Sorry for my absence this past week. Linkage posts will be coming regularly again now. Here are your links for this lovely Thursday on which the Mariners will unfortunately not be playing baseball.
- Taijuan Walker had a very successful rehab outing with AA Jackson, and could return to the big club shortly.
- U.S.S. Mariner's Jeff Sullivan looks at the future of Hector Noesi.
- Jeff and Matthew also have a new podcast up at U.S.S. Mariner about the encouraging start to the season for the M's.
- Shannon Drayer made five observations about the M's first road trip of the season.
- MLB has decided to name the relief pitcher of the year awards after Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman.
- Apparently Frank Thomas believes balls are juiced this year (and if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, read the URL on this link).
- Grant Brisbee wonders if the recent installation of instant replay will impact the number of ejections in games.
- Bless You Boys dissects the six layers of baseball fandom.
- Tyler Drenon examines six managers who are currently on the hot seat (and one is a certain Angels manager whose name I can never spell correctly).
- The 40th anniversary of Hank Aaron's then-record-breaking 715th home run has dawned upon us, and Grant Brisbee says that the record is still the most revered record in all of sports.
- Fangraphs is now going to be contributing for FOX Sports, and the first piece done by a Fangraphs member is a great one from Dave Cameron about the decline of Albert Pujols.
- Carson Cistulli of Fangraphs looks at how certain pitchers' tools translate to the bigs.
- So Billy Hamilton is a crazy fast runner, yeah? See him in action in this piece by Fangraphs documenting his latest shenanigans (WARNING: Many .gifs here, so could be laggy).
- Beyond the Box Score argues that Jose Fernandez may be the best pitcher in baseball. I sure as hell hope he isn't if the M's have to face him when they visit Miami in a couple weeks.
- Beyond the Box Score also examines Garrett Richards of the Angels as a possible breakout candidate.
- Many fans, analysts, and bloggers alike frown upon the notion of bunting. However, there are some players who are better hitters when they bunt than when they don't, according to Beyond the Box Score.
- The A's appear to have problems with the back-end of their bullpen, and Athletics Nation wonders if it's time to pull the plug on closer Jim Johnson.
- Angels' outfielder Josh Hamilton appears to be headed to the DL after an unsuccessful head-first slide attempt into first against the Mariners on Tuesday. Hey, remember this? Good times.
- Adrian Beltre is likely to hit the DL with a left quadriceps injury. Kevin Kouzmanoff has been called up by the Rangers as a result.