Breakfast & Baseball: Selig Allows Marlins Trade, Pence Impressions, An Interesting 40-Man Roster Addition, and MLB Network In Canada

Happy Thanksgiving, folks. I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday, and I also hope that you don't have too much leftover turkey. After all, there's only so many turkey dishes that exist in this small world. I suppose though that you could always barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it.....

• Last week, I listed off most of the aftermath from the Marlins/Blue Jays mega-trade, and here is the latest. I mentioned that Commissioner Bud Selig was reviewing the trade and on Monday afternoon, he announced his verdict. Selig said he felt that both teams exercised "plausible baseball judgment" in executing the trade, which makes the official statement sound like it came from Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from "MythBusters" rather than the Commissioner. However, Mr. Selig didn't hold back on taking a shot at the Marlins when he later said, "It is, of course, up to the Clubs involved to make the case to their respective fans that this transaction makes sense and enhances the competitive position of each, now or in the future." So yeah, good luck Jeffrey Loria, Larry Beinfest, and Co. in reassuring Marlins fans that yes, they are serious about building a contender.
• In case you haven't noticed, Hunter Pence is kind of an awkward dude. Just in the way he runs around in the outfield, the way he throws the ball, his mannerisms in and out of the batter's box. Hell, he even herp-derped his way into that thrice-hit ball during the World Series. Well, right before Game 3 of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds, with his San Francisco Giants in a 2-0 deficit, Pence delivered a passionate speech that some of his teammates credited with turning around their fortunes on their way to the World Series championship. After winning, those same teammates took the pleasure in mimicking Pence's Game 3 speech, though of course they did it with much more hilarity. Plus, with Pence's own reactions to the impersonations mixed in throughout the video, it appears as though his teammates were dead-on with their imitations.
• Teams around baseball have been adding players to their 40-man rosters to protect them from the upcoming Rule 5 draft, and while there were some curious additions by some teams, the Oakland Athletics possibly have the most curious choice of all. They added 21-year old RHP Michael Ynoa, which doesn't seem that odd at first until you realize that Ynoa has thrown only 39.2 innings in his career, and none of them have come above Single-A. Now, Ynoa is a bit of a special case because the A's spent $4.25 million to sign him out of the Dominican Republic back in 2008, and his lack of innings has come from repeated injuries, including Tommy John surgery in 2011. Since any team could have taken him in the Rule 5 draft and stuck with him as a low-leverage reliever in 2013, it makes sense that the A's wanted to protect such a large investment. Now it's just a matter of seeing if this latest gamble pays off.
• You probably don't actually want to read this link I'm about to post, but the important gist is that the MLB Network has been approved to be shown in Canada. In the land of hockey and maple leaves, they have to approve non-Canadian networks from being shown, and the addition of MLB Network, especially when the Blue Jays still reside in Toronto, is a good decision. Now they just need to work on removing those pesky blackouts from the rest of the country...