- Each November, Roger Angell contributes a feature length baseball season wrap-up in the New Yorker that is an absolute must read for any baseball fan with an appreciation for artful writing. This year’s is especially rewarding given how the season ended but I must admit I think the piece falls a bit short with respect to content. Still, it’s a tidy number and Angell the wordsmith is true to form with some deft verbiage so I suggest you give it a whirl.

- Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts has a neat piece on the state of the baseball blogosphere.

- Barry Bonds only received 24 of 32 first place NL MVP votes. He even got one third place vote. I can’t begin to tell you how much of a sham I think awards voting is. Barry Bonds set all time records for on-base percentage and OPS, and also notched 2004’s highest slugging percentage. There is only so much one can belabor a point but people wonder why the blogosphere has gained popularity. Well your answer is right in that ballot tally. The mainstream media is so far behind the eight ball that I don’t think it is a even a bit hyperbolic to say that to read solely mainstream media baseball coverage is to harm your understanding of baseball.

Rant over.

- Joe Sheehan’s back from a brief hiatus.

- Rich Lederer has a bit on Bill James’ 1985 Baseball Abstract, perhaps the meatiest of the individual Abstracts. It is in this one that he asserts the predictive value of Minor League statistics and lists his Hall-of-Fame criteria questions. Rich does a nice job summarizing.