Six Astros pitchers combine to no-hit Yankees. (ESPN.com)

David Brazeal interviews Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball. (Baseball Primer)

James Surowiecki interviews Bill James.

There's a general perception in baseball that players are now aging differently and continuing to perform better for longer (players like Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds being obvious examples). Do you think this is actually true, or is it simply a matter of a few extraordinary outliers?

It's just outliers. Randy Johnson and Clemens and Bonds are not only the obvious examples; they are the whole basis of the argument. Clemens and Johnson were born in 1962, 1963, and are still pitching well, and this focuses attention on them. But if you make a complete list of pitchers born in 1962 and 1963, their value peaked in 1990 and has declined by more than 80 percent. Other pitchers of the same age include Mark Gubicza, Doug Drabek, Jeff Montgomery, Randy Myers, Sid Fernandez, Danny Jackson, Chris Bosio, Mark Portugal, Jeff Brantley, Eric Plunk, Bill Wegman, Bobby Thigpen, Jose Guzman, Scott Bankhead, Greg Harris, Les Lancaster, Greg Cadaret, Todd Frohwirth, Jay Tibbs, John Dopson, Jeff Ballard, Charlie Kerfeld, Urbano Lugo, and Calvin Schiraldi. Have you seen Chris Bosio lately? He's a pitching coach somewhere. ... Looks like he's about 63.

(Slate)

Derek Zumsteg on Edgar Martinez's Hall of Fame qualifications. "Edgar's pennant races performance are almost legend in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, his game-winning doubles down the line. There is an expectation when Edgar comes up that something exciting is going to happen. Edgar is the horror story told to American League rookie pitchers around bars in spring training towns like Tempe ('And then the rookie tried to bust Edgar inside...' 'Wha-wha-what happened?' 'Game-winning three-run home run, and the ball...' 'Yes?' 'The ball was never found...')." (Baseball Prospectus)

Prospectus Triple Play: White Sox, Cardinals, Rangers. "[Texas GM] John Hart performed some advanced math--addition by subtraction--by sending Ruben Sierra to the Yankees for minor-league outfielder Marcus Thames. Sierra was using at-bats better given to Mark Teixeira and fresh-off-the-DL Kevin Mench, and not using them well: .263/.333/.398 before the trade." (Baseball Prospectus)

Prospectus Triple Play: Braves, Twins, Devil Rays. "As soon as Doug Mientkiewicz turns back into a pumpkin, [Justin] Morneau should take Minnesota's first base job and never look back. " (Baseball Prospectus)

Bryan Smith on how MLB has ruined the Expos. (Bryball)