Sabersphere 1/1: Cliffs, Q&As, and Mock Drafts

Over at High Heat Stats, "birtelcom" looks at some of the best players named Cliff ever: Biggest Cliffs

At the end of this post is a table of the major league players who have been known as "Cliff", listed in descending order of career WAR (total WAR for position players, pitching WAR for pitchers).

David Laurila at Fangraphs pulls out his favorite quotes of the past year: Fangraphs Q&A: The Best Quotes of 2012

In 2012, I once again had the pleasure of interviewing a variety of people from baseball. This year’s list includes 46 MLB players, 19 top prospects, 12 coaches, 11 scouting directors, seven former players, six managers, five general managers and 15 who fall into other categories.

Eno Sarris and Co. at RotoGraphs did an early mock draft: RotoGraphs Ridiculously Early Mock Draft: Rounds 1-5

You’re drafting if you’re a hardcore head like me. I’m finishing up my third mock draft and have two more scheduled in the next two weeks. So we’re drafting.

Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation talked about Giancarlo Stanton: The meaning of "willing to listen" about Giancarlo Stanton

Are the Marlins going to trade Giancarlo Stanton? If you have enough time for just 140 characters, you might think it's going to happen before the big ball drops tonight. Well, maybe not so much. Here's The Palm Beach Post's Joe Capozzi, reading the tea leaves after assistant GM Dan Jennings' recent radio interview:

If you would like to submit anything for Sabersphere, email me at SpencerSchneier22@gmail.com.

Today's BtB Retro from exactly one year ago, comes from Bill Petti, who analyzed the Carlos Quentin trade: Trying to Make Sense of the Carlos Quentin Deal (1/1/12)

On the one hand, the move makes sense in that the Padres are essentially a powerless team. Last year, the Padres ranked dead last in team slugging. Even with Adrian Gonzalez in their lineup in 2010, the team still came in 2nd to last in terms of slugging.