Sunday Links stand with their union brethren

Oh, is something happening in Wisconsin? This is a White Sox baseball blog, goof troop. We're talking about Major League Baseball and the rival Players Association, and the talks that began this past week. Most early indications are positive. Via MLB Trade Rumors, some initial thoughts from players union chief Michael Weiner, mostly concerning the Rays, but also touching on general issues to be addressed during negotiations. It's a good link, but don't click if you are overly distracted by egregious spelling mistakes.

Though it hasn't been discussed around here very much, if at all, the Nye Mets are going through a financial rough patch, recently having been loaned $25M from MLB just to continue baseball operations. The New York Times explains it nicely here. The owners, the Wilpons, invested heavily in Bernie Madoff. They are adamant about holding on to the team, but have recently shown interest in selling shares of the team to fans, though that is not likely to work. Even Donald Trump is getting involved. The whole thing is a mess.

On to your regular links, starting with your black-and-white desirables:

• JJ starts us off with a brief history of Mark Buehrle and FIP.
• From FutureSox, a handy reference for White Sox prospect rankings by source. Yep, SSS is in the mix, so you can see where, uh, you stand.
• Over at Pale and Hosed, a concise explanation of the importance of stolen base rates exceeding 67%.
• Jeff Passan gives us a pretty good summary of Jake Peavy's injury and recooperation.
• Adam Dunn links are almost obligatory at this point. Here he is "feeling lucky" with his new team.
• Wet-blanket news: White Sox scheduled to finish third(!) in the AL Central with 79(!) wins, per Fangraphs fan projections.

And some more non-Sox links:

• From The Hardball Times, and there's no easier way to phrase this, pitching mechanics, the uncertainty of data, and fear.
• Brian Anderson is currently having "the best time [he's] had in baseball." I do believe there are some sig-worthy lines in this link via Royals Review.
• The Marlins, Rays and Rangers spend the fewest amount of dollars per WAR, while the Yankees and Mets spend the most. Not surprising, but interesting to see where teams stack up.
• On that subject, this link, originally shared by onlysoxfaninbasel, attempts to explain WAR in plain English. It has recently been mentioned, though, that fWAR and bWAR (or rWAR) are on different scales. 
• Okay, these human mascots are creepy as all get-out.
• Finally, where did the pitching win come from? Even if you have read The Numbers Game, it's an informative link. Click through to the source material, newspaper articles from the late-1800's. It may take some time, but it's a good way to get a feel for the game way back when.