Nick Esasky.

If Morse goes into a protracted slump, now I expect - nay, demand - Panic of 1893 jokes.

Holy cow, a Baseball Prospectus article that leads with a Game Theory lyrical quote. I think my head just exploded. Never have my particular tastes so come together in one package before. Adam, I think you could find a home with us Scott Miller fans on Facebook or Google Plus (the former being far more active of course), or at the old-school e-mail list at loud-fans@smoe.org. Most of the best friends I've made as an adult have come from amongst those folks. Join us. Join us.

Not mentioned was the way the Reds media, led by St. Marty of Brennaman and Hal McCoy, harped on Stubbs' strikeouts to no end. I think this constant drumbeat recruited more boo-birds in the stands. Perhaps it points to poor makeup that Stubbs let it get to him, but I think it undoubtedly helped sap his confidence. A change of scenery will hopefully do him lots of good. I still believe in Stubbs, and Reds pitchers are going to miss his glove in CF as long as it's Choo roaming the middle pasture. I'm a Choo fan, but not a fan of him being in CF. Of course by midseason, it could be Billy Hamilton in CF, Choo in LF, and Ludwick, new contract and all, on the bench...

Loved it except for the Springsteen dig, but to each their musical own.

I always thought there was a subtle - or maybe not-so-subtle - racist component to how writers and broadcasters treated Eric Davis. To me, Davis' frequent sacrifice of his body to make plays in the field was reminiscent of Fred Lynn and Pete Reiser, two players no one ever accused of not giving 100%. But it always seemed that media mentions of Davis' injuries had an undercurrent of "underachieving/malingering" to them, and I always felt that was because of his skin color rather than any actual behavior on or off the field. Has anyone mentioned the accusations thrown J.R. Richard's way before his stroke?

Wow, one critique of Vin and it gets "voted down" to the tune of -16. (I'm not a fan of the "rating" system.) My own view of Vin is more 50/50 - when I've had the chance to hear Vin-as-one-man-booth, I like him well enough, and his tone and longevity make him an undisputed classic. But when he was the play-by-play man for NBC, he and Joe Garagiola paid little attention to the game - Vin would drop a factoid, Joe would tell a Yogi Berra story, and I'd be tearing my hair out. Every week I'd pray my market would get the Costas/Kubek "B" game instead of Scully/Garagiola. I'm just saying, enough with the canonization already.

Jason has been *killing* this week. Great job, sir.

Barton hit 1st and 2nd for my AL-only Strat team in 2011 (using 2010 stats, of course) and was among the league leaders in runs. It's a deep league with generous keeper rules, so I can afford to stash him in the minors or play him only vs. LHP (2011 card has a big reverse split) and see if he rebounds this year.

Alan Knicely.

I wouldn't be as clued into this if I didn't own Lowrie on two of my Strat teams, but here's his career splits: vs RHP .214/.293/.342 vs LHP .326/.385/.534 So versus righties, he's Belanger without the glove, and versus lefties, he's A-Rod. Maybe he's one of those switch-hitters who needs to give up switch-hitting. But these splits put together with Lowrie's inability to stay healthy make me question whether he'll ever be a quality regular. Not that it wasn't a good move for the Astros to take a flyer on finding out.

I feel like I should make it clear that my comment above wasn't a slam of R.J. at all. I thoroughly enjoy the column these days, just as I did when it was Christina's bailiwick. Carry on!

Kind of surprised that Nick Esasky didn't make this list. Vertigo derailed his career, and gets him on those lists of all-time free-agent busts, even though it was hardly like he dogged it or could help it. As someone with a good friend who was stricken with vertigo in her late 20s, I know how mysterious and debilitating this can be for a person with a white-collar job, much less a professional athlete.

Yeah, vocabulary word. ("Haruspex.") For a moment, I thought Christina had written at least a sentence of this. Not complaining at all!

I too wish this article wasn't Premium, because I think it's worth sharing amongst the non-payers. Especially by folks like me who think the MVP should always go to the best player, regardless of his team's record.

Wow, I just spent time reading this. Seriously, why run this "story" at all? This is the type of thing a beat writer turns in when he's going to take the day off, not something I would expect from BP.

Neither analytical enough nor funny enough. Sorry, BP.

I felt a million years old when I read that sentence about Giles and Garciaparra being childhood favorites of yours. I'm 42, so I was a grown-ass man when these guys started their major league careers. The mental disconnect for me isn't your fault - it's just that when I read your writing, I think of you as a peer, and it's easy for me to forget that so many capable folks who write about the game are so young. Someday I'll figure out that I'm not 27 any more.

While I'm usually singing the praises of Christina's historical analogies (the Frederick the Great one in this column was a fine example) or ASL references, the Francoeur/"French letter" analogy takes the adult novelty cake. Well done.

OK, missed the one mention of the Cheers comment. But still, flamewars have raged over less.

Moonlighting, Remington Steele, and Cheers as "unmemorable television serials"? Wow. To me, the first one started great but faded, the second was an underrated delight, and the third a stone cold classic for its entire run. Can't believe no one else has contested this yet.

Wrong "whose"/"who's" in the Gomez/Hardy comment. Urk! And spot-on about the perceptions of ARod vs Griffey. The Kid can still do wrong in the eyes of the press. I'm not saying that the Kid *has* done wrong, but I don't think Joe is either - it's all about perception.

re: Dontrelle Willis, I hope to goodness that anyone who thinks that his anxiety issues are a ruse never has to suffer through a panic attack. Teams can invent plenty of other reasons to put a player on the DL, none of which involve the stigma of mental illness. Am I the only person out there who sees teams' increasing willingness to tackle mental health issues as progress?

Perhaps Fields and Betemit will be joining the Specials or (English) Beat.