ManBan Scheduled For TJS, My Genius Is Confirmed

I knew it was coming.  I knew it was coming from the moment he first got shelved with his elbow injury, and I've said as much over the past 5 months:

- June 14th: "Maybe I've just watched "Conspiracy Theory" one too many times on TNT, but 7-8 weeks seems like an awfully long time to be on the shelf with just a tired arm."

- July 12th: "I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but the Yankees might as well just pencil ManBan and Campos in for Tommy John Surgery right now."

- August 6th: "2012 was already a lost season for Banuelos before this latest setback. Now my concern is that 2013 could be the same if the Yankees continue down this path of trying to get him to pitch this season instead of doing something to address his continued elbow problems." 

And today it all came full circle as Josh Norris reported that Manny Banuelos will go under the knife for Tommy John on Thursday, putting a really shitty finishing touch on his 2012 season and effectively ending his 2013.

This is the worst possible news for Banuelos, who will undoubtedly tumble down the prospect rankings after this latest setback.  Now instead of a chance to still be ahead of schedule in Triple-A next year, he'll come back in 2014 as a 23-year-old pitcher with a long recent history of injuries and an arm still not built up to anywhere near a full innings workload.  This is just the latest in a long line of Yankee pitching prospect failures.

For me, though, this is actually great news.  I smelled the fishy smell of Yankee injury dishonesty right off the bat and I knew this is where ManBan was going to end up.  A little bit of vindication for myself is always a nice ego boost, even when it comes at the expense of a prospect's development.  Here I am, a little one-man operation, working on the most bare-bones, basic Blogger template possible, no Twitter account, no connections to bigger sites or blogging networks, small little Facebook following (hint, hint, "Like" the fucking page, people), and it turns out that I actually do know what I'm talking about.

Yes, I'm blatantly tooting my own horn here, but it's not something I do often and I think it's justified in this situation.  This ain't no rookie shit here at AB4AR.  Sure I like to joke and post YouTube videos, but I take pride in being knowledgeable about this baseball stuff too.  I had this ManBan TJS thing pegged from the word go, and I was proven correct today.  AB4AR, the best little Yankee blog in the world!

(BEST IN THE WORLD!!)