Pre-Thanksgiving Random Links

As we've already discussed, the much-ballyhooed Rule V Draft is swiftly approaching. This year's draft will be held on Dec. 11th, which is also my birthday, so here's hoping the Pirates find something nice for me (and us) among the eligible draftees. Some big name players have been selected in recent Rule V Drafts, including All-Stars Josh Hamilton (2006), Dan Uggla (2005), and some guy named Johan Santana (1999).

And of course, our beloved inspiration for this blog, one Roberto Clemente, was a selection of Branch Rickey's in the Rule V Draft after the 1954 season.

In that same vein, Marc Hulet over at the Baseball Analysts put together a primer on some possible pitcher selections in this year's Rule V Draft that's definitely worth reading.

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There's been an interesting back-and-forth going on over wOBA, which is the child of the guys over at The Book (specifically Tom Tango). Rob Neyer posted about it on his (now free!) blog at ESPN.com yesterday, and much discussion ensued in the comments.

I don't know enough to speak about this intelligently, so thankfully Tom Tango took the time to respond to Rob's readers and provide more information on the creation of wOBA.

I mention wOBA because it gives me an opportunity to push FanGraphs on all of you once again. My interest in this site has grown exponentially since they decided to add more and more awesome things to their already very interesting site. In addition to being the one-stop shop for WPA graphs of every game throughout the regular season and playoffs, they have a full slate of stats on both major and minor leage players, as well as all the numbers for the various non-PECOTA projection systems for 2009.

Of course, they've also added wOBA to their stable of stats. It really is a fantastic place.

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Speaking of FanGraphs, Eric Seidman released the first half of the Top 10 pitching performances of 2008 (in terms of WPA), and you might be surprised that a Pirates' starting pitcher actually made the list. One of the alarmingly few bright spots for the pitching staff this year.