BBA Linkfest - Generally Ready for Spring

Somewhere south and southwest of here, young men are again getting ready to play baseball. Here, we are supposed to get nine inches of snow by the end of the day tomorrow. And so it is difficult to feel optimistic about anything. But have no fear, the General Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has spring in the air from dozens of sites around the globe. Whatever your weather (and hopefully, it's better than here), grab another cup of coffee or a hot chocolate and enjoy another round of our weekly links from around the chapter.

Mike Cardano of the X-Log writes about the new rules change that we will all affectionately call, "The Sam Fuld Rule."

"He was robbed!" That's what Dan Kirby of Through the Fence Baseball says in his epic and wonderful look at MVP Award injustices through history.

Sully from Sully Baseball tells us that it is official. Albert Pujols is not a Cardinal anymore. He even linked his newest video. Bonus!

The Replacement Level Baseball Blog continued their terrific series of previews of the 2012 baseball season. This week's entry covers the American League East.

The Platoon Advantage does it all. They have analysis and retrospectives and all the good things a baseball site should have. But when they are at their rakish best, guys like TCM are bashing someone over the head with darn good prose.

If this proud linkmaster played word association with you and said, "Fastball Flakes." You would probably reply, "Bill Lee." Aha! But it's a cereal. Old Time Family Baseball has all the information.

MTD wrote this gem before heading to his annual Mardi Gras celebration. Saw on Twitter last night that he survived the week, which is good news for fans of great baseball writing. Off Base Percentage.

Love, love, love Nitkig's series on better, worse or the same. This linked post covers the Yankees. See how many you agree with after going through each player on Nitkig's Baseball Blog.

Sam Evans has a great piece over at MLB Reports on the Miami Marlins' newest closer, Heath Bell.

Your favorite Fan is going to be shameless right here. The main goal of this links post is to encourage you to go to our member sites. As such, you really should be stopping by MLB Dirt every day. And you might enjoy this piece there. hehe...shameless indeed.

Over at Major League ***Holes, a great post talks about this week being an important week for decisions.

Over at Left Field, that site's author is reliving some of his favorite posts. They are becoming our favorites too.

Matthew Mahaffey of the Pop Fly Boys has no idea how to evaluate Tony LaRussa as a manager. It's a valid point. A manager's role in a team's success is really a confusing issue.

Hot Corner Harbor makes a preemptive strike against future ignorance in Hall of Fame voting. You might be surprised at the player being pushed for consideration.

The Hall of Very Good interviews the nephew of a major league baseball player. You might find that odd, but it's actually a great read. Hop to it!

Golly, Grubby Glove sure is a great baseball site. Here's another terrific post on spring training for managers.

In what is easily the funniest post you'll read this week, Mike Rosenbaum of The Golden Sombrero writes about Brett Wallace's thighs.

The writer of The Baseball Index projects the Philadelphia Phillies' line up and is optimistic.

Thanks to For Baseball Junkies for linking to BBA member, Bill Ivie's link to Gary Carter's last known interview. Listen to this podcast for why the man was such a great person.

In German or not, Dugout 24 has a great guide for parents in choosing a bat for their children.

Diamond Hoggers gives us the ultimate tweet to let us know that Spring Training is here at last.

All the writers at Crum-Bum Beat have given themselves such cool monikers. But there is nothing cool about a new promotional toy offered by the Tampa Bay Rays. Dizzy Valance has the details. Scary!

You really need to go to Cheap.Seats.Please. and read the entire series Matt Whitener has written concerning the best 100 players in baseball history. This is, sadly, the last installment.

Mario Salvini has an inspiration post over at his site, Che Palle!. The post gives us insight on how Wilson Ramos survived his ordeal.

Baseball Unrated has a great post on fantasy baseball catcher rankings. P.S. - Matt Wieters should be higher.

Blaine Blontz of Call to the Pen fame, gives us an update on the expanded playoff system that will be rolled out in 2012.

Stevo-Sama of The Baseball Enthusiast is pumped! Find out why by clicking this link. Hint: It concerns a book he just received.

The Ball Caps Blog has three great posts this week, but we can only pick one for the links page. This one is for you if you've ever wondered how we started this tradition of notable people throwing out the first ball.

For this particular links post, you aren't going to get a direct link to any featured post from Babes Love Baseball. Instead, you'll just get a link to the site in general. Why? Because you need to go there and read all of Sooze's Haiku previews. That's why.

In Ryan Sendek's endless quest to bring you as much fantasy baseball information as you could possibly have led him to tweet Yahoo Sports and he got an answer! Analysis Around the Horn.

Russ Blatt of 85% Sports continues his fun series on how baseball teams got their names. This week's edition features the American League West. And no, he didn't include the Fan's moniker for one of the franchises as the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the southern part of California on the west coast of America in the northern hemisphere on the planet earth."

There you have it, folks. Another week, another great week of posts. May your week, at least, not include any snow.