Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 11/30

I got roped into going with a group of people from work to look at possible new office furniture and paint and carpeting and stuff.  Apparently it's been decided that our office looks old and outdated, which is true, and it's time to brighten things up.  Admittedly none of that type of stuff matters to me.  I couldn't tell you what color the carpeting or the walls in my building even are.  I could work on a beanbag chair and a rickety folding card table, so don't ask how it was decided that I was a valuable member to have on this refurbishing team, but at least I got a free lunch out of it.

The best part of the whole thing was listening to some of the higher-ups talk about how this had to be pitched to our CFO and how likely he was to shoot it down.  One of them said, "he's going to see that it's a need, but not a need that he's willing to spend that much on."  You know, like a starting catcher.

RIMSHOT!!!!

Now onto the links!

- On Monday, Mike Eder of TYA weighed the option of trading Robinson Cano, and used some future WAR calculations to make a decision on whether or not it would be a smart move for the Yankees.

- Steve Goldman of Pinstriped Bible looked back at the bad Yankee drafts of 2007-2009 and their connection to the upcoming payroll cuts.

- Jonah Keri of Grantland posted his two-part list of the Top 50 MLB trade value rankings (Part I, Part II).  I'm not a big Grantland guy, but I used to like when Simmons did this with the NBA and Keri knows his stuff, so it's definitely worth a look.

- On Tuesday, Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily profiled his breakout prospect candidate for 2013, Low-A Charleston outfielder Ben Gamel.

- Bryan Van Dusen of The Greedy Pinstripes liked the idea of Shane Victorino as a Yankee, an opinion decidedly opposite of mine.

- On Wednesday, Mike Axisa of RAB looked past tonight's midnight non-tender deadline to see which non-tender candidates could be good fits for the Yankees if they became free agents.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog did some serious number crunching to show the financial benefits of the Yankees' planned payroll cap and some different scenarios that lead to different levels of savings.

- El duque of It Is High... came up with an interesting idea for a Curtis Granderson trade partner, if the Yankees are entertaining the idea of trading him.

- On Thursday, Brien Jackson of IIATMS offered up his simple solution for how to fix the Hall of Fame.  Hint- it has nothing to do with steroids.

- Chris Carelli of Yanks Go Yard predicted what roster spots the Yankees would focus on when Cash heads to the Winter Meetings next week.

- Roberto E. Alejandro of Respect Jeter's Gangster came up with a good idea for a new owner, one who would be willing to match a 2-year/$17 million offer, if Hank and Hal were interested in selling.

- On Friday, Delia E. of Yankees Fans Unite correctly pointed out that Cash will head to the Winter Meetings next week with more to do now that the Yankees have let Russell Martin go.

- Jesse Schindler of Bleeding Yankee Blue already identified his ideal trade target to replace Martin.

For this week's Friday Jam I'm kicking it with some Black Keys, old Black Keys, before they were "cool" enough to play on Jimmy Fallon's late night show.  It's not that I think newer Black Keys isn't good, but I prefer the older, grimier stuff.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

How Will Losing Russell Martin Change The Yanks' Winter Meetings Plans?

(Congratulations, Hal.  You've successfully handcuffed your GM before the most important part of the offseason)

The Winter Meetings were already going to be a little different for the Yankees this year than in years past. With their plans to get below the self-imposed payroll ceiling becoming more real, and their early offseason actions being more strongly geared towards that one goal than ever, the days of the big, bad Yankees breezing into Nashville and stirring things up with their rumored connections to all the big names appear to be over, at least for the next couple offseasons. But with last night’s bombshell of Russell Martin signing with the Pirates, the entire landscape of the remainder of this offseason has shifted dramatically for the Yanks. While they did make very good progress in reloading the pitching staff, there are still a lot of gaping holes in the lineup and fewer quality players with which to plug them. I think the Yankees always anticipated that they’d be able to re-sign Martin, and now Cash will have to adjust his whole approach to next week’s meetings to cover for the loss.

Russell Martin Thoughts & Afterthoughts

(We'll be seein' ya, dude.  Courtesy of the AP)

Well that was an interesting turn of events last night, wasn't it?  Less than a week after it was reported that he was "willing to wait" for the Yankees to make him an offer before looking at other teams, Russell Martin signed a 2-year/$17 million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were only introduced as a serious candidate for his services earlier this week.  The bulk of the talks involved bigger-spending teams like the Yankees and Rangers, but shockingly enough it was Pittsburgh who swooped in and got the job done.

Even more shocking were the multiple reports from Yankee beat writers that the Bombers didn't even make a contract offer to Martin, who was easily the best all-around catcher available on the market.  The internal crop of Yankee catching options was and still is woefully thin on depth and talent, and the Yankees had to be keenly aware that the rest of the available free agent pool was very shallow, and yet they still chose to put re-signing Martin off to hammer out deals with guys like Pettitte and Mo who were never going to play anywhere else but New York next season.  It's a very puzzling strategy and move by the Yankees, one that I'm still having a hard time formulating a complete response to.  So in classic AB4AR fashion, I'll just throw it all out there in some bullet points.