THT Links: The Newsman Cometh

My RSS feed is overflowing with stories, granted 104 of them are everyone and their mother’s take on the Kerry Wood thing, but nevertheless, there is real, actual content to sift through. Hooray! Quickly, onto the good stuff.

Write This Down – Tony Finn at SI has a list of the hitters entering and leaving their age-27 year. It’s a good list to have for fantasy drafts.

Was it Worth It? – A la Prior in 2003, Foulke was burned out in 2004 trying, and unlike Prior, succeeding, to carry a team to post-season glory. He’s never been the same since and now he never will be. Foulke announced his retirement.

No, Really, That’s Why I Sucked – Apparently Jarrod Washburn’s mediocre 2006 season was because he was trying to fit in. Color me unconvinced.

Contextualization – One of the better statistical movements of the past five years has the push to put contexts on all our stats, everything from park factors inflating or deflating hitting lines to crummy defenses costing pitchers points on their ERA. Andrew at True Blue LA does an adjustment on DER to account for the fact that not all defenses face the same challenges.

The Hot Seat Gets Hotter – Mariners manager Mike Hargrove got steamed about speculation that he might be fired at some point this year. You know what would make that talk go away Mike? The Mariners not sucking.

Zito Changing His Delivery – Barry Zito has revamped his delivery, trying to add more power from his legs to reduce the wear on his arm. The Giants are obviously less than enthralled at the idea of their star pitching acquisition fiddling with his mechanics.

This is Jon Lieber’s Country – At least it is if you measure countryness by the size of your truck because Jon Lieber has a big one and yes, I know it’s tempting, but the day is over, you must resist the urge to say “that’s what she said”.

Snakebit – Kerry Wood hurt himself by falling while getting out of a hot tub. The Cubs shelled out $300 million this winter for new players, they couldn’t cough up another few grand for a full body armor suit for Wood and Mark Prior?

Forget the Five Tools – John Sickels has a writeup on his criteria, the Seven Skills.

Don’t Worry We Got it Covered – Ken Rosenthal wonders who will man center field if the Reds actually do move Ken Griffey Jr. to right field. Trust me, short of putting Adam Dunn out there, the Reds are going to be better off for this.

Today at THT

Ranking Organizations – Who has the best farm system? Jeff puts on his beanie cap and figures it out.

This Annotated Week in Baseball History: Feb. 11-17, 2006 – Across the world, Feb. 14 is Valentine’s Day. So what better day to look back at some of the best and worst of baseball Valentines?

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