I'll throw Baseball-Reference.com out there from a purely statistical standpoint.

Ah, baseball season -- I know when to get ready because my dad calls to start moaning about the Mets and those "goddamned Dodgers" again.

From a purely non-statistical standpoint, my voodoo crew over at Extrapolater have turned in an awesome first post dissecting the intangibles of Manny Ramirez.

I'll be waiting on Sweet Lou Merloni, E. :-)

AA - what happend to Steve Stone? is he still w/ ESPN? I thought he was pretty good

Prett funny preview here, they just rip everybody:

Sports Hernia MLB Preview

Great to have Peter Gammons back...

I just posted some terrible, non-informed predictions at Bad Braves Fan.

Oh, and Pujols' at-bat smirk is ten times more awesome in HD.

Joe Morgan and Franklin are TERRIFYING in HD

Not as terrifying as Paul Maguire's hands in HD. There are things that you can't un-see.

"That turns out to be a poor play, sending the guy from third with a four run deficit." - Little Joe

Hindsight is 20/20, Joe.

That was a helluva throw.

Beltran throwing out Eckstein at home plate... awesome in HD.

And no Joe Morgan, sending Eckstein was not a poor decision. Just a great throw by Beltran.

Joe is still harping on Oquendo for sending Eckstein.

It was just a great throw, Joe. Get over it.

"He hit eight as a player, but are we counting the one he hit as a manager?" - Joe Morgan

I've never listened to Joe Morgan this carefully. That is one of the dumbest comments ever.

Not many non-playing managers can hit homeruns there, big guy.

OMDQ, I was just going to let that one go... that was baffling.

Grimey - I'm not sure he realizes that if you are on the field to hit a homerun, then you are by definition a player.

This guy is living one of those Snickers "Wanna get away?" commercials right now.

It would have been cooler if Glavine's shirt would have read "Official New York Mets Gun Show"

By the way, I think it's funny that we are all upset with MLB over making Extra Innings exclusively available on DirectTV, but no one has said a word about Blockbuster exclusively renting the unrated version of "Black Christmas."

Would I be mocked and derided as an idiot if I suggested that Peter Gammons should give play-by-play a try?

Or has he already done that and I just don't know about it?

I actually thought Gammons looked pretty good. I was surprised, I thought he'd show some ill effects.

OMDQ - two council members have already weighed in on Lou. If anyone feels they don't know him well enough to comment, I'm coming to you to fill in the gaps. I think you and the guys from Book of Scrap should form the Veterans Committee for Voodoo Sabermetrics.

And, I agree with grimey. Pujols' facial expression was a revelation in HD. He really does look intimidating.