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Weekly Link Round-Up
- According to Bay City Ball, the Giants wish our second baseman was their shortstop.
- Justin Hunter of Call to the Pen shakes his head at the technicalities that let Ryan Braun off the hook. And I shake mine too.
- You can take my Ian Stewart and my Seth Smith, but why you gotta take away my purple pinstripes???
- Call to the Pen’s Kyle Davis takes way too close a look at the horrifying object that is the Don Zimmer teddy bear.
- Matt Klaassen of Fangraphs likes to see Dexter Fowler run the bases. In other news, Matt Klaassen is apparently a Dodgers fan.
- I really don’t understand David Schoenfield’s parallels between baseball and the Oscars, but Dan O’Dowd and Troy Tulowitzki must think it’s an honor just to be nominated.
- Apparently Cargo spent his offseason pumping iron, not making suicidal leaps into giant concrete posts. This is good. We like this!
- Don’t worry guys, Bobby Valentine is in charge out in Boston now. So clearly they are a way classier team.
- Dan O’Dowd and Jim Tracy are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, and Woody Paige is on the case.
- Troy Renck reports on which pitchers will be showing their stuff in the first week or so of spring training games.
- Thomas Lynch of Venom Strikes thinks maybe the Diamondbacks don’t win the NL West this season after all. The Rockies might because they had such a crap 2011, and there’s nowhere to go but up.
- John Sickels becomes yet another in a long line of people who love Nolan Arenado, and he has even more love than most.
- MLB Trade Rumors’ Tim Dierkes lists Jeremy Guthrie among those who may be trade bait come midseason.
- Among the genius moves the front office has made this offseason, perhaps the most brilliant was locker assignments at Salt River Fields.
- In Seedlings to Stars’ mock draft, the Rockies pick outfielder David Dahl in the 10th round.
- Nathaniel Stoltz of Seedlings to Stars looks at the meaning of BABIP in the minor leagues and considers what happens to high performers like Dexter Fowler when they get to the bigs.
- Jamie Moyer is like one start away from setting about seventeen different records. Seriously.
- Fangraphs ranked the various baseball broadcasting teams, and the Rockies came in at number 28. That comment about Jeff Huson and Christmas has to be from @fiyahpowah.
- Purple Row’s Andrew Fisher examines the culture of mediocrity that is the Rockies of late, and wonders how and when they will find a way to move beyond it.
- I’m sort of wondering if the Rockies are spending more time on icebreakers right now than they are on actual practicing of baseball. I love trust falls as much as the next guy, but can we work on that thing where we get picked off first base because we aren’t paying attention?
- Nathaniel Stoltz, who is either a genius or a major overthinker, has regrets about ranking Tim Wheeler as high on his Top 100 Prospects list as he did. Of course, he also really really wishes he’d upgraded Nolan Arenado.
- Our good friend Mark Townsend gives us the top 10 reasons why it’s great to be a Rockies fan. I think you’ll agree we’re clearly luckier than any other group of fans around.
- Fangraphs broke down the sabermetric Fielding Independent Offense, which apparently overvalues guys who play in hitters’ parks. Check out who’s at the top of that list.
- More playoff teams for next year, and all I have to say about that is YES. The chance that a member of the Rockies will win a deciding game with a face plant in the bottom of the 14th innings just went way up.
- Fangraphs gave us a thorough look at the top 15 prospects in the Rockies’ system.
- In the supplemental first round of Seedlings to Stars’ mock draft, the Rockies take outfielder Victor Roache as compensation for Mark Ellis.