/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/4934073/gyi0061358848.0.jpg)
Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs makes a case for Ichiro being a power hitter in Yankee Stadium next season: Home of the Ichiro Power Swing | FanGraphs Baseball
Ichiro probably can’t just turn himself into a power hitter. In Yankee Stadium, though, he can get the closest, and while that means Ichiro just has to rely on Ichiro on the road, he might be in position to take unique advantage of the home environment. That’s a friendly porch, and now Ichiro knows it. There’s good sense behind this relationship. I don’t know how much Ichiro has left to give to some other ballclub. He might have plenty yet to give to the Yankees.
Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated discusses Jeff Bagwell's HoF candidacy: JAWS and the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot: Jeff Bagwell | Hit and Run - SI.com
Suffice it to say that Bagwell is a strong candidate who deserves election to the Hall of Fame, and it would be fitting if he joined Biggio on the Cooperstown dais next summer.
Dave Schoenfield of ESPN SweetSpot makes a case to defend Kevin Towers: Is Kevin Towers destroying the D-backs? - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN
OK, we get it: Towers isn't the most sabermetrically inclined of general managers. But the guy also made the playoffs four times as Padres GM and in 2011 as Diamondbacks GM. That's a fair track record of success.
The guys over at CBS Sports discuss HoF candidates and make a case against Jack Morris: CBS Sports Eye on Baseball HoF Rankings #20-16:
I also find it curious that some BBWAA members now talk about how if you "saw him pitch, you knew." That's interesting, because Morris never finished higher than third in Cy Young voting. He only received Cy Young votes in seven of his 18 seasons. He also only received 22.2 percent of the vote his first year on the ballot and dipped down to 19.6 percent the next year. Not only that, but he was only an All-Star five of 18 seasons. Where was the respect at the time from the managers around baseball?
Jason Wojciechowski of Baseball Prospectus goes into detail about one of my favorite topics, pitching wins: Baseball Prospectus | In A Pickle: Winners and Losers of Winning and Losing
'd like to sum up with a grand unifying theme, one that shakes the foundations of sabermetrics to its core: I've found pitchers that just know how to win and pitchers that aren't winners. Right? No, of course that's not what I've found at all. I've found hard-luck guys and small-sample guys and one guy who just happened to be literally unbeatable, which is another way of saying that I've found what you'd find every year if you went through an exercise like this.