. Here, in 2018, MLBPA boss Tony Clark is just now realizing that if he does not align his membership and negotiators in time to properly strategize that they might negotiate the 2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement, the union will be in a very shitty economic position versus ownership starting in the 2017 off-season. That’s leadership personified, right there, people...........In yet another move of extraordinary greed and aggression, MLB is officially lobbying Arizona State Legislators to pass a bill circumventing a publicly enacted ballot measure to guarantee minimum wages to all employees. MLB wants the Minor League invitees to Cactus League camps to continue showing up as volunteers for an entire month. Which will probably save each franchise about the same amount of money as is spent on owners meals during the season. Seriously, MLB wants their Minor League prospects to be categorized as equivalent to neighborhood teenagers babysitting for parents who are on date night. That really is the AZ statute exemption MLB is trying to invoke..........That 10-day DL thing? Not so good. MLB looking to move it back to 15 days. Hey, it saves money, too!..........How do Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens get voted into the Hall of Fame? home? (jk. person-to-person meetings an game day events in stadium are part of the gig.)..........Oh, swell. MLB - via their own media outlet MLB.com - is encouraging an upcoming season of chippy baseball..........But if you watch MLB on any video device manufactured by Panasonic, that’s OK. You won’t get to see any of that chippiness, as MLB.TV just pulled the plug on you..........Tee hee hee! Mallex Smith has moved from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Seattle Mariners. In his first presser he was asked what he looks forward to the most? “People in the stands!” he says. Somebody needs to inform young Mallex that the Mariners have announced to the people who would normally come and sit in the stands that they are in full tank mode, and few of those people are expected to keep showing up for the next few years...........