Chris Davis, though I've never clocked him, seems like a really slow dude. He also doesn't make much contact and hits the ball in the air a lot. So do you think he'll have any infield hits this coming season? I think that might be the most interesting part of 2010.

I remember back when I was sure Hank Blalock was going to be incredible. His +/- in 2004 was something like +18, he was an awesome hitter, and he was in his early 20s. I know he had a skill set that isn't always reliable, but still. Damn. Biggest disappointment of my life as a baseball fan.

Don't rec this.

While you were chatting, I looked over some of the best FanShots from the last week and put them here for you. Good times!

via www.ianolandwaydesign.com

Eric Seidman at FanGraphs put together an article on when certain rate stats become statistically significant. You have an idea of swing rate at 50 PA, but it takes 500 more than that to get a significant look at isolated power. Sky gave a few more examples from a Hardball Times article in the comments section. Pretty good look, and there's a break down of the methodology included.

Jay Jaffee says that for all the Rangers' defensive improvements, the pitching still deserves credit. Because of ERA and Quality Starts. And then I canceled by Baseball Prospectus subscription. (For now.)

Slate.com looks at the book Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-Related Fatalities, revealing the national pastime to be a bit more lethal than you may realize.

Probably an old meme, but the All-Star Game may just be a celebration of all things Brewer.

Over at Purple Row, they take a look at Todd Helton's early success. Spoiler Alert: he's doing it with a very rare lack of patience.

MLB.com has a nifty video of the top prospects from the upcoming draft. And in other draft-related news, there's a really nifty Q&A session at The Baseball Analysts with Baseball America's Jim Callis.

Purple Row looked at the historical spending value of the Rockies franchise.

And, finally, something really cool: Google Earth 3D tours of baseball stadiums!

And one more note. Sky announced that Sports Media Challenge named Beyond the Boxscore the #10 MLB blog on the web. He highlighted that it achieved this spot in part due to a great community, and I completely agree with that. And the FanShots area is where a lot of our community interaction goes down. I say this a lot, but I really want to continue to encourage everyone to keep posting all the cool baseball stories they come across, all the nifty statistical analysis they find, and all the links to their own work they want to share. And, most of all, keep commenting and sharing ideas and feed back. It's my job to keep that section up to the standards of the 10th best baseball blog (or hopefully better) out there, but (especially when work is keeping me busier than usual) I'm not a community, just one person. For those of you who contribute, thank you, and for those of you who want to, please do.

Alright, everyone enjoy the Orioles game!