BBA Link Fest - General Thoughts

With ten days left until Christmas, the General Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance have filled the Web with ornaments of good writing. Okay, that was lame, eh? Ah well. These writers aren't lame, that's for sure. As we do here every Thursday morning, what follows is general goodness from our chapter. Please support these folks with a click and a comment. To be sure, it will brighten the day of the writer as well as the reader. Here we go!

We're going to start with some great new additions to the chapter just this week.

The general chapter now has a third overseas writer. This one is in France. MajorBaseball.Fr tells us why Carlo Beltran is a perfect fit in St. Louis.

Stevo-sama has been a big supporter of the Fan and so it is a happy circumstance for him to join the BBA in our chapter. His The Baseball Enthusiast will be a great addition. Heck, he even provides us with this cool scoresheet.

Another great addition has the unusual name of Crum-Bum Beat. The site features two writers and a real passion for our favorite game. Check out this post on Matt Moore's new contract.

Welcome folks! And now for the best of the rest on our roster:

To be sure, Russ Blatt's open letter to the New York Mets would be signed by a whole bunch of Mets fans. Check it out over at 85% Sports.

This Fan wouldn't want to go head to head in fantasy baseball with Ryan Sendek. Check out why over at Analysis Around The Horn.

Sooze over at Babes Love Baseball gives us her thoughts on the Aramis Ramirez signing.

The Ball Caps Blog has its baseball universe all disrupted this week. Check out why.

Over at Baseballism, a great piece is offered on the vilification of Ryan Braun. Well done.

Call to the Pen is always one of our most active sites. With so much to choose from, the Fan particularly enjoyed this history of the BBWAA and the MVP.

Our Italian writer, Mario Salvini, covers a local awards gala and one of the quotes was astounding. Che Palle!

Our hearts go out to Matt Whitener whose aptly titled post mourns the passing of Albert Pujols over at Cheap.Seats.Please.

TheNaturalMevs over at Diamond Hoggers gives us a first look at many people's favorite video game.

Our German entry, Dugout 24, gives us perhaps the best Pujols heading this Fan has seen thus far.

After a flurry of free agent signings, For Baseball Junkies wonders what's next. So do we!

The Baseball Index gives us some excellent analysis on the recent moves by the Boston Red Sox.

The Ryan Braun situation woke Kenn Olson of Going Yard fame out of his self-imposed nap!

Griffin Phelps of The Golden Sombrero provided this Fan's favorite read of the week this week. A must read.

Hmm...After just saying that, this Fan then went and read this excellent post over at Grubby Glove. Torn now!

The Hall of Very Good thinks Derek Jeter is a rock star. You'll remember this piece for quite a while.

Theo of Hot Corner Harbor participated in epic "50 Best Players Not in the Hall of Fame" project and gives us his choices and explanations here. Great stuff.

You know, baseball writers are not one-dimensional people. Keith Law cooks. Rob Neyer does movie reviews. And our own Left Field not only loves baseball, but if you want to know about beer and many other things, you have to check him out!

Major League A-Holes has a touching tribute and goodbye to Mark Buehrle. We baseball fans are a passionate bunch.

We have another excellent scorecard entry, this one from the brilliant mind and author of Michael Holloway's Baseball Blog.

The always interesting MLB Dirt got even better with the addition of Andrew Martin to the team. Here is his first entry and it is BIG!

One of the hardest parts of this job each week is picking the best of the bonanza of offerings over at MLB Reports. Being a sucker for young players, let's go this week with an interview of Jaff Decker.

Old Time Family Baseball laments where the new baseball labor agreement is taking us. Superb.

Bill over at The Platoon Advantage gives us a fun to read explanation of why teams back-load contracts. It all makes perfect sense despite this Fan's stupid comment.

Rational Pastime is all about baseball. But for one week, J-Doug delves into the Tim Tebow phenomenon. Great read even if it isn't baseball.

Replacement Level Baseball Blog is going through a mock draft for 2012 and takes us along for the joy ride. Terrific.

Of course, our weekly link post is never complete without The Sports Banter's Monday Mullet.  It's one of life's most guilty pleasures.

Sully over at Sully Baseball salutes Jed Lowrie after the Red Sox announced his trade to the Astros. This writer roots for Jed too.

Through the Fence Baseball fills us in on a very bad accident suffered by a prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Keep this guy in your prayers and help if you can please.

Mike Cardano of the X-Log gives us an excellent rundown of baseball's new rules in the new labor agreement.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.