I’ll admit that I actually find Rollins likable, but really, he’s been one of the best 50 or so players in the MLB the last 4-5 years, even with the horrible 2009, and prior to 2009, he was probably the second best shortstop to Han-Ram. Even with Toriiii having his best year since about 2002 this season, and Rollins having one of his worst, Rollins has still been significantly more valuable the last three seasons. Rollins has at least 3 seasons better than Torii’s best. He talks the same talk that Hunter does, but actually backs it up. Also, I don’t remember him throwing teammates under the bus like Hunter did with Morneau and Mauer a few years back, but that might just be my anti-Hunter bias showing.

It’s hard to keep myself around 500 words, and I’ll admit it sometimes feels constricting. I’m not sure all the reasons why they recommend it (it’s not a hard-and-fast rule), but here are my thought: I think that’s a good ethos to cultivate for that particular blog, as that’s what blogs were originally intended to be. Most readers at FanGraphs don’t like to click through, and come for short takes. Plus, relative to a lot of blogs, there are a lot of posts at FanGraphs every weekday, so if we keep each post shorter, readers can have more time to read the many writers there, and we don’t have to worry about our posts getting “pushed down” when the next person posts an hour after you did. Like today, Cameron posted after I did. If I came to a site, and see posts by Dave Cameron and Matt K.," ell, I’m reading the Cameron one first. And if it takes me 20-30 minutes, maybe I’ll blow off the 3,000 word essay by “Matt” on why Gregg Zaun should be in the Hall of Fame.

They aren’t “exclusive,” so if I have larger stuff that has to be longer, I can post it elsewhere. Moreover, it’s also been really good discipline for me as a wtier, as it makes me think about what I have to have in the article, and living with not accounting for every contingency, and being willing to let users point stuff out int eh comments nd realizing I can just let it go.

I bet this comment is already too long for a FanGraphs post.