Friday's Saber-Links

Here's Friday's edition of Saber-Links:

Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley and ESPN's SweetSpot blog discusses Adam LaRoche's underrated value for the Washington Nationals: LaRoche an underrated key for Nationals - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN

Across the majors, first base is the superstar position as it tends to have the best hitters in any given season...There is one name, however, that is up there with Pujols and Fielder this season, but he hasn't gotten any accolades: Washington Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche

Al Yellon of Baseball Nation looks into Adam Dunn's shot at the record books: Adam Dunn, Record Book Assailant - Baseball Nation

If he maintains that average, he'll wind up with 239 strikeouts, not as many as the 254 projected in my earlier feature, but still enough to leap over the current record, 223, set by Mark Reynolds in 2009.

Doug Thornburn of Baseball Prospectus extensively breaks down Sunday's pitching matchup between two very opposite pitchers: Zack Greinke and Jeremy Hellickson: Baseball Prospectus | Raising Aces: Throwdown: Zack Greinke vs. Jeremy Hellickson

Greinke and Hellickson are advanced students of the game, and Sunday's throwdown between the two pitch-sequence savants did not disappoint.

Jack Moore of FanGraphs looks into possible post-waiver trade targets: Three Post-Waiver Trade Targets: Hitters | FanGraphs Baseball

But it’s still not an $18 million season, and although Soriano is worth playing and even worth paying a moderate sum for, the Cubs want nothing to do with his $36 million owed over the next two seasons. If they can get a team to eat any sort of significant chunk of that contract, we might see Soriano man a corner for a playoff-contending team

Tom Tango of The Book Blog looks into scouting and the draft, with some surprising results: THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

I looked at every draft from 1985-2002. That’s 18 drafts. I considered a draft pick a success if he was able to get a total of three career WAR by the time he was 29. That standard is pretty low, but, I still only got 499 players. That’s an average of only 28 players per draft.

Saber-Links will return on Monday. Enjoy the weekend, baseball fans!