The Hardball Times

THT Daily: All blog edition

by Bryan Tsao
February 28, 2008

I always find it kind of interesting to do the Links in the morning because I'm not sure what I'm going to get. Some days, like Tuesday, not much seems to be going on, and other days like today, the baseball blogosphere is just humming with stuff. Anyway, here are the links, so enjoy!

In defense of Billy - Joe Posnanski lays out why he likes Billy Beane, and it's not why you might think. I don't necessarily agree—as an A's fan, his record is enough of a reason for me—but it's an interesting case in any event.

Green remembered - Shawn Green retires, and Jon Weisman sums up what he meant to Dodgers fans.

Rockies sign Corpas - Colorado signed its closer to a four-year, $8 million extension which will take him through his five year of service. The deal also contains options that will buy out his last year of arbitration and first year of free agency. Purple Row seems cautiously optimistic about the deal.

Brian Bannister, Part 3 - Mike Fast continues his illuminating series on how Brian Bannister succeeded in the majors last season.

The world's game - Jurgen Klinsmann, incoming Bayern Munich coach and longtime US National Team coaching candidate, visited the A's to pick Beane's brain on Moneyball, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Interestingly, the guy who is touted as most resembling Beane in European soccer is Sam Allardyce, who over the past few years took small market Bolton and took them to the top half of the English Premier League and into the UEFA Cup by playing ugly but effective soccer. Even more interestingly, last offseason he moved to Newcastle, which can resemble the pre-Epstein Red Sox if you squint hard enough: A storied team with a fanatical fanbase that hasn't actually won anything in a long time. Granted, the early aughts Red Sox were much stronger in general, but it's interesting to note that Allardyce was fired in about half a season after his team struggled.

What to do about Oliver - Chris McGowan over at Mets Geek thinks the Metropolitans are better off trying to re-sign him given the paltry free agent pitching offerings in recent offseasons.

Where are they now? - River Avenue Blues follows up on some early '90s Yankees.

The truth about spring training - Royals Review gives us an article that everyone should read every season: "Why spring training stats don't matter?"

The long tail - The Cardinals are officially enlisting bloggers' help in identifying under the radar college talent for the draft. Pretty cool, in my opinion.


THT Links represents the best efforts of our editors in scouring the various tubes of the interweb for both relevant and irrelevant news items. If you have happened upon a story that we have overlooked or wish to give feedback of any sort, please notify us at .

Bryan Tsao is the editor for The Hardball Times website. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions for both himself and the site via email.