SweetSpot Roundup 1/7

Baseballin' On a Budget (A's): 3 Questions? How about 3 answers?
Dan takes issue with our preview of the A's from earlier this week.

Ghostrunner on First (Blue Jays): I defy you to make sense of Jesse Litsch
"There is no middle ground on Jesse Litsch. You either think he's the worst starter the Jays have, or simply bad. So polarizing!"

Pro Ball NW (Mariners): Edgar Slips Slightly In the HOF Voting
I have to nitpick a little with my friend Conor here.  About the three Mariners who dropped off the ballot (Tino, Bret Boone, and John Olerud), he writes, "None of them were ever going to make the hall, but it’s still a shame to see them get so little consideration at all."  See, I don't think that just because a player slips off the ballot, they weren't given consideration.  None of the three above are Hall of Fame quality players, but more than once I remember thinking about how damn good John Olerud was.  I bet some voters did too.  That doesn't mean they had to vote for him.

Baseball Time in Arlington (Rangers): Adrian Beltre and the Art of "D"
Mmmm...math.  The upshot:  "The simplest way you can look at this is Beltre being projected to convert anywhere from 30-40 more balls into outs next year than Young would have been expected to convert. This is a great thing from a pitching standpoint."

Fire Brand of the American League (Red Sox): Sox Grab Two Interesting Minor Leaguers
Fire Brand's got the skinny on a couple of prospects who might be really strong reinforcements in 2011.

Royals Authority: The Royal Way of Hitting
Craig digs deep to see whether the Royals are a better hitting team than we think.

The Daily Fungo (Tigers): Today's Tiger, Mickey Tettleton
"Who didn’t like Mickey Tettleton? He was built like a tank, stood ramrod straight at the plate and could crush the ball from either side of the plate."  I, for one, loved him.  Then again, I grew up on Tim Laudner.

Sox Machine: Out with the old, down with the new
As Jim points out, Harold Baines will be dropped on next year's ballot, after finishing two votes short of the 5% carryover threshold.  I like Baines as a founding member of the Hall of Very Good.  If he hadn't had such bad knees, he'd probably have been a lock by now.

It's About the Money, Stupid (Yankees): Poor Kevin Brown
You know, he made more than $130 million in his career, so I'm not sure "poor" is how I'd describe Kevin Brown.  But yeah, it's a shame he fell off the ballot.  Definitely worthy of a second look.

Capitol Avenue Club (Braves): Transaction Analysis: Dan Uggla Extension
The five-year, $62 million extension looks OK, for now, but Peter also reminds us that he's going to get old at some point and one day we all must die.  That last bit is just me reading between the lines.

The View from the Bleachers (Cubs): Buddy's Crystal Ball
Some predictions for 2011, Cubs-related and otherwise.

Redleg Nation: Barry Stanton Has a Hall of Fame Vote?
"This guy voted for Tino Martinez and B.J. Surhoff, yet didn’t vote for Roberto Alomar or Bert Blyleven or Barry Larkin or Jeff Bagwell or Tim Raines or Mark McGwire or Alan Trammell. This has to be a joke, right?"  I feel prohibited from commenting.

Austin's Astros 290 Blog: A Couple Views on Steroids
"I could not agree with Caple more.  The idea that players from the steroid era, regardless of whether they’ve even been so much as credibly accused (as with Jeff Bagwell, who is being denied because he was muscular), don’t have their place in the Hall is ludicrous.  Especially coming from the same writers who proclaimed Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa the saviors of baseball."

Dodger Thoughts: Could Eric Chavez Help?
I sure hope he can help somebody.  Plus, Charlie Hough and more links.

Disciples of Uecker (Brewers): Ron Roenicke Understands the Leadoff Role
Seems to me it was about time a Brewers manager understood something about something.  "By this account, it certainly appears that Roenicke understands the idea that what matters at the top of the order is a good hitter, not necessarily a fast hitter. Rickie Weeks, as of right now, qualifies as such."

Mets Today: Alomar, Bagwell, and Hall of Fame Hypocrisy
I'm recognizing a definite theme in today's roundup.  "But what I don’t get is how a writer could specifically prevent casting a vote for Bagwell while also voting for Alomar. Is it because Bagwell had a musclebound physique and Alomar didn’t? If so, that is ridiculous; many people can be on steroids and/or HGH and not look like a gorilla. Don’t believe it? Consider the first MLBer who was suspended for PEDs use: 5’8″, 155-lb speedster Alex Sanchez."

Crashburn Alley: The Insignificant Hall of Fame
Bill has a take on those maddening Jeff Idelson comments.  Very different from the take on this blog yesterday, but very excellent.

Ducksnorts (Padres): One-Hit Wonders: Frankie Libran to Darrell May
Part eight of a very clever thirteen part series about the players who collected exactly one hit as Padres.

Bay City Ball (Giants): ZiPS Posted for Giants!
Observations on how the Giants fare under Dan Szymborski's ZiPS projection system for 2011.

Fungoes (Cardinals): Twelve Days of Christmas 2010: Day 12
This is fun. A Cards fact relating to each of the numbers 1-12. And they've been doing this throughout the twelve days, of course, adding that one new thing a day.

Nationals Baseball: Adam Average...the Nats Hope
A pretty thorough look at Adam LaRoche, Adam Dunn's replacement, and what Nats fans can expect out of him in 2011.