R.J. Anderson's latest Transaction Analysis at Baseball Prospectus includes the Seth Smith trade.

Here's the seventh episode of Tarp Talk the A's sabermetric podcast. I haven't listened yet (full disclosure), but I figured I'd link it and listen tomorrow.

I love this Dan Lependorf piece on small sample sizes and splits, as applied, of course, to Seth Smith. The gory details are omitted, so it's an entirely readable account of how we shouldn't jump to assume that Seth Smith should never even look at a lefty, much less face one. (Of course, his regressed splits, as Lependorf finds them, aren't pretty, so maybe he's still a platoon player, but it certainly narrows the gap.)

There's also the fact that Billy Beane, who's said Smith will be an every-day player, has scouts. Most of us aren't any good at recognizing in a player's swing mechanics signs of confirmation or denial of the idea that Smith can't hit lefties.

As usual, duh, this doesn't mean he will hit lefties, but it's worth giving him a chance.

Al Yellon's list of where every remaining free agent will end up has Conor Jackson coming to Oakland. I sigh at the total plausibility of this. Also Kosuke Fukudome, but I don't think both Jackson and Fukudome works unless one is on a minor-league deal (which his entirely possible). Josh Reddick's not going anywhere, is he?

For what it's worth, I agree with the commenter who thinks that Yellon has too many retirements on his list. I'd convert a bunch of those into "minor-league deal with a random team," though that doesn't really change things in terms of predicted impact.

Rob Neyer live-blogged Moneyball. I think my favorite part is this:

I hope you'll indulge me for a moment ... In the fall of 2002, I received an e-mail from John Henry, asking me for Bill James's phone number. Bill has always been a private sort of fellow, or at least that's how I think of him. So I e-mailed him, and asked if I could give Henry his phone number.

Bill's response: "Any time a billionaire asks for my number, give it to him."