Primavera and some links

A few lyrics from one of my favorite Santana songs, "Primavera" (Spring), which I've been listening to a lot lately:

Como la semilla

Lleva nueva vida

Hay en esta primavera una nueva era

En el aire de este universo

Hoy se respira libertad

En primavera ya

La tierra negra se vuelve verde

Y las montanas y el desierto

Un bello jardin

Como la semilla

Lleva nueva vida

Hay en esta primavera una nueva era

Beautiful in Spanish. It's worth the translation.

And here are a few links:

David Laurila with Baseball Prospectus has a great ongoing series called "Minor Issues." I had the wonderful opportunity to answer a couple of questions for him:

http://bbp.cx/article.php?type=2&articleid=10191

And here's a recent fun one about from Laurila about Derrick Loop entering his team's circle of trust:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=10469

From recent to old, here's something from Lisa Winston, written years back, that was passed along to me:

http://gotmilb.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/12/offseason_greetings.html

Lastly, not sure what to think about USA Today reporting a significant decrease in MLB opening day salaries and MLBPA responding with their own calculations showing a slight increase. Don't really think that accomplished anything. What's more interesting is that MLBPA seems to be gearing up for a collusion case. In my opinion, the owners definitely colluded this offseason, using the economy as an excuse to collectively make less attractive offers to free agents. But proving it is another thing. Here are some links:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2010/04/sliding-mlb-average-salary-down-17-from-2009/1?csp=34sports&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomSports-TopStories+(Sports+-+Top+Stories)

http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/04/07/baseball-players-union-threatens-collusion-suit/

Enjoy the spring! It's beautiful in St. Louis!