Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 4/12/13

It's a dead zone out there in TV land right now.  "Justified," "The Walking Dead," and "Archer" all had their seasons end within two weeks of each other, and the start of a new "Mad Men" season isn't enough to fill the void for me.  I've been watching "The Following," but over the past few weeks it's turned more into watching for all the ridiculous plot holes and bad law enforcement work by the FBI rather than the overall show quality, kinda like the last few seasons of "24."  Anybody got some recommendations for good shows that are worth checking out?  Keep in mind that I don't have HBO, show "Game Of Thrones" is out the window. I know, I know, I'm cheap.  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, George S. of Gutty Gritty Yankees lamented Rob Thomson's tendency to send runners from third in situations that don't call for it.  Good observation from George, as this current lineup can ill afford to take runs off the scoreboard.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog put together the most comprehensive list to date of John Sterling's home run calls from the past 10+ seasons.  There's nothing else I can say to sell that link better than it already sells itself.

- On Tuesday, Egon Spengler of NoMaas had some fun with the early SSS season stats, an activity that I consider an early-season pastime as well.

- Rich Kaufman of Bronx Pinstripes commented on the changes Vernon Wells has made to his approach at the plate.

- On Wednesday, Mike Eder of IIATMS/TYA pointed out the changes in Cito Culver's swing mechanics this year that have him hitting better than he ever has.  Mike did something similar for Dante Bichette, Jr. on Tuesday.

- Steven Goldman of Pinstriped Bible wisely discussed Joe's decision to continue to split playing time between the Stewvelli catching tandem despite Cervelli's hot start.

- On Thursday, Chad Jennings of LoHud had the latest news on Mark Teixeira's recovery progress.  Good to know Teix is going to start swinging again.

- El duque of It Is High... mused on the still uncertain offensive identity of this current roster.  I'll just take runs any way I can get them.

- Joe Pawlikowski of RAB examined some new defensive metrics for measuring catchers and how the Chrisisco Stewvelli tandem stacks up in those metrics.

- Hunter Farman of Yanks Go Yard tried to explain the recent power surge from the lineup.  I say just enjoy it while it lasts.

- On Friday, Bryan Van Dusen of The Greedy Pinstripes put the hot starts of the new middle of the order in the proper perspective by projecting their performance moving forward.

- Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily interviewed Ben Gamel, underrated OF prospect currently playing at High-A Tampa.  Very timely interview given Gamel's hot start to the MiL season.

- SG of RLYW broke down the hitting projections to see what kind of rotation the Yanks might put in place in the outfield when C-Grand returns.

This week's Friday Jam is the new QOTSA track that was released this week, "My God Is The Sun."  If you didn't see this coming, you either aren't a regular AB4AR reader or you don't appreciate my taste in music.  Either way, you're missing out because this song is straight hot fire.  Between the new AIC album coming out at the end of May and the new QOTSA album coming out the week after, there's going to be a lot of good early summer tuneage.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Back-To-Back Rain Outs Kinda Suck

Axisa already beat me to it, but obviously back-to-back postponements in Cleveland the last two nights are going to pose some problems for the Yankees as they move forward through what is still a very long season ahead.  The team was only scheduled to make this one road trip to Cleveland this season, and now they'll have to chew up two scheduled off-days to make the trek back out to complete these games.  For an older team like the Yankees, off-days are an incredibly valuable resource and it will not be helpful losing two of them sometime in the middle of the grind.

It's not all bad news, though.  This second canceled game allows the Yankees to put their rotation back in its original order if they choose.  Phil Hughes will be skipped today so that CC, Hirok, and Andy can stay on schedule and pitch against Baltimore this weekend, then after a scheduled off-day on Monday they can come back with Nova and Hughes.  Personally, I hope that's the route they choose because I think it's important to give Nova at least another couple of starts before pulling the plug.

The rescheduling battle still has to be fought at a later date, and Mike had an idea for what scenario would work best for New York, but at least the bad weather combined the Yanks' resulting rotation juggling hasn't resulted in too much of a shakeup in that department.