Weekend Round-Up - 1/30/2011

Good news!  I'm in my new house, and I have internet.  I'm a little irritated with the Salvation Army who refused to accept two of my donations (a couch and recliner), but other than that, life is good.

Without further adieu, on to the links...

• Link of the Week:  In case you missed it, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports wrote a tremendous article about Voros McCracken, the man behind the Defense Independent Pitching (DIPS) theory.  If you haven't read it yet, I strongly encourage you to do so.  Probably one of the two or three best pieces I've read all year.
• Rob Neyer asks the question, can someone rediscover their love for a team long after it's gone dormant?  This article is so good that it's a shame it can't be named "Link of the Week."
• Very rarely will I ever link to an article that's not entirely baseball related, but Joe Posnanski was cool enough to share excerpts from a conversation he had with Michael Schur (executive producer of NBC's Parks and Recreation and Ken Tremendous of the brilliant site, Fire Joe Morgan).  Great stuff. 
• Double dipping with Joe Poz today.  He put up a great analysis of the Angels outfield situation the other day. 
• Matt Klaussen of Fangraphs takes at a cross-section of players that will make more than Evan Longoria ($2M) in 2011.  It's jarring to say the least.  It's a great contract from the Rays perspective, but Longoria is getting jobbed big time. 
• Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay were two of the most efficient pitchers in baseball last season.  In 2011, they'll be on the same team.  Paul Swydan of Fangraphs takes a look at the historical significance of their pairing.
• Dave Cameron says that it might be beneficial for the Angels to sign Vlad Guerrero.  According to him $7-8M spent on Vlad now, might save them $9M next season.
• Jason at IIATMS has been all over the "Is Cashman trying to get fired," storyline that's been setting the backpages afire.  In this article, he takes on Mike Lupica, Murray Chass, and Steve Lombardi, and does a fantastic job.  While the idea of Cashman "pulling a Costanza" is hilarious, there's no way that's what he's doing.  Everyone thinks Cashman's job is easy, but it isn't.  While he has the biggest payroll in baseball, he's under a great deal of pressure to put a championship squad on the field every season--no excuses.  Name one other GM in the same position.  You can't.  Then, he has to contend with a tenuous media and an impatient fan base on top of it.  As far as I'm concerned, he's one of the best GMs in baseball. 
• Tom Fratamico of Fire Brand compares the competitive balance between MLB and NFL.  Despite the lack of salary cap, the numbers (at least on the surface) show that they're pretty similar.
• There were a lot of really good articles at the Hardball Times this week, so I recommend hitting them up, and reading them all.  There were two in particular I wanted to point out.  Brad Johnson asks the question, is Alex Anthopoulos a top GM?  Chris Jaffe counts down the ten worst endings to postseason games in history. 
• Rich Lederer posts a video and article from when he finally got to meet Bert Blyleven.  As he says, "The fun never stops."
• The Platoon Advantage takes a look at how underrated Shin-Soo Choo is. 
• Dave Cameron at USS Mariner takes a look at the proposed Figgins-for-Kouzmanoff swap.
• If Larry Granillo of Wezen-Ball isn't the most creative baseball blogger around, he is certainly in the top five.  This week, does a baseball themed look at the Oscar nominees.
• Finally!  A comparison between the Giants and Phillies rotations!  Bill Baer of Crash Burn Alley uses SIERA to determine which team has the best one. 
• Mike Scioscia's Illness ponders the wisdom behind Scott Podsednik's decision to decline his $2M option with the Dodgers.
• Who are the best and worst base runners of the last four years?  MGL of The Book has the answers.
• Did the Yankees make a mistake in not pulling the trigger on Johan Santana a few years ago?  Stephen Rhodes of River Avenue Blues takes a two part at the Yankees non-trade.  (Part 1 and Part 2)
• Rany Jazayerli is the go to source on everything Royals.  This week, he looks at the recent Billy Butler extension.  
• Lee Panas is a research analyst with Brandeis University.  Last week, he emailed me to tell me about his new book titled Beyond Batting Average, which I plan on picking up very soon.  Incidentally, it introduced me to his excellent blog titled Tiger Tales.  This week, he took a look at Austin Jackson and his line drive rate.  Great article.