Giants link dump: Handbooks, prospects, overrated pitchers, and replay

Hello, and welcome back to the quasi-weekly link dump. It is an irregular link dump. Maybe there's something I can do about that.

There. A link to that should do it. And now, on to the baseball-related links:

Prospect Stock Watch: San Francisco Giants | FanGraphs Baseball
I'm prospect-curious about Adam Duvall, and Carson puts together some super-fancy graphs that do nothing to curb this experimental desire.

I see some David Freese in Duvall, other than the fact that Duvall is really unlikely to stick at third and the Giants haven't unsealed the Ark of the Hitting Covenant like the Cardinals have. Other than that ...

Steve Wilstein, The Reporter Who Launched The Steroid Era, Is OK With What He's Wrought
I've always been fascinated with Wilstein, mostly because I remember the Mark McGwire/androstenedione story from when it first happened. People were pissed. How dare he report on legal supplements? How dare he? Can't we enjoy these dingers in peace?

Friend of the program (and neighbor! Hi, neighbor!) Erik Malinowski put together a great longform on Wilstein. If you think Buzzfeed is all corgis, WTF, and LOL, note that they've been doing good stuff like this, too.

For Sports Fans, Before the Internet, There Were the Complete Handbooks - NYTimes.com
I remember these. One day, when I'm rich from blog money, I will seek them all out on eBay.

Baseball Prospectus | Overthinking It: Learning to Love the Replay Proposal (Almost Unreservedly)
I'm not sure who my favorite baseball writer is, but I know who the few in the top tier are. Ben Lindbergh is in there. They have a café on the tier. It charges too much, but it's there if you want it.

Which is to say, this is a great piece that I wholeheartedly agree with. I had a couple personal-life wrinkles when the replay news broke, so I didn't write about it. I'm not sure I need to now. I'll just give it a +1 and a big ol' THIS.

THIS.

Joe Blogs: WAR is stupid, People are stupid
Another one of the best, Joe Posnanski carries the WAR torch over to the WARaphobes and burns some fools. Like most of the people who use WAR, Posnanski knows it's a flawed, imperfect stat that doesn't have the degree of accuracy that we'd like. He also knows it's just about the best we've got, and he writes in a way that everyone can follow.

Is Giants starting rotation overrated? - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN
A piece from earlier in the season, for which David Schoenfield was excoriated. Turns out it was pretty prescient. Sad. But amusing how angry Giants fans were back then. Turns out the team was horrible!

Bonus, from the comments section:

Also, the idea of using WAR on a pitcher is the most insanely, idiotic thing I've ever heard of. Isn't that what the W/L totals are for? lol beotch, please...

Well said.

Giving people what they want - Baseball Nation
So Jose Iglesias got hit in the ol' clock-weights, and that meant it was GIFfin' time. But the link up there is more thorough, if you're into that sort of thing. Which you are. Because, lol, right in the fun and frolics.