Baseball Prospectus

Yes, I know, Baseball Prospectus is an annual publication by seamheads, for seamheads. Still good writing is good writing.

The following are all drawn from the section on the Florida marlins and their players. Not all sections are this entertaining, but felicitous phrases are inserted often enough to be fun and not detract from the business at hand.

On pitcher Anibal Sanchez: Coming up on the fourth anniversary of Sanchez's September 2006 no-hitter, we're still waiting for him to put in a full season in the majors and pitch as well as he has in shorter stints. Holding your breath in anticipation of that joyous event is not recommended by Baseball Prospectus.

On infielder Jake Smolinski: He missed quite a bit of time the last two years recovering from every injury this side of being mauled by a lion.

And, an early candidate for Line of the Year, and one that should be appreciated by crime/noir fiction writers everywhere, a line I truly wish I had thought of myself, regarding pitcher Chris Volstad: Volstad clearly has ability, but a groundball pitcher without his sinker is like a stripper without nipples.

My more standard reading is behind this month, as BP's annual has 629 pages of info, but I hadn't read such a publication since Bill James stopped writing them. It's good to see someone still does them well.