BBA Linkfest: General predictions

Welcome to another round of the BBA Linkfest, where I circle the globe and bring you links from the General Chapter of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. We have terrific writers all over the place that deserve attention and so pour yourself a coffee, have an English muffin and start clicking!

We have two new member sites! That is exciting! So we welcome them by leading them off on the list:

True Baseball Fans Blogging is an affiliate of the MLBBlogs Network, which is exciting. Check out a sample of their writing here in a piece about the Mets' bullpen.

Destination: October is a very attractive site with lots of content. For the site's first appearance on our links list, check out a comparison of 1998 baseball with today's game.

Sean Morash of Off the Bench has some catching situations we need to watch. Good stuff.

Payoff Pitch has an extensive preview of the 2014 Angels.

Hit More Line Drives has a videographic look at softball and baseball swings.

Kenneth Matinale of Radical Baseball wonders why catching has not evolved as a position. Interesting!

David of BaseballRoundtable.com has a fascinating historical piece about a girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

How do you pick just one item from High Heat Stats? The place is just packed with terrific content. But if I have to choose one, I'll choose this one on players who make their debut on Opening Day.

MLBeef made that site's 2014 baseball predictions!

Clayton Richer of Baseball Hot Corner shows an example of why Brett Lawrie has a Gold Glove in his future.

Justin Millar of insidethemlb made his season predictions in a massive post.

The ever reliable MLB Reports has a look at the restructured Washington Nationals bullpen.

For another really in depth preview of the 2014 season, check out this one from Cover Those Bases.

From one of our two Italian baseball blogs, Quarta Base, comes this interesting story of Ryan Rowland-Smith.

Pepper: A MLB Blog is different and it says so right in its title page. This is an example of the kinds of things they do there.

Only on Shawn Anderson's great site, Hall of Very Good, can you find stuff like Josh Reddick's Wrestlemania picks.

Michael Holloway's Baseball is always on the search for the perfect Internet Scorecard system. He didn't find it with this last one he tried.

I love the new look of 85% Sports. It is very clean and easy to navigate and use. Well done, people! In this piece, the Cardinals are doing something completely new and it is exciting!

Over at the aptly named Off Base Percentage, Amber Hllywa is goaded into doing a report about the best women restrooms at the Angels' stadium. Heh.

Taylor of Diamond Hoggers has a look at a decidedly not very good relief appearance. Indeed.

JD Mathewson was recently asked to participate in Daniel Shoptaw's great Playing Pepper series. Mathewson links the results at his Rational Pastime site. Plus, if you like college basketball, he is all over it.

Over at Dugout 24 comes a special piece about Charlie Brown's first home run. I love it!

Old Time Family Baseball has been in my top five list of baseball sites for a long time now. The trouble with success is that people notice and the good people get grabbed up to other gigs. So Micheal writes a sort of goodbye in this piece. I'll be over here gnawing on my knuckles.

Sully of Sully Baseball still has the best podcasts. Here is his latest one.

My buddy, Jonathan Mitchell of MLB Dirt recently posted his team by team predictions. Check them out.

In one of my favorite posts of the week, Baseball Sisco Kid Style celebrated the anniversary of Hank Aaron tying Babe Ruth.

Mario Salvini of Che Palle! celebrates Chris Colabello of the Twins. Nice story.

Buddy, Daniel, of The Ball Caps Blog made his National League predictions.

R. Lincoln Harris of Through the Fence Baseball argues that Wrigley Field is the Cubs' franchise.

Over at Replacement Level Baseball Blog, my buddy, Bryan, has a different way of ranking how baseball teams will finish. Great read.

The For Baseball Junkies team makes their second round of predictions for 2014. It's fun to see the different opinions.

Theo of Hot Corner Harbor takes a look at the American League West in his latest post.

Matt Whitener of Cheap.Seats.Please. predicts the 2014 post season and the award winners for the year.

Chris Carelli of The Baseball Stance has a review of Michael Pineda's first start for the Yankees.

Justin Jabs has a trivia-filled post of who played the first game at Wrigley Field. Fun over at his Baseblog Site.

And last and definitely least, I pondered this week how some relievers are getting older and yet still increasing their fastball velocity.

Enjoy the new season, everyone!