- Over at Minor League Ball, John Sickels did a mid-season evaluation of his pre-season Top 20 list for the Rays. I swear, every time I see one of these lists, it amazes me how deep the Rays' system is. There are a ton of talented players throughout this list, and there are a number of players low on the list that are having great seasons.
- The new hitter profiles at Baseball Prospectus are awesome and amazing. I'm going to be tapping into these quite frequently as a resource going forward.
- Bryce Harper or Mike Trout? BPro tackles the question, and gets a couple of scouts to voice their opinions on it. There's also a section toward the bottom with scout opinions on players from the All-Star Game, and some extended comments from Bud Selig.
- We don't often get a chance to see extended, in depth interviews with GMs, so I found David Laurila's interview with Twins' GM Terry Ryan to be interesting. I found it interesting that he pushed back on many of the characteristics we normally associate with the Twins -- "The Twins Way", focusing on strike throwers, etc. -- and I'm impressed by some of the questions David asked about drafting and evaluating scouts. Very cool interview.
- It's taken me long enough to settle into this new job, but I've finally started writing at FanGraphs again. My first piece back focused on Jake Arrieta's season so far, and how I still think he has potential even with all his struggles.
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