Friday Afternoon "Nobody Is Even Reading This Because The Game Is On" Linkapalooza: 4/6

It's Opening Day, so obviously sitting around checking the Yankosphere isn't anybody's highest priority.  But that still won't stop me from giving the best of the best their props for a job well done.  So when you're done watching the game, come check out the best of the week that was.  Onto the links.

- On Monday, William Juliano of The Captain's Blog examined the Montero-for-Pineda trade through the lens of the recent trend of teams extending their young stars to long-term deals.

- EJ Fagan of TYA questioned the Montero-Pineda trade and explained why, given Pineda's recent injury issues, he wouldn't have made it.

- Brien Jackson of IIATMS took a stab at predicting how long Michael Pineda's rehab timetable will be.

- On Tuesday, Rebecca Glass of the recently resurrected This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes mused on Ivan Nova's spring struggles and why it's still important for him to pitch well this season.

- On Wednesday, FJ25 of Yankees Fans Unite discussed how the Yankees can use their failures with developing Joba and Hughes as a blueprint for how to get it right with Pineda.

- Mike Ashmore of Thunder Thoughts had a profile post on Trenton reliever Chase Whitley, who could make his way onto many top prospect lists with another good season this year.

- On Thursday, Curtis Clark of Bronx Baseball Daily took a position-by-position look at the Yankees defensively.  If Brett Gardner doesn't win a Gold Glove this season, the award should be done away with.

- Josh Norris of Minor Matters got a quick interview with the rehabbing Jeremy Bleich.  Bleich is a former top pick and hopefully he can make it back to the mound this season.

- Jay Jaffe of Pinstriped Bible weighed in with the 5 biggest questions he has about the 2012 Yankees.

- The always on point Mark Feinsand of the Daily News offered up his round of predictions for the 2012 season.

- Matt Hunter of Yanks Go Yard listed the 3 things to pay attention to in the first week of the season.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud had a great post on David Phelps' reaction to making the 25-man roster.  His family will be in the house this weekend to hopefully see him make his big league debut.  Major +1 to Phelps for the Willie Mays Hayes reference.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... offered his 5 predictions for the 2012 season.  No surprise to see he's not confident in the rotation.

- Mike Axisa of RAB offered up his opinions on Joe's recent lineup decisions against right-handed and left-handed pitchers and how Eduardo Nunez factors into those decisions.

As for the Friday Jam, if you've been a regular reader of AB4AR for a while and you don't know what song I'm playing today for Opening Day, then I just don't know what to tell you.  Happy Opening Day, everybody.  Let's go Yankees!



Enjoy your Easter weekends, people.

Opening Day Starting Lineup

Nothing fancy, nothing special.  Just the A-team.

1) Derek Jeter- SS
2) Curtis Granderson- CF
3) Robinson Cano- 2B
4) Alex Rodriguez- 3B
5) Mark Teixeira- 1B
6) Nick Swisher- RF
7) Raul Ibanez
8) Russell Martin- C
9) Brett Gardner- LF

SP) CC Sabathia

Game on.

2012 AB4AR Season Preview: 10 Fearless Yankee Predictions For 2012

If you've been an AB4AR follower for a while, and you can remember back to last season and the first batch of fearless predictions I made, you know I'm straight money at this.  Picking division winners and MVPs is child's play.  It takes a real baseball genius to lay the type of future prognostication I'm about to lay on everybody right now.  Bookmark this page, use it to lay a few prop bets for the season if  you'd like, and then thank me in November.  Here are the 2012 AB4AR 10 Fearless Predictions:

2012 AB4AR Season Preview: The Predictions

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

Well, we've reached the end of AB4AR Season Preview Week, which can mean only one thing...

IT'S YANKEES OPENING DAY, YEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!

I've previewed everything I can preview, and from those previews I feel really good about this year's team.  The lineup is stacked, the rotation is deep, the bullpen is tough, and the bench is serviceable.  As long as Joe keeps his nose out of the bullpen binder and doesn't put the bunt on in situations that don't call for it, this should be a very good year for the Yankees.  There's nothing more to analyze, so the only left to do is get on with the predictions, starting with the AL East.  Because I have horrible math skills and don't feel like putting the effort in on a holiday, this is the only division for which I'm predicting records.

AL East

1) Yankees: 97-65
2) Rays: 90-72 (2nd WC)
3) Fraud Sawx: 88-74
4) Blue Jays: 85-77
5) Orioles: 66-96

Check out the rest of the AB4AR 2012 predictions after the jump