Got Those Links

The staff at THT Live has decided to crew up and start slinging links. Pat Andriola told me that he thinks we have the muscle to knock off Tommy “Prince K” Bennett, Rob “Avon” Neyer, and BBTF (the entire New-Day Co-Op) . I told him we got our thing, but it’s just part of the big thing. He still wants to throw the competition into vacants. Enough of this. To the links.

Dan Turkenkopf projects runs above and below average for catchers’ ability to block pitches in the dirt based on pitch f/x data from the last 3 seasons.

Joe Posnanski with two posts well worth reading, one A Christmas Story reminiscent of The Sandlot and the other on Strat-O-Matic and The Negro Leagues, reminiscent of a piece that’s really well written.

Tim Kniker lays out a methodology to evaluate a manager’s bullpen management. Money quote: “Ron Gardenhire of Minnesota takes the award for best bullpen manager by a wide margin, never finishing below eighth in the majors in any year, and having the best BMAR in each of the last two years.” Read on for more BMAR. (Subscription required.)

Shawn Hoffman delves into matters MLBAM and piracy. Why hasn’t MLB embraced YouTube yet exactly?

And be sure to check out Rally’s Baseballprojection.com. The CHONE projections are out for 2010 and 2009 WAR data has been added for all players active prior to 2009.