Slate has an excerpt on Craig Biggio from the Bill James Gold Mine 2008, which is apparently something I may have to pick up. Regular readers are no doubt aware of my semi-regular mention of my brother-in-law, Brooks Conrad and his efforts to get into the big leagues. One of the big sticking points for Brooks was Craig Biggio.

Bill James touches on a few things that really got me frustrated with the Astros. First, that they really let Biggio hang around too long to get the 3,000 hits, blocking other players who could more readily contribute, including, but not limited to, Brooks.

Second, even though my opinion's obviously biased, Brooks would appear to be a young version of Craig Biggio. The "overachiever" done right. Has some good pop in the bat for a "smaller" player. Can steal a base or two without a lot of speed. Is really good at turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples. However, instead of moving him into the spot, they let him go and, from what I can tell, froze him so that he wouldn't be able to get an opportunity anywhere else until this season. It's like the Astros would've been the perfect club to recognize a player similar to Craig Biggio, but chose to pass (I'll include Chris Burke as being potentially held back by Biggio).

I hope Brooks breaks through with the A's. At the very least, I hope he gets a really good look at what he could contribute to a big league club. OK. You don't have to hear about Brooks for another month or so.