Sunday, March 28, 2010

What's Coming Up This Week At AB4AR

Just in case nobody noticed yet, I'll out myself and admit that yeah, I haven't written any season preview stuff yet.  But you know what?  Why bother when Spring Training isn't over yet?  The official 25-man roster isn't official yet and people could still get hurt before then, so I'll let the other, more legitimate blogs with complete staffs handle the projections for everybody and I'll handle my business this week when I know exactly what the team is going to look like on Opening Night.

So there, I knew what I was doing all along.  With that, here's how the season preview posts will break down this week:

Tuesday: The Lineup

Wednesday: The Rotation

Thursday: The Bullpen

Friday: The Bench

And it all culminates with what will surely be an award-winning live blog during the Opening Night game against the Sawx.  So keep one eye glued to the tube that night and the other glued to your computer screen for the live updates as the game happens.  Don't be afraid to join in and comment as the game goes on.  Will all that focus on electronics be bad for your eyes?  Probably.  Will it put you at risk to get some kind of cancer from all radiation from the screens?  Maybe.  But it will be worth it for the level of entertainment you'll get.

So there's the schedule for this week.  Adjust your schedules accordingly.

Yankee Blogosphere Linkapalooza For The Week That Was (March 22-28)

Here's another quick run through of the best of the best of this week's offerings from Yankee Blogland.  Only one more week until the season officially starts and I still have to do all my season previews.  Oh well, let's get into it.

- Chad Jennings at LoHud sits down for 5 questions with the Almighty Jesus.  I love the kid's attitude: simple, straightforward, determined to work hard and do what he has to do to become a solid Major League catcher.  Woulda been awesome if he threw out a "Nobody fucks with the Jesus!" line though.

- Matt Imbrogno at TYU compares David Robertson to other past one-year bullpen wonders and projects Robertson's 2010 season.  I love Robertson and think he's poised for a big year, possibly big enough to grant himself a chance to become the full-time setup man, but goddamn did it scare me to see his name next to the likes of Brian Bruney and Jose Veras.

- Joe Pawlikowski at River Ave. Blues reviews Cash's greatest steals in the trade market and some of his biggest oopsies.  Shows just how tough the life of a GM is.  The line between striking gold and getting the equivalent to a flaming bag of dog shit is so thin.

- Dan Reiner at Bronx Baseball Daily delivers a quick profile of Freddy Sez, the old dude who constantly bangs the pot at all Yankee Stadium games.  Someday, I want that job.

-Jay at Fack Youk carves up MassLive writer Ron Chimelis FJM-style for Chimelis' ludicrous piece about how Spring Training is better than the regular season.  Anybody that actually believes that should have their right to watch, discuss, and write about baseball revoked.  Kudos to Jay for calling that out.

- Lenny Neslin from LenNY's Yankees gives us a sneak peek at Jeter's new Air Jordan cleats.  I don't even play baseball and I wish I had a pair of those.  I would wear the shit out of those cleats around the office.

- Mike Axisa at River Ave. Blues projects and analyzes the Yankees defense for 2010.  It should be interesting to see how much A-Rod, Jeter, and Jorge decline.  Overall, I expect the defense to be better than it was last year, just as the projections show.  The Yankees won't blow you away with Web Gems, but they shouldn't botch games because of their D either.

- Matt from TYU makes another appearance with an appropriately titled rant about the results of the Joba-Hughes situation.  I agree with his points about the Yankees mismanaging both of these guys over the years, but the fact is Hughes pitched better than Joba in Spring Training so he earned the spot over him.

- Cliff Corcoran at Bronx Banter delivers a dose of reality to all us common men and women who are Yankee fans in talking about his ordeal getting tickets to a game.  As much as I love the Yankees, it is a little disheartening to read stories like this and think about how difficult it is going to be to get tickets to a game on the rare times I am back home on the East Coast.

- And lastly, to end on a bit of a sad note, here's video of the last tier of the old Yankee Stadium grandstands coming down this week.  I'll never forget some of my experiences in the old Stadium, so in a way it's cool to have all those memories come flooding back into my head as I watch this, even if it is a sad sight to see.  Bittersweet indeed.



Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, Yankee fans.  Check back later tonight for the AB4AR season preview schedule for next week leading up the Opening Night.