Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 7/13

My parents put our family dog down today, probably just an hour or so ago, which really sucks.  I've known for some time now that his days were numbered and had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be around when he finally passed, but that still doesn't make it any less of a bummer.  I grew up with this dog (we got him the summer before I entered middle school), so to think back on his life and reminisce is kind of like looking back at my own life and thinking about the person I've become in that time.  I was a goofy 11-year-old kid when we first got him, with no clue about anything, and now I'm a 26-year-old cubicle monkey of a man who has to pay taxes, schedule my own eye exams, and pretend like I actually give a crap about my job.  Makes me feel fucking old.  He was a good dog and I'm going to miss him, but enough of the pity party.  Let's get back to the baseball talk and onto the links!

- It's from last Sunday, but Mike Ashmore of Thunder Thoughts interviewed Trenton's pitching coach Tommy Phelps and got his take on Dellin Betances, Vidal Nuno, and Brett Marshall.

- On Monday, SJK of NoMaas beat me to the punch and passed out a very deserving round of credit to the Yankee bench.  And he didn't even mention Jayson Nix.

- Steve Goldman of Pinstripe Alley worked the numbers to show how, despite low totals, Andruw Jones is one of the greatest HR hitters in Yankee history.

- On Tuesday, friend of the blog Jamie Insalaco of Bomber Banter weighed in on everything he didn't like about Monday's HR Derby.  Can't argue with anything he said.

- CJ Hangen of Yanks Go Yard looked at what the Yankee lineup is missing with Brett Gardner's continued absence.

- Steve Serby of The NY Post had a Q&A session with Brian Cashman.  Definitely a must-read to get Cash's take on the team's standing at the break, A-Rod's decline, his relationship with Joe, and much more.

- EJ Fagan of TYA discussed the terms used when discussing starting pitchers and pitching prospects, and proposed some new ways of ranking them to come up with more appropriate terms.

- On Wednesday, Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily explained why the Trenton Thunder are currently the best team to follow in the MiL system.

- Mike Axisa of RAB reopened the RISP Fail case at the ASB and pointed out how the Yankees have slowly been improving in that department in the past few weeks.

- Also on Wednesday, former TYA colleague Eric Schultz made his RAB debut with a PITCHf/x evaluation of Mark Teixeira's hitting approach.  Congrats to Eric on the new position.

- On Thursday, William Tasker of IIATMS listed the 10 worst offensive seasons in Yankee history.  I love Top 10 lists, and ones related to suckiness are even better.

- Fishjam25 of Yankees Fans Unite made a case for Cash going after Melky Cabrera in free agency this offseason.  With what he's done the past couple seasons, it's not a bad idea.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud had the latest injury updates on all the Yankee DLers.

- On Friday, Alphonso of It Is High... had a welcome message for Ty Hensley in light of the news of his sketchy MRI results coming out last night.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog debated the performance-enhancing-ness of Toradol in response to Gordon Edes' piece on the Fraud Sawx clubhouse situation, and whether it should be allowed under MLB's current policy.

I haven't gone old school in a while, so we're traveling back to the 70s for today's Friday Afternoon Jam.  A little Sabbath never hurt anybody, right?



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.