Today's links were compiled while I was still feeling happy and lucky immediately after seeing this movie …
•
Best. Story. Ever.
• You know how CC Sabathia is listed at
290 pounds here? And
250 pounds here? Well, we have
a new figure: 311 pounds. At the beginning of a seven-year contract. I'm just saying.
• Did
Ryan Howard actually
deserve all that MVP support he got? Well, no. But is it possible that he was a lot more valuable than we thought?
Well, maybe.
• As Joe Posnanski points out -- in his inimitable way -- no Hall of Fame candidate has ever received 100 percent of the vote (unless you count Lou Gehrig, which I don't because we don't know exactly
what happened in 1939). And it's not going to happen in 2009. But man, it should.
It really, really should.
• Josh Wilker wonders what it was about those pitchers of the 1990s that allowed them to post
those crazy-low ERA's relative to their leagues. Were they really
that good? And so many of them at the same time? Josh thinks maybe they weren't, and I'm inclined to agree with him. I don't think he's quite figured out the
mechanism of those bizarrely brilliant ERA+'s; I don't think I have, either (though I think I've come a little closer than he has). What I really think, though, is that it's almost certainly not possible that all the best pitchers of the last 50 years just happened to pitch at almost exactly the same time.
• The Padres were active in Thursday's
Rule 5 draft, and Paul DePodesta's got
all the gory details. Now if I can just convince Paul to stop calling it the Rule
V draft, I'll have accomplished my first big thing since
being anointed (and yes, I'm going to continue mentioning that for at least another few months, if not years).
• Wow.
First Nate Silver, and
now Jonah Keri. It's really great
cough to see these talented young
cough writer/analysts getting lucrative book deals while my most recent
cough bestseller is still available for
less than $11 cough. I wish Nate and Jonah all the luck in the world in their authorial endeavors. Honest.
Rob Neyer
