Crab Soup Bowl #7 of Baltimore Sports

Jan 4, 2014; Frisco, TX, USA; Towson Tigers quarterback Peter Athens (7) hands the ball off to running back Terrance West (28) in the second quarter at Toyota Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

This is the weekly installment here on The Baltimore Wire of links to interesting Baltimore and Maryland sports stories on the web. We don’t always necessarily agree with everything, and sometimes these pieces are just a little bit different angle on something we already covered. And beyond that, there are stories we don’t get to do that can be highlighted here.

In the bowl of crab soup this week are links to these stories …

Ingredient #1 – Here is a fine article from the Society for American Baseball Research about Paul Blair, who passed away just after Christmas.

Ingredient #2 – Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston has a roommate from Maryland – Ronald Darby – who is the only MD player on the Florida State team (see our article on this). He is a soph at FSU and is a grad of Potomac High School. Here is an interesting article on Darby in the Orlando Sentinel, written just a couple of weeks ago.

Ingredient #3 – This article on the “myth of the five-man rotation” is an interesting study. It says that the average MLB team had 32 games started by other than the five guys presumed to be the rotation pitchers. So, one-fifth of all starts (equal to a person in the rotation) is performed by someone from the pitching depth on a team … or in other words, the five rotation guys can most often only be counted up to fill four spots!

Ingredient #4 – Johns Hopkins University ranked third in the final 2013-14 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings for the fall. This ranks the performance of the 400 Division 3 athletic programs in the country. The girls cross country team won the national championship, while four other sports ranked high.

Ingredient #5 – This fellow named Dayn Perry for CBS Sports writes well, but he does not seem to be in touch with the lack of spending by the Orioles, and seems to think Tanaka should be secured … writing, “It’s on Peter Angelos to seize the opportunity and invest in the product by going for Tanaka. Sure, it’s possible Tanaka won’t have any interest in pitching in Baltimore, and it’s possible more well-heeled teams will out-bid the Orioles. Still, a good-faith effort is in order because Tanaka gives the Orioles and their designs on contention precisely what they need.”

Ingredient #6 – Clearly the Ravens need to address the offensive line more than anything else over the offseason. This article talks about a plan of addressing this need through free agency activity.

Ingredient #7 – The Towson University football team had a great season by making it to the national championship game before losing to the powerful North Dakota State University Bisons. Here is a summary article about the game and the great future for this program.

Ingredient #8 – Here is a list from another of our own network sites about Orioles playing in winter ball. It is not that encouraging, though there are not many top prospects in this account.