It went from high 70s in Wisconsin on Wednesday to mid-50s yesterday. When I woke up this morning and left my apartment to head to work there was frost on my windshield. Not just a little that comes off with a quick flick of the windshield wipers either, I'm talking a solid layer of frost worthy of a multiple-minute defrosting session. I had to defrost my fucking windshield the day before Memorial Day weekend. So glad I'm getting the hell out of this state for the weekend. Now onto the links!
- On Monday, Martin Riggs of NoMaas checked Brett Gardner's swing/whiff trends against the fastball to see if it made sense as an explanation for his slow-ish start.
- Chris Mitchell of Pinstripe Pundits identified a few MiL hitters who are having good offensive seasons, since that seems to be the exception to the rule for most of the top positional prospects.
- On Tuesday, Dan Barbarisi of the WSJ had a cool profile piece on Travis Hafner and his unique gameday routine as a strict DH. To me it actually sounds better than shagging flies.
- Chad Jennings of LoHud had Phil Hughes' thoughts on his recent struggles and problems with his fastball command. Good to see Phil start to turn that around last time out.
- El duque of It Is High... lamented the eventual return of all the injured superstars and worried about how the team might be impacted if/when they get hurt again and the current guys aren't around to replace them.
- On Wednesday, SG of RLYW pointed out the Yankees' AL last place ranking in P/PA this season. As something that's been a Yankee offensive staple forever, this is not good to see for a team this offensively weak.
- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog noticed a trend in strikeout rates and looked into whether it's the pitchers or hitters who are the leading cause.
- On Thursday, Mike Axisa of RAB looked back at the Yankees' 2008 draft and what could have been if they were able to sign their top pick. This year's draft is only a few weeks away and Mike is easily the best source out there for pre-draft scouting reports on possible Yankee targets.
- Mike Eder of IIATMS/TYA examined David Adams' career MiL contact rates to try to predict what kind of Major League hitter he'll be moving forward.
- Andrew Mearns of Pinstriped Bible commented on how high Mo has set the bar for future Yankee closers and how impossible it's going to be for D-Rob or anybody else to reach it.
- Andrew Ball of Beyond The Boxscore had a little fun with projections and looked at what kind of performance Mo would turn in if he was converted to a starter.
- On Friday, Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes broke down the 1996 and 2013 Yankee teams to see if the comparisons being made between the 2 are accurate.
This week's jam is "1Train" from the new A$ap Rocky album. It features pretty much every new rapper worth a damn who's come out in the last year or so and they all pretty much lay down some fire with their respective verses. Gimme this over 2 Chainz 25 hours a day, 8 days a week.
Enjoy your long weekends, everybody.
Sources: Yanks acquiring Brewers closer Williams
39 minutes ago