Link dumps are fun!

• John Sickels: Giants' Top 20 Prospects
  John Sickels at Minor League Ball lays out the preliminary Giants top 20. The top is mostly as expected with Manny Burriss a little lower than I had hoped, as John really is wary of Manny's bat. Henry Sosa is No. 2 overall which surprised me a little bit. A lot times I lose track of players during the season and since he wasn't among Baseball America's top 30 last year I sort of didn't climb him in my mental list despite a good 2007.



• We're really getting bored now

  Wouldn't Johnny Estrada be a more suitable option for a backup catcher than what we have already?

  -- Randy S., Paradise, Calif.

  
  That's a question from Chris Haft's recent mailbag. Are we all getting desperate for action? Even discussing who would be a better backup catcher for the 2008 Giants is so far from useful I can't imagine how Randy S. spends the rest of his days. Arguing with his wife over the color of garbage bags? Agonizing over which copy of Harlan County War to rent at Blockbuster. Sure they're the exact same thing but you can tell from the box which one may have more scratches.
  
  Haft does have some good answers to mostly on point questions but occasionally he'll slip something like "... ideally, the club will address the third-base issue and add a veteran reliever to provide experience and stability before pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 13 ..." in there just to mess with me. He seems to hint at times he gets the whole stathead thing and then something like that will just make me twitch a little bit. We don't really need veteran anything. We need to throw as many young arms at the wall as possible and keep throwing until enough stick.




• Chris Shelton and other players who wont be on the 2008 Giants
  Chris at Bay City Ball rounds up the 15 spring training invitees and continues the discussion over Chris Shleton being DFA'd by the Rangers. Sure Shelton would be an excellent pick up but these players always seem to elude the Giants, even with the glaring need they have. That's why Craig Brazell will be playing in Japan this year.




• Steroids climb the ladder
  I try to stay away from the whole steroid issue - it just doesn't interest me at all. The steroid era is just that, an era in the game where all the players did something that changed the environment. Stop the holy war.But when the commissioner of baseball openly, in a way, discusses sanctions against your team's general manager, well, maybe I'll start to pay attention. Selig only responded when directly asked whether he would consider punishing Brian Sabean and I don't think this will ever go anywhere, but in this environment where everyone is so in need of at least one head at every level to role, well, it's hard to tell.