MLB Bullets awaits the call

Eventually something has to happen, right? Is Darvish a Cub yet?

• Today at 5 pm central time, the 2018 Hall of Fame class will be announced. Joe Posnanski has a preview of what to expect.
• Jared Diamond looks at how Hall voting over the past few years has been changed by internet-based fan campaigns. (If you don’t subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, click here first and then follow the link there.)
• It seems very likely that Vladimir Guerrero will be inducted to Cooperstown today. Bill Shaikin notes that the Angels are cautiously hoping that they will get their first player in the Hall wearing a Halos hat. (The only other teams without a cap in Cooperstown are the Rockies, Marlins, Rays and Nationals, although the Expos have three. Four if Vlad goes in as an Expo.)
• The Toledo Mud Hens wanted to have a bobblehead this coming summer honoring Hall-of-Famer Kirby Puckett. Only one problem: no one knew what number Puckett wore when he played for the Mud Hens. Luckily, one fan managed to save a scorecard from 1984.
• In case you needed more evidence that this winter is historically slow, Neil Paine has a handy graph that shows how little has been accomplished so far.
• But Travis Sawchik thinks the dam is about to break.
• Here’s the big news: the Giants have signed former Cubs outfielder Austin Jackson to a two-year deal. Mike Axisa explains how Jackson fits in San Francisco.
• The Brewers are reportedly in talks with the Marlins about a trade that would send outfielder Christian Yelich to Milwaukee.
• Jeff Sullivan looks at what Yelich might cost the Brewers and evaluates the wisdom of such a move.
• Will Leitch looks at the case for and against the Brewers considering themselves contenders in 2018.
• Jim Finch wonders why there doesn’t appear to be any interest in free agent outfielder Melky Cabrera.
• Paul Lebowitz weighs the relative merits of free agent starters Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb.
• Mets owner Jeff Wilpon took to the airwaves to defend the team’s payroll and the moves it has made this winter.
• Travis Sawchik believes that agent Scott Boras is going back to an old tactic of his of negotiating directly with an owner to try to get first baseman Eric Hosmer the deal he wants from the Padres.
• Jonathan Bernhardt would like to see general managers be more competitive with their team’s rivals, at least in public.
• Commissioner Rob Manfred and Players’ Association head Tony Clark are still talking about rules changes designed to speed up games. Manfred has threatened to implement changes unilaterally if no agreement is reached.
• Grant Brisbee is in favor of chaos in baseball. Therefore, he is in favor of adopting a pitch clock.
• Nathaniel Grow writes that no matter how upset the MLBPA is with the current state of baseball, he believes that the union would lose with any work stoppage.
• The amount of money that MLB pays the minor leaguers is a scandal. But the situation isn’t any better in the independent minor leagues. A player got his W-2 with the $3,712.05 that he made in 2017 playing baseball.
• Astros minor league first baseman Jonathan Singleton (who signed one of the few long-term extensions that worked out better for the player) was suspended for 100 games in 2018 for testing positive for something that is legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. Also, Astros minor leaguer Dean Deetz was suspended 80 games for a PED. I wish I could insert a gif or an emoji here.
• New Giants outfielder Andrew McCutchen took to The Players’ Tribune to talk about leaving Pittsburgh and giving a big “thank you” to all Pirates fans.
• Mike Lupica profiles Astros second baseman Jose Altuve and why good things come in small packages.
• Mike Petriello explains why Cardinals first baseman Jose Martinez has earned more playing time in 2018.
• Craig Calcaterra got to judge a mock arbitration competition for law school students and found out a lot about the arbitration process. It’s an interesting read, so check it out. The winners got Ken Giles a big raise.
• Jay Jaffe writes about Moose Stubing, a baseball lifer who had a brief major league career and brief major league managing career, but spent most of his life in the minors or as a big league coach. Stubing died last Friday. One thing I didn’t know was that Stubing was Joe Maddon’s first professional manager in the Midwest League back in 1976.
• To honor the upcoming Super Bowl, Cliff Corcoran remembers when Philadelphia and Boston played back-to-back World Series. in 1914 and 1915. Sorry, Patriots-haters, but Boston won both of those Series, one by the Braves and one by the Red Sox.
• And finally, if you care about these sorts of things, a young Mets fan will be allowed to take her prom photos at Citi Field if she can get 500k retweets on Twitter. As I write this, she’s at 378k retweets.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.