Good morning afternoon.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your post-Thanksgiving Monday at the office a bit more bearable:

  • Will the slower-than-expected outfield-bleacher renovations at Wrigley Field result in April games without fans beyond the fences? According to Brett from Bleacher Nation, Crane Kenney, Cubs president of business operations, is optimistic that the work will get finished on time, but ”there are contingency plans in place to accommodate season ticket holders within the rest of the stadium if they cannot sit in the bleachers by Opening Day.”
  • Mets fans of a certain age remember fondly Neil Allen, both for being a solid closer — not to mention his awesome windup! – during the dark days of the early 1980s, but ultimately for being the bait needed to acquire Keith Hernandez from the Cardinals in June of ‘83. Allen was just named the Twins’ pitching coach, and Mark Simon of ESPN’s SweetSpot applauds the decision:
“I’ve got to find a way to reach each individual,” Allen said during a conference call on Tuesday, explaining his approach to working with pitchers.
Allen, 56, is finally getting a chance to impart his pitching wisdom in the big leagues. That personal approach is one of Allen’s strengths, according to one of his star pupils. “Neil is the most positive person I’ve encountered in baseball,” said [Chris] Archer, now a starter for the Rays, in an e-mail. “Every day, whether you threw a gem or gave up 10 runs, he brought a smile and optimism to work. Since he had such a great big-league career, his knowledge of situational pitching helped propel my career.”
It’s not just current major leaguers who speak highly of his work. Ten-year minor-league vet Brian Baker pitched two seasons for Allen, including one in which he racked up a 6.62 ERA.
“He didn’t care if you were a top prospect or an innings eater,” Baker said via Twitter. “He treated everyone the same. Every day, he had a story from back in his playing days, ready to make you laugh. If you were having a (bad) day, he could make you forget about it. If you needed help on the mound, he was the guy who could fix it. He knew his stuff.
“He had pitching drills, little tweaks of mechanics, towel drills, different philosophies to get you going back in the right direction on the mound. And they always seemed to work for you. He wanted you to succeed and he did everything he could every day to help make that happen.”
I’ll get into this in more detail in a later post, but this year’s Hall of Fame ballot is a logistical mess. For me, there are many more than 10 qualified Hall of Fame candidates on the ballot. A couple — Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez for instance — will sail into the Hall of Fame by landslide this year. A couple more — Craig Biggio for example — will need every vote he can get for election (Biggio fell shot by two votes last year). Others like [Roger] Clemens and [Barry] Bonds won’t get elected, not a chance, but they were the best players on the ballot.
Then some will need help just to get the 5% necessary to stay on the ballot. What do you do? Do you give Mike Mussina a vote to make sure he falls off the ballot and take it away from Clemens because he’s not getting in anyway? DO you pass on Pedro, knowing full well he will have plenty of wiggle room, and vote for Sammy Sosa to be sure he doesn’t fall below 5%?
These last considerations should NOT be part of this process. I’m now beginning to believe that this, more than anything else, is the worst part of the Hall of Fame voting. The 5% rule is a lousy one. And my recommendation (like anyone cares about my recommendation) is that the BBWAA and Hall of Fame eliminate it immediately.
  • Now that the Red Sox have fortified their lineup via free agency, expect them to make some trades in the coming days, particularly to address the outfielder surplus.
  • Nothing Billy Beane does these days ought to surprise us, even when he ships an MVP candidate who’s both cost-controlled and still not 30 years old. In trading Josh Donaldson to the Jays on Friday night in exchange for Brett Lawrie and three prospects, the A’s general manager hopes to continue keeping Oakland competitive while keeping costs low. Before analyzing the names and motives behind the deal, Beyond the Boxscore’s Nick Ashbourne proclaims: “Put as simply as possible, the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics just pulled off a trade that has more angles than a dodecahedron.” (Now that’s a word I haven’t heard in maybe a few decades.)

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!