Wednesday Morning Links

Michael Young has made his first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Evan Grant says that Adrian Beltre’s decision to retire was what was best for the Rangers.

Felipe Alou could pass a Daubert challenge on Adrian Beltre, having known him from the time he was a little tiny baby swatting hands from his head with his chubby baby fist to his chase for 3,000 hits.

And speaking of 3,000 hits, the DMN has an interactive spray chart of all of Beltre’s hits since 2005, when MLB began tracking where balls were put in play.

Evan Grant says that covering a guy like Adrian Beltre, who showed such happiness in going to work while racking up Hall of Fame numbers, was a joy in itself.

How much do we love Adrian Beltre, let us count the ways...

Amazon is making a bid to acquire Fox Sports Southwest (along with 21 other regional networks).

The DMN has a roundup of reactions to Beltre’s retirement (spoiler alert: everybody loves him).

The last moments of Adrian Beltre’s career were pretty much classic Beltre.

Beltre’s time in Texas began as a consolation prize in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes and turned into something much more awesome.

Kevin Sherrington tells us Michael Young had no idea what a great hitter, defender, and leader Adrian Beltre would be when he came to the Rangers.

So far, the Rangers’ options at catcher for 2019 are Kiner-Falefa and Trevino, with a total of 36 major league starts between them, and Jeff Mathis.

Emily Jones went from being scared of Adrian Beltre to considering him to be the source of all of baseball’s good things.

And now the mantle of leadership passes to Elvis Andrus, to which Evan Grant says that maybe leadership shouldn’t be held in the hands of just one person any more.

Evan Grant takes a look at Adrian Beltre’s Hall of Fame case and labels it “lit.”

The Rangers have added pitchers Edinson Volquez, Taylor Hearn, Wei-Chieh Huang and outfielder Scott Heineman to the 40 man roster ahead of the Rule 5 draft.

How can you have 8 images that define Beltre’s career and not include a highlight reel defensive play?

T.R. Sullivan says that Elvis Andrus isn’t the only one having to step into a new role with Adrian Beltre retiring.

Jeff Wilson says that the only DFW athletes who can understand the enormity of retiring after a singular sporting career are Dirk Nowitski and Sam Morris, who is said to be considering retiring from recreational kickball because “there aren’t as many chicks as there used to be.”

It’s rare that I get to include morning links content featuring LSB regulars, so here’s a social media roundup of reactions to Beltre’s retirement which includes a tweet from OG LSBer Mr. Sugar Penis wishing he could share a buddy moment with Adrian from a neighboring “pooper.”

Levi Weaver memorializes Adrian Beltre’s career.