BREAKING NEWS: He's BAAAAAaaaaaack (Again)

Via George King of the NY Post:

"The iconic closer told Yankees general manager Brian Cashman on Friday that he wants to return in 2013."

That's good enough for me.  My expectation all along has been that Mo was going to honor his word and come back for 2013 after not being able to go out on his own terms this season.  But there was a bit of doubt cast recently after reports of Mo having second thoughts.  Cash said he wasn't surprised, and I'm not either, but hearing it from someone as closely involved as Cash makes it all but official.  For one more year, we'll get the privilege of watching the G.O.A.T do his thing.

Larry Rothschild May Have Just Killed The Pineda Trade

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there aren't a whole lot of times when Larry Rothschild is speaking in great detail about his pitching staff.  So when he does, I tend to pay a little more attention to it than I normally would.  Yesterday, Chad Jennings of LoHud posted some highlight quotes from an interview Rothschild did on Sirius talking about his pitchers, and his comments on Michael Pineda were troubling:

"With shoulders, really, I think you take him off the radar screen, bring him back as the injury allows. But I don’t think we can count on him for next year at all. And hopefully he comes back and it’s a great addition, but if you count on him and think he’s going to be back by a certain point, you have a pretty high percentage of being disappointed with that. So I think you’re better off just approaching it that he’s not going to be back next year."

Recently, we were told Pineda was looking at a June 2013 return, something that would limit his innings and basically be more about preparation for 2014 than anything but would still get him back on the mound pitching in games.  But if there is weight to what Rothschild is saying, and 2013 is going to be another completely lost season for Pineda, that trade officially becomes a complete loss for the Yankees.

2012 AB4AR Season Review: Part I Down

Well the lessons have been learned from 2012, some good and some bad.  With what this season taught us and the Yankees, we're already settling in for another busy offseason that could lead to some big changes for 2013 or could result in us seeing a team that looks very, very similar to the one that took the field for most of this past season.  But it's not quite time to start focusing all the AB4AR energy to next season just yet.  Part I of our "Season Review" series is complete, but Part II still needs to be done and it will begin next week with the review of the 2012 lineup and culminate in the final review of my 2012 predictions.  If you missed any of the "Knew/Learned" series from this past week, here's your opportunity to get caught up and head into next week on the same page as me (assuming you think being on the same page as me is a good thing).

- The Infield

- The Outfield

- The Rotation

- The Bullpen

- The Bench