Detroit Tigers Links had offseason surgery

Good to know

In important news that was casually mentioned, Victor Martinez was dealing with an injury for a fair amount of 2016. And it wasn’t the knee that garnered so much attention:

I don’t know what a “small hernia” entails, but I do know that multiple people have described hernias as the most painful thing they have experienced. So, yeah. As for his recovery, he had the surgery in October and is on track to be ready to play for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.

Unrelated, but I wouldn’t suggest anyone that looks like this, should use the term “taken care of.” It will probably give off the wrong impression.

Van man still has his van

Don’t worry, he’s still doing very Daniel Norris things. Like surfing, hunting, camping, and training with Navy Seals. I tend to think the more ridiculous outdoorsy things he does, the better he will be. Kind of like harnessing his super powers. So this quote has me predicting a break out year:

“It was probably one of the most surreal experiences of my life outside of baseball, just being with these people I’ve kind of idolized in the outdoor world and just being able to surf and paddle out with them. It was really cool.”

In another extremely off season update, James McCann is working more on flexibility after his injury struggles last year.

Still plenty of fish in the sea.

We are a little less than three weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting, and there are still a whole host of prominent unsigned players. There are so many, that both Jeff Passan at Yahoo and Grant Brisbee of SBNation set about creating a full team of unsigned players.

The outcome obviously wasn’t great, but it’s pretty remarkable the depth of talent that is still available in the open market.

Sure.

This is a good job

I’ve always wondered why a lot of minor league teams have outrageous names. Turns out there is a method to the madness, and it’s being driven Jason Klien and Casey White of “Brandiose.” They are the geniuses behind my new favorite minor league affiliate, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

The article takes you behind the scenes of a re-branding process that is significantly more complicated than I would have imagined.

"The first thing we do is pack our bags, get on a plane and spend several days in the community that we're working with," Klein said. "We meet with fans, we meet with sponsors, we meet with season ticket holders, we meet with civic leaders, we eat at greasy spoons. We take tours. We've been to the Boeing factory in Everett, we've been a mile deep in a mine in West Virginia."

Pretty outrageous that they have worked with just about half of all the minor league teams. Better keep their hands of the Mud Hens though, that name is flawless.

For your free time.

The Nationals will Re-Sign J.D. Drew. Grant thinks the Angels are baseball’s sneakiest almost contending team. I think he is wrong but everyone is entitled to their opinion. The Red Sox have rotation decisions to make. Because they have too many good players, not because they employ Anibal Sanchez and Mike Pelfrey. Looks like Cleveland will host the 2019 All Star game. That city has had a hell of a run the past year. Jarrod Saltalamacchia signed with Toronto. Will not miss typing that name.

Baseball is awesome.