Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 6/28/13

If you didn't catch it yesterday morning, I took a fair amount of heat in the comments section of my Jayson Nix gif post over at IIATMS/TYA.  Apparently nobody likes it when you say something that could be seen as mean about a "scrappy" player like Nix.  Here's the deal; with the offseason going down the way it did, and with all the regulars getting injured, and then the A-Rod media firestorm getting a tanker truck full of lighter fluid dumped on it this week, sometimes you have to take a step back and just laugh at everything.  That's what that post was and it blew my mind that more people didn't pick up on that.

This has been the most bizarre season I can remember in my time as an educated Yankee fan, and it's not even half over.  They've put lineups on the field that would give the Bad News Bears a run for their money and they've played some games, like yesterday's and to a certain degree Wednesday night, where they look like the Bad News Bears.  If you can't find some humor in things like that, frustrating as it may be to watch at the time, that's just not healthy.  And this year's team is definitely full of unintentional comedy.  Also, if you're a Jayson Nix defender you are just a lunatic, but that's a discussion for a different time.  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, Josh Norris of Minor Matters interviewed Mark Newman again and talked about all sorts of different topics.  Players discussed include Austin, Heathcott, Murphy, Campos, DePaula, and Eric Jagielo.

- On Tuesday, Mike Ashmore of Thunder Thoughts had a whole mess of video from Michael Pineda's most recent rehab outing.  If you wanted to check his progress out for yourself, here's your chance.

- Brian D. of Yankees Fans Unite asked if it's worth re-signing Cano if it means handcuffing the future payroll plans.

- William Tasker of IIATMS/TYA looked back at the very brief Yankee career of Mike Torrez.

- SG of RLYW played with the WAR and salary number projections to pinpoint some reasonable contract estimates for Robinson Cano.

- On Wednesday, el duque of It Is High... weighed in with his take on the Cash/A-Rod fiasco.

- Matt Warden of RAB broke down A-Rod's career - as far back as his pre-Yankee days - to attempt to determine what his final legacy will be.

- On Thursday, Derek Albin of Pinstripe Pundits analyzed opposing pitchers' approach against David Adams to explain his total offensive disappearance.

- Bryan Van Dusen of The Greedy Pinstripes weighed in on the handful of rumored Philadelphia Philly trade targets.  Personally, I'd take any and all of them at the right price.

- Martin Riggs of NoMaas pointed out the role that BABIP might be playing in the team's offensive nosedive.

- On Friday, Brian Heyman of LoHud asked the question I think we're all asking right now; what should the Yankees do about their putrid offense?

- Jason Cohen of Pinstriped Bible came up with some options for what to do with Joba now that he's become a huge bullpen liability.  Surprisingly, trade him was not one of the options.

This Friday's jam is some old school Foo Fighters.  Haven't gone with them in a while.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

This Can't Be A Good Sign, Can It?

I mean, it's been a while since I've taken any English classes but I'm pretty sure that's not the type of message you want to be sending as the manager, even if your offense is as hapless as Joe's is right now.

Visual metaphors, people. Deep stuff here on a Friday afternoon.

Eduardo Nunez Starts His Rehab Assignment

It's been ages since he last played in games, and we've still never got a good explanation as to just what the nature of his ribcage injury was, but Eduardo Nunez has re-surfaced on a baseball diamond again.  He started his official rehab assignment yesterday with High-A Tampa, playing 4 innings at shortstop and going 0-2 with 2 groundouts at the plate.

Nunez has a 20-day window for his rehab, and unlike the Pinedas and A-Rods of the world he would actually be a good candidate to return earlier if his body is ready for it.  The left side of the Yankee infield is an absolute joke right now and even Eduardo would be an upgrade.  He'll still need to get more at-bats under his belt and it'd be nice to see him hold up physically to a couple of full games in the field, but hopefully he's able to return before the All Star break and give Joe something else to work with on that left side.

Andy's Struggles At Home

(This definitely didn't help matters)

Didn't get to it yesterday, but there was another troubling trend in Andy Pettitte's game that came up on the ESPN broadcast the other night, that being his rather significant home/road splits this season.  Andy's been getting knocked around pretty good at Yankee Stadium in his last 5 starts there and his season home slash line presently sits at 5.72/3.91/4.29, compared to 2.81/3.14/3.18 on the road.

The simplest explanation for this extreme split is that Andy has gotten hit a lot more at home and given up more walks at home.  He's given up 11 more hits in 2.1 fewer IP in his starts at The Stadium and walked over twice as many batters there than on the road (15 to 7).  Digging a little deeper, there doesn't seem to be a drastic difference in his H/R contact rates and he isn't giving up more homers at home, so as with his overall uneven performance since coming off the DL this could just be a case where his .346 BABIP at home is a little unluckier than it should be and his .277 BABIP on the road is a little luckier.