Friday Afternoon Linkapalooza: 2/21/14

Spring Training is underway and I'm happy to have baseball back in my life, but I'm all about the hockey tournament right now.  Took another half-day today from work to watch USA-Canada and by the time this post goes up I'll either be well into drinking to celebrate the victory or ease the sting of the loss.  I'll turn my focus 100% to baseball when the tournament ends on Sunday.  Now onto the links!

- On Monday, SJK of NoMaas used the Craig Kimbrel signing as a reminder that the Yankees are being stupid by not doing the same with D-Rob.

- On Tuesday, Andrew Mearns of Pinstripe Alley discussed the awkward situation D-Rob finds himself in as an "unproven" closer replacing the greatest one who ever lived.

- Chad Jennings profiled Kelly Johnson and the work he's been putting in to prepare himself for the everyday third baseman job he's assumed.

- Roberto E. Alejandro of Respect Jeter's Gangster had the most succinct and spot-on take on the Cano-Long hustle non-story that I read all week.

- On Wednesday, Michael Eder of IIATMS/TYA projected Michael Pineda's 2014 season.

- Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily listed the 10 prospects who just missed making the cut for his top 50 for 2014.  Looking forward to seeing that list. That's a lot of prospects to keep track of.

- Daniel Burch of The Greedy Pinstripes continued his solid run of prospect interviews with the latest one featuring Staten Island pitcher David Palladino.

- On Thursday, Mike Axisa of RAB pointed out the flaws in the Yankee infield and in their approach to addressing them as they continue to not re-engage Stephen Drew.

- Dan Dechenaux of Yanks Go Yard found the one area where Carlos Beltran will be a big upgrade over Curtis Granderson.

- On Friday, el duque of It Is High... pleaded with Hal to get an early start on his international spending spree and sign 1 of the 2 Cuban players who the Yanks scouted this week.

For this Friday's jam we're going with a little Dio.  Win or lose in hockey today, Dio is always good post-game music.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.