Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 10/26

The big yearly trade show for my company's industry is next week, so I get to put on the monkey suit and go hobknob with customers next Monday and Tuesday.  It's back in Chicago this year, so while there aren't quite as many weird entertainment options as there were in Vegas last year, like a completely strung out homeless dude following us down the sidewalk for 5 blocks going, "weed, coke, weed, coke, weed, coke" as his sales pitch to try to get us to buy drugs from him, it should still be a good time.  One of my favorite things about trade shows is watching the number of people who will walk into my company's booth just to eat the food and drink the drinks at our hospitality area.  Dudes don't care who we are, what we're selling, or what we can sell it to them for, they just need a free half a sandwich and they need it RIGHT NOW!  It's these kinds of people that make other countries hate America.  Now onto the links!

- A solid pair from my TYA teammates on Monday.  Mike Eder hit all the Swish haters with a dose of perspective, showing how it's not going to be easy to replace him this offseason.

- Mike Jaggers-Radolf followed that up with an argument against trading Curtis Granderson this offseason.  Curtis dropped a lot in my book this year, but Mike's right about trading 4-WAR players and Curtis is still that kind of talent.

- Mark Feinsand of The Daily News had an early report connecting the Yankees to 18-year-old Japanese high school pitcher Shohei Otani, who made waves this week by announcing he plans to jump directly to the MLB draft.

- Rob Abruzzese of Bronx Baseball Daily listed his personal top 10 free agent outfielders for this coming offseason for people who wanted to get a head start on finding their ideal Swish replacement.

- On Tuesday, Mike Axisa of RAB looked back at the biggest hits of the 2012 season.  Strange how 1 name kept popping up on that list...

- Brien Jackson of IIATMS wondered if Brian McCann was going to become available this offseason and what kind of fit he would be for the Yankees.

- On Wednesday, Matt Hunter of Yanks Go Yard broke down the numbers and the spray charts to show why Mark Teixeira should continue to try to pull the ball.  Tough to argue against it.

- Chad Jennings of LoHud had all the important details from Joe's end-of-season press conference, in case you missed anything.

- Steve Lombardi of Was Watching asked if Joe's contract situation should be looked at right now.

- Steve Goldman of Pinstriped Bible argued that Joe and the Yankees aren't being smart if they truly expect A-Rod to be their everyday third baseman next season, and hinted that they need to be aggressive in finding another option this offseason.

- On Thursday, fishjam25 of Yankees Fans Unite laid out his reasons for why Cash should try to trade Alex Rodriguez.

- SJK of NoMaas also laid out a very logical, detailed plan for what the Yankees should do with A-Rod.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog examined Justin Verlander's rough World Series outing and the history of similar bad WS showings by former Cy Young winners.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... stated that he thinks Mo deciding to not come back is the right move and that the Yankees should start making plans for life without Mo now.

- Bryan Van Dusen of The Greedy Pinstripes started to change his feelings on bringing back Swish, and looked at some potential replacement options.

For this Friday's jam, I'm going back to an old standby.  I know I've used Mastodon here before, but I know it hasn't been this song and it really doesn't get much more badass of an under-3-minute song than "Where Strides The Behemoth."  Even the name of the song is badass.  If I was a closer, I would seriously consider using the 10-second guitar riff at the end of this song on constant loop as my entrance music.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

2012 AB4AR Season Review: What We Thought We Knew & What We Learned (The Rotation)

("Whaddaya mean I'm the 7th starter?  Don't you know who I am?" Courtesy of the AP)

Starting pitching has been a tricky thing for the New York Yankees over the last 5-10 years.  Despite their best efforts, they haven't built rotations good enough to truly compete for World Series championships.  In 2009 they had just enough to get by, but for the most part the constant theme has been that when push comes to shove, the quality of the Yankee starting pitching wasn't on the same level as the quality of their offense.  Improving the rotation was right at the top of the priority list heading into this season, and great steps were taken to try to build up a better staff capable of being good over the long haul of a regular season and postseason.

In previewing what was known and unknown about this group, there was cause for optimism as it appeared the Yankees' plans to build depth and depth of talent were carried out successfully.  But as we've all learned at various times in our own lives, sometimes even the best-laid plans don't work out.

Mo Unsure About His Comeback

Via Andrew Marchand:

"Cashman told ESPN New York that on Tuesday he and Rivera had a conversation in which Rivera said he does not know yet if he will return for a 19th season.

'He wasn't certain on what he is going to do,' Cashman said."

Alright, who changed the program on RoboMo to let it think it could actually retire?  Not cool, guys.  Not cool.

At first I thought this was just another classic exercise of Marchand pot stirring for pageviews, but the quote directly from Cash does make this a little more legitimate.  That being said, I wouldn't get too concerned yet until we hear something directly from Mo's mouth.  He's had this three-act offseason play after the last few seasons where he's up in the air on whether he wants to keep playing.  Act 1 is the uncertainty and desire to stay home and spend more time with his family, act 2 is the actual spending of time with said family, and act 3 is Mo getting the itch to pitch again and coming back.  Rinse, repeat.

Besides, what the hell is he really going to do at home with his family with all that extra free time?  There's nobody at his home who he can teach the cutter to.  Don't worry about the G.O.A.T.  My money's still on him coming back.