Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 5/23/14

It's strange to not be traveling somewhere for Memorial Day weekend for once.  No D-1 lacrosse tournament, no Coke 600 in Charlotte.  Just 3 days with nothing to do in the greater Milwaukee area.  Don't even know how I'm going to handle it (probably by day drinking and watching playoff hockey).  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, Chad Jennings of LoHud dissected the pitching staff through the first quarter of the season to pick out who's exceeding expectations and who is not.

- Mike Axisa of RAB profiled Cali prep pitcher Grant Hockin as a potential Yankee draft target.  I've been reading more of these this year to try to be a tiny bit knowledgeable heading into the draft, and this is the first one where I've really liked the guy Mike profiled.

- On Tuesday, Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes proposed an intriguing bullpen swap option.

- On Wednesday, SJK of NoMaas pointed out the combined underwhelming performance of the 3 big position player offseason signings.  Fair criticism, but too early to make a big deal out of it.

- On Thursday, Rob Abruzzese of Bronx Baseball Daily put together an updated scouting report on Chase Whitley for those who weren't familiar with him during his MiL days.

- Matt Bove of IIATMS/TYA made a case for Kendrys Morales and why he makes sense for the Yankees to pursue now.

Michael Brown of Pinstripe Alley touched on the Yankees' high team K rate and the help that it's provided in overcoming their weak team defense.

- El duque of It Is High... pointed out all the good that a group of the unsung homegrown players has done so far this year to get the Yankees where they are.

- SG of RLYW brought up the topic of next year's shortstop in response to Jeter's struggles and Stephen Drew re-signing with the Red Sox.

- On Friday, Chris Mitchell of Pinstripe Pundits mused on Peter O'Brien's true prospect status and Major League potential in the context of his below-average defense and lack of defined position.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog compared the Yankees' offensive output so far to their past history to see if we should feel confident or pessimistic about it.

Little Cars action for this Friday.  I'm sure some of that day drinking will take place outdoors this weekend, and The Cars fit pretty nicely in the day drinking mix for me.



Enjoy your long weekend, everybody.  Go Yankees!