Wednesday Morning Links: Mijares, Hall of Fame Vote, A's in San Francisco

Is it just me or does it feel like this offseason is moving painfully slow?

• Former Twin Jose Mijares was outrighted off the San Francisco Giants roster to make room for fellow lefty Javier Lopez, and Mijares elected to become a free agent. Mijares struggled last year, but that was mainly caused by a .410 BABIP so he could be a cheap bounceback LOOGY for a team next season.
• The Hall of Fame ballot was just released and it's packed with deserving candidates. Although this isn't necessarily my list of who should be in the Hall, I do feel that Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza, Tim Raines, Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Greg Maddux, and Jeff Kent have pretty decent arguments for belonging. However, that's 12 players right there, and BBWAA voters are only permitted to pick 10 players each year. Many voters don't even choose 10, so this crowded ballot will probably stay crowded when next year's candidates are announced.
• Noting how absurd BBWAA voters can be when it comes to the Hall of Fame vote, Deadspin declared that it was going to purchase a vote for this year's class and they actually succeeded. The website will then hold a poll and the players that receive enough votes in the Deadspin poll will then receive a vote on the anonymous voter's ballot. While this does seem a little sleazy, the voting process has become a bit of a mockery in past years anyway (due to people that aren't even baseball writers voting on the Hall of Fame, or others refusing to fill out a ballot for a myriad of reasons), so Deadspin is just exposing the whole charade as a farce anyway, which I kind of felt was true already.
• Finally, I mentioned a few weeks ago about the possibility of the Oakland A's moving into AT&T Park with the San Francisco Giants if they did not reach a 2-year lease agreement with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority to continue playing in O.co Coliseum. The reason they may not have reached that deal was that the Authority had wanted the A's to agree to a 5-year lease instead. However, the Giants shouldn't need to worry about having to share their home field as the Authority held a vote on the 2-year agreement on Monday.