Rounding the Bases w/ the BBA’s General Chapter: 01/07/11

One of the many goals of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance is to bring some of the many baseball bloggers together in an effort to collaborate on ideas and share insights. As President of the BBA’s General Chapter – the largest individual chapter within the organization – one of the things that I hope to accomplish in 2011 is to showcase the talented writers that make up our corner of the Internet. This post is the first of what I hope will be a bi-weekly feature here at Blogging From The Bleachers where I will be able to highlight the work of some of my colleagues and peers while boosting traffic to both their sites and my own. Time permitting, this could become a weekly feature here, in similar fashion to the Baseball Blogs Weigh In feature over at MLBTR. The key difference is the below links and blogs are all BBA General Chapter members. Without further ado, on to the links, in no particular order:

• The Hall of Very Good kept busy this week with a multitude of Hall of Fame posts looking at each candidate’s case, capped off with a live chat on the eve of the big announcement. I was unable to take part but from what I understand it was a success despite a certain former player being too high-and-mighty to participate.
• Larry over at Wezen-Ball has been busy controlling his excitement over the latest giveaway promotion the Brewers have announced. As a season ticket holder, there are some very cool prizes he could be in line to win.
• The ladies over at Babes Love Baseball took a look at Dan Uggla’s contract extension with Atlanta and the reported extension the Rockies are about to give Carlos Gonzalez.
• Adam at The Ghost of Moonlight Graham took a stab at settling a debate he and I have had over Twitter this week (my take is still a work in progress) about who the better first baseman was: John Olerud or Don Mattingly? He also took a look at what the Adrian Beltre signing means to the dismal offseason the Angels have had.
• Call to the Pen capped off the week with an in depth look at the fascination with BABIP and explains how it doesn’t quite tell the full story.
• The guys at 85% Sports have spent much of the offseason focused on the NFL but did examine some of their better autograph seeking stories from this past year.
• Around the Horn Baseball questions if Albert Pujols will become baseball’s first $300 Million player.
• The Flagrant Fan rants about the seeming hypocrisy of the Hall of Fame writers who preach morals they don’t stand behind. He also took a thorough look at the top seasons by a pitcher at the plate. Both are good reads.
• Over at Off Base Percentage the guys took a look at some of the Hall of Fame voting results and poked fun at the one guy who actually voted for Benito Santiago.
• Jason of Jason’s Baseball Blog kicked off his annual look at prospects from each organization. So far he’s examined Oakland’s Michael Choice, Kansas City’s Wil Myers, and San Francisco’s Brandon Belt.
• Going Yard rattles off 30 things they wish for in the new year. Some I agree with (like Tim McCarver retiring) while others I’m not quite on the same page with. But check them out and make your own opinion.
• The Golden Sombrero continued the countdown of their Top 50 Prospects with looks at J.P. Arencibia, Aaron Hicks, Jose Iglesias, and Nick Castellanos. They also point out yet another MLB look-alike.
• Chris at Number One Baseball explains why he’s glad he doesn’t have a vote for the Hall of Fame.
• Diamond Hoggers calls out ESPN editor Barry Stanton for his inexplicable ballot that included a vote for B.J. Surhoff. Stanton has yet to explain his ballot, and he likely never will which is a real shame because I too am wondering what makes him qualified to vote if he isn’t going to take it seriously.
• Figure Filbert also takes a few shots at Stanton before continuing on to criticize the Chicago Tribune’s writers for their failed attempts at completing the ballots. Not a single one of them voted for Jeff Bagwell, which is ludicrous. 
• Over at Ben’s Baseball Bias, Ben gets the year started with some early predictions for the upcoming season before taking a long look at how the Hall of Fame voting shaped up.
• Meanwhile, The Sports Banter questions what is going on in Anaheim.
• We’re reminded thanks to The Platoon Advantage that for a player to appear on the HOF ballot he must have played in the Majors for at least ten years and have made his last appearance at least five years ago. Yet, as they thoroughly point out, not all players who meet this criteria automatically appear on the ballot.
• Sully Baseball examines how some players – such as Kevin Gregg – seem to continuously find work despite consistently failing to put up the statistical numbers to warrant the roles they are given.