I've been saving these up for days, so here goes:
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Here's my Hardball Times article for today. I return to the topic of starting rotations. The Brewers still look good, especially due to the rotation depth we've got.
- Tom H looks at arbitration figures, with some comments from Doug Melvin on the process.
- Also, here's a table with the numbers players have asked for, and the team has offered.
- Brian Anderson, our new TV color guy, is blogging on MLB.com, just like Daron did. I was never a huge fan of Daron's MLBlog, so maybe Brian will try something different.
- Rosenthal looks at the rotation plight of several teams, including the Astros and, most important, the Cardinals:
After entering the off-season with four free-agent starting pitchers, the defending World Series champions could escape relatively unscathed if they re-sign Weaver to their desired two-year deal. But even then, their rotation might not be as good as the Brewers'.Exactly, Kenny. In fact, I don't think there are many rotations in baseball that currently look as good as ours. Then again, a lot of that rests on Ben Sheets staying healthy.
- Still more starters: Larry at Viva El Birdos compares a couple of disturbingly similar pitchers, Jeff Suppan and Ryan Franklin. Suppan is better, but Larry seems to like having Franklin on board, despite the fact that he's going to help Prince Fielder hit 50 HRs this year.
- Chris at WSB wants Milwaukee to stop living in the past. It came up here last week, and it's worth remembering, as the 2007 Brewers are going to spend way too much time celebrating the 1982 club. Do you see the Yankees celebrating the good ole days of the 1950s?
- Fantasy players, check this out: Tim Dierkes (MLB Trade Rumors, RotoAuthority) has released his 2007 Projections in a really, really cool spreadsheet. It's designed to be updated with every pick throughout draft day, and classifies players by risk, as well as their projected stats. It's very impressive.
- One more fantasy thing: Heater Magazine (that I contribute to) has created a program called Wheelhouse, which makes available full player stats (including splits and a gamelog of recent play) in an application you can use offline. Now it's free, updates will be available weekly throughout the season for subscribers to Heater.