THT Links: Cute Little Suckers

I got the Links in extra early for you all today—have fun reading them as I try to get some more shut-eye before heading off to work.

Wells Hunts on Safari – This is, without a doubt, the funniest link in THT Links history. From the article:

Even a dik-dik, a furry little antelope, ended up on Wells’ dinner plate after he “double-lunged it” from 30 yards with his bow.

“That was probably one of the best eating things I had,” he said. “It doesn’t sound good. Cute little suckers, too.”

Protection? – Dan Fox with a thoughtful look on whether lineup protection actually exists.

Happy Birthday – It’s the second birthday of Baseball Toaster, one of our favorite baseball blogs around. Go wish them a good one.

Rocket Sighting – Roger Clemens dropped in on the Yankees’ spring training facility yesterday. I don’t really care, but I did want to use this as an opportunity to pitch my idea for a Clemens-Favre steel cage match. That probably wouldn’t solve our society’s obsession with celebrities, but at least we’d only have half as many is he/isn’t he retirement stories at the end of it.

Strikeouts For Charity – Brett Myers will donate $100 to pay for a neighbor’s medical costs for every strikeout he registers this season. It’s a great story, but the writer seems obsessed with the idea that this is a calculated ploy to rehabilitate his image after being charged with assaulting his wife last season. It may be true, but still kind of cynical for the mainstream media, even if it is Philly.

Fight the Man – Our Google Analytics show that a whopping 0.72% of you are Linux users—this is going out to you guys. Rob McMillin’s explanation of how to get Gameday Audio to work on a Linux machine.

Kotsay Out – A’s center fielder Mark Kotsay will be out for up to three months following his decision to have surgery on his chronically injured back. Milton Bradley will likely shift over to center to start the year.

Top Prospects – Not sure how I missed this the past few days, but Aaron Gleeman continues his annual top 50 prospects list with 21-30.

Ned Yost, Stathead – Apparently at least one major league manager has been doing some reading this offseason, though I could quibble with his choice of books.

Don’t Draft Young – RotoAuthority with the word on Chris Young and his chances this upcoming season.

Controlled Fury – THT resident pitching scout Carlos Gomez continues his great work on pitching mechanics over at Baseball Think Factory, this time looking in awe at Tim Lincecum’s pitching motion.

Welcome – Curt Schilling has started a new blog over at Deadspin. Say what you want about the guy, he rarely fails to entertain.

Something’s Missing – And Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan thinks it’s the World Baseball Classic. I actually went to the Cuba-Dominican Republic semifinal last year with fellow THT member Vinay Kumar, and it was great—you never really notice how passive baseball fans have become until you sit in a stadium with soccer-fan enthusiasm.

Blogs are the Worst – MLB Trade Rumors takes a day off from the rumor mongering (well, at least a few hours) to point out a couple hilarious blog-bashing newspaper columns. Now, I’m obviously biased, but it would be nice if columnists actually took some time to read blogs before denigrating them. I mean, one of the columns posits a homeless man starting a blog and the other one imagines what a hypothetical chatroom full of bloggers might say. I know columnists have it really tough, having to sit in front of the computer all day and all, but maybe they could find some time in their schedule to actually do a little research next time.

Today at THT

A Quick Look at Four Hitting Rates – Sometimes the simplest way of looking at things is the best.

THT Mailbag: Double Stuff Edition – We were so inspired by Rob Neyer, that we decided to put out the longest mailbag ever. Check in for thoughts on Carlos Guillen, line drives, chewing tobacco, clutch and the yips.

It’s The Hardball Times 2007 Season Preview – Whether you’re a fanatical fantasy player, or just want to see what’s up with your favorite team, the THT 2007 Season Preview is just for you.

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 THT Links.

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