Looks like Banny's had a bit of influence on the AL Cy Young.

To summarize his argument, "Moneyball" is dead because:

1. OBP was never all that cool to begin with--the A's were great in the early 2000s because of Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito, as evidenced primarily by the fact that they won a combined 149 games over three seasons [no circular reasoning going on there!].

2. "Only" 3 of Beane's 7 draft picks detailed in the book are still in the majors [he conveniently leaves out the fact that two of these draft picks, Joe Blanton and Nick Swisher, have played major roles on the two teams currently favored to make the World Series].

3. In 2009, the playoffs have been dominated by big-budget teams [never mind that the Twins and Rockies made the playoffs, or that the Rays reached the World Series last year, or that the Indians and the Rockies made deep postseason runs in 2007].

I hate this "debate," because it's tired, stupid, and really only matters to writers like Bissinger, as the rest of baseball has moved on. But I thought this piece was noteworthy in its poor reasoning and use of cherry-picked evidence.

As the author points out, this is the second year Santana has won a league MVP award (he was the California League MVP in 2008).

Not many surprises here. LaPorta and Santana are 1/2 and both are given five stars. Weglarz is third with four stars, and then there is a massive grouping of three star prospects that includes Miller, Mills, Rondon, and Huff. Goldstein has a lot of nice things to say about the depth in our system, pointing out that no prospect in our top 11 has fewer than a three star rating.

(See my comment below - Ryan)

Most of you all probably saw this, but today Seattle announced the hiring of Jack Z . .duri . . .???. . . whatever as their new GM.

If I were a Seattle fan, I'd be excited about this hire. Jack Z is very highly regarded as a talent evaluator and scout. I know some of their fans (particularly the posters on U.S.S. Mariner) were hoping for a new school analytical type, a la Chris Antonetti, but Z's skills can help them draft and build a player development system as well or better than any of the other candidates who were up for the job.