Sabersphere 1/9: HOF Talk, Sandy Alderson, and Basestealers

Theo Gerome at Hot Corner Harbor looks at what young players need to do to set themselves up for the Hall of Fame: Best Players 27 and Under and the Hall: Two Separate Ideas

So, Dan Szymborski ran an interesting article over at ESPN a few weeks ago in which he projected the careers for MLB’s 24-and-under stars to see who might be looking at the Hall of Fame. I enjoy looking many years into the future, and I’ve been meaning to look at the many young stars of the game for a while now. Now seems like a good time to do so, especially with a Hall of Fame context.

BtB's own Ari Berkowitz wrote a piece about Sandy Alderson and his regime over at Amazin' Avenue: They're Not The Same Old Mets And That's The End Of The Story

As I'm sure you already know, it isn't easy growing up a Mets fan. We’re constantly disappointed, whether it’s game 7 of the 2006 championship series, big name free agents not panning out (I’m looking at you Jason Bay), or futile season after futile season.

R.J. Anderson at Baseball Prospectus looks at the future of baserunning in his column, Painting the Black: The Future of Basestealing

A few weeks ago, prior to the holidays, I called Coco Crisp the league’s best basestealer. Being the best anything is a temporary position, so when you label someone the best you get people thinking about who will be the future best. In this case, that probably means Billy Hamilton. But the lack of video makes it next to impossible to review Hamilton in a thorough manner. Besides, writing "He’s so fast," over and over is a boring read. Instead of Hamilton, I opted to review two other players with a shot at usurping Crisp: Mike Trout and Desmond Jennings.

Jeff Moore of the Hardball times looks at the Rangers' excess of infielders: Jurickson Profar to begin season in minors

On Monday, a report came out quoting Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels stating that the team's top two prospects, shortstop Jurickson Profar and third baseman Mike Olt, will likely begin the season in the minor leagues unless the Rangers have full-time at-bats for them. Daniels was quoted in the article as saying "we believe in Mitch Moreland."

Michael Barr at Fangraphs explores pitchers who couldn't quite finish that complete game: Complete Game, Interrupted

Similar to my post earlier in the summer on what a beautifully morbid season Cliff Lee was having, I tend to have a fascination with the way baseball sometimes refuses to be fair. I blame Tom Paciorek

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

Today's BtB Retro comes from Bill Petti: The Best Short Pitchers of All-Time (7/12/11)

Following up on my earlier look at the best short position players of all time, I decided to look at how vertically challenged pitchers fared historically.