Weekly Link Round-Up

The final link round-up of the offseason! Next week, it’s all about spring training!!

• Venezuelan baseball writer Rafael Rojas Cremonesi interviewed Jhoulys Chacin following the controversy over how he spent his offseason.

• Fangraphs’ Matt Klaassen gives Tulo the extra credit he’s due, and, I think, makes it clear that he’s better than Evan Longoria.

• Good thing Seth Smith is used to being platooned, because now he has to compete with some guy named Yoenis that his new team just signed.

• The Denver Post’s Dusty Saunders reported on the campaign to save Tom Helmer. Poor guy. And he is so much better than the still-employed Jeff Huson, too.

• Everybody and their mom has linked to this piece on The Hardball Times about that one time Neifi Perez played catcher. So I assume you’ve read it. If not, what are you waiting for?

• Hanley Ramirez is a whiner. If you did not know that, you are not paying attention.

• Jeff Aberle gives us five Rockies to pay extra close attention to in spring training.

• Troy Renck reports on a statement issued by Carlos Gonzalez, who thinks he can maybe avoid collisions with outfield walls next season.

• MLB Trade Rumors clued me in to a couple of Rockies signings that I did not realize had happened. Bottom line, my brain is too full of offseason moves, so I’m sure that I read about these and all the information just went out the same way it  came in.

• Russ Oates of SB Nation broke down the Rockies’ roster in preparation for spring training.

• Jeremy Guthrie answered reader questions for the Post’s Fan Mail feature, and revealed that Albert Pujols once complimented him on a bunt. So clearly all our problems are solved.

• I’m not going to make a big deal about this whole espnW thing. But I will say this: is it really necessary to have articles like this one, which explain stats that men are just as likely not to know about? Why are we assuming this knowledge deficiency is unique to women? Okay, I’ll stop there.

• Fangraphs considered whether Rockies pitching prospect Albert Campos is really as good in real life as he is on paper, and how we can tell.