2012 AB4AR "Best And Worst Of The Year": The Postseason

- Calling Out the Weak Yankee Stadium Crowd.  It still disappoints me to think about how quiet those postseason crowds were, and I worry that's going to continue to be the case now that the Yanks are out of their deal with StubHub.

- Questioning Joe's ALCS Bullpen Decisions.  Less than a week after praising the job Joe did, I was right back to bashing him.  I still say this was very deserved criticism, though.

- Get Off A-Rod's Nuts.  I wasn't sure how that title was going to go over on TYA, but it was a pretty good rant and I still think it's a joke that C-Grand and Cano didn't get bashed more for choking in the playoffs.

- Commenting on The "1-Year Only" Approach.  Seeing how quickly guys like Martin and Chavez left, I think that strategy did backfire on the Yankees a bit.

- Not Sold On Youkilis.  Whoops.  Guess I should have written that more than 1 hour before the Yanks offered him a contract.

- Getting Excited About Brett Gardner's Return.  Still love me some BG, probably more than I should.

- Hideki Matsui Retires.  It's just a few days old, but Hideki was a favorite of mine.

2012 AB4AR "Best And Worst Of The Year": The Regular Season

(Best Photoshop of the year)

- Chris Stewart Is The New Hotness.  He's not really, but it was fun to incorporate a "Men In Black 2" reference and play up Stewart's non-existent awesomeness all season.

- Don't Worry About Teix's Slow Start.  I don't know why I had so much faith in his SSS results in the first couple weeks, especially considering his history and previous years of decline.  Note to self for next season: be very concerned when Teix has another shitty April.

- My Painful Break Up With Phil Hughes.  If only I could have been this eloquent with my college girlfriend.  I've never had to fictionally break up with another man before, and I have to say, I think I handled it pretty well.  And yeah, I definitely sought advice from people at my office on appropriate break-up songs.  Don't judge me (even though I know they did).

- Reacting To Mo Announcing He Was Coming Back.  I feel like Mo brings out the best in the emotional side of my writing, and it still makes me feel good to know I have a chance to watch him pitch one more time.

- The Russell Martin/Laz Diaz Confrontation.  This season was the tipping point for me with bad umpiring in baseball, and the fact that something this egregious happened to a member of the Yankees was not going to stand.

- Commenting on CC's Fastball Problems.  Looking back on it, he probably was hurt here.

- The BG-1000.  Brett Gardner, the only guy who had a more troublesome elbow than CC this season.

- Jinxing Robbie Cano in the HR Derby.  AB4AR giveth and AB4AR taketh away.  That one's on me, guys.

- FJMing Ian O'Conner's Joba Obituary.  A friendly reminder that ESPN and its team of Yankee writers are absolute ass and should be avoided at all costs.

- C-Grand's Negative Trends.  Fair warning, I'm going to be really hard on Curtis if he has another season like this in 2013.

- Waving The White Flag to Bahhston.  Because their 2012 season was the highest of unintentional comedy and there was nothing I could do to make it any funnier.

- A-Rod's Return Gets Me All Hot and Bothered.  Probably the last real positive post I'll ever get to write about The Horse.  And with where his production went after this post, this wasn't a feather in my cap.

- Debating Derek Jeter's MVP Ranking.  I honestly thought he would finish top 5 because of the MSM's tendency to slurp him.  He ended up 7th.  Not too shabby.

- Game 162.  Definitely the most excited I've been for a Yankee game in almost 2 years, and even though the ultimate ending to their postseason was a disappointing one, it was still fun to have this much drama tied to the final game of the regular season.

2012 AB4AR "Best And Worst Of The Year": The Preseason

There's not much going on right now as we get ready to leave 2012 in the rearview and forget to write "2013" on our checks for the first few weeks of January, so why not take a look back at the year that was?  I posted way more than ever in 2012, something that may be a good or bad thing for you depending on what you think of my writing and analysis.  I'm more willing to poke fun at myself and admit when I was completely off on something, so this 2012 recap won't be a complete greatest hits collection.  More like a collection of posts that are personal favorites for one reason or another, that reason usually being that I enjoyed writing them.  To break things up a bit, I'll separate the review into preseason, regular season, and postseason, the first and last sections comprising parts of the last 2 offseasons.  We'll start with the 2012 preseason, from January 1st to Opening Day.

- The Complete 2011/2012 AB4AR Top 30 Prospects List.  Because the 2nd edition is only weeks away and it's good to brush up.  Especially on the guys I whiffed on (cough, Rob Segedin, cough!)

- Looking Back at Jorge Posada's Career.  Tough to do since I was never as big a Jorge fan as most, but absolutely needed to be done for what Jorge did in his career as a Yankee lifer.

- Reacting to Kim Jones' Departure.  I still miss you, Kim!

- The Possibility of Another "Core Four."  I tried to keep it grounded, but it's tough to not get excited about a group of prospects all playing well and all moving through the MiL system together.

- Setting The Blueprint for Derek Jeter's Offensive Success in 2012.  Better contact rates?  Better performance against RHP?  Better approach at the plate?  Nailed it.

/pats self on back

- ManBan & Betances' Strong Spring Trainings.  How little did that end up meaning this year?  Sheesh.

- Not Being Fully On Board With the Andy Pettitte Signing.  Trying to argue that Pettitte shouldn't have been given a free pass over guys like Pineda, Nova, Phelps, Warren, and D.J. Mitchell??  Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either.

- The Season of Mo.  This ended up not panning out because of his injury, but this was one of my favorite posts of the year.  I actually spent time over the course of almost a full day writing and re-writing this because I wanted to make sure I said everything I wanted to say exactly the way I wanted to say it.

2012 AB4AR Season Review: The Awards

I have a confession.  I lied to you all last week when I said the 2012 Season Predictions Review post was the end of the 2012 AB4AR Season Review series.  I forgot about the awards.  MLB is giving out all their big season awards this week, with the Yankees coming up dry in all the ones already announced and looking like they only have a top 5 candidate at best in Robinson Cano for the AL MVP award today.  So being the kind, caring, selfless, generous person I am, I'm going to use this time to hand out my version of the end-of-season awards for the 2012 Yankee season.

Know that this was a difficult decision and a tireless process to determine the winners.  All those who do win an award will be getting one of the free fictional AB4AR t-shirts that are still in the developmental stage and everyone is invited to a dinner at a location to be determined to honor all the winners.  Without further ado, the 2012 AB4AR award winners...

2012 AB4AR Season Review Review

The 2012 season has officially been put to bed, at least as far as I'm concerned.  Games were won and lost, lessons were learned, the good things were praised, and the bad things were bummed out on.  In case you missed any of the Season Review series this week, and shame shame if you did, here's your chance to catch up.

- The Lineup

- The Rotation

- The Bullpen

- The Bench

And if you wanted to have a laugh at my expense and see how my MLB divisional predictions turned out, you can check that out right here.

2012 AB4AR Season Review: The Predictions

(Not the best in the world in this instance)

I don't pretend to be the smartest cat on the block, even if I do take the opportunity to toot my own horn once in a while when I get something right.  But I actually felt pretty good about my 2012 season predictions back in April when I made them.  I made an effort to read up on other teams and where the rest of MLB stood heading into the season so that I wasn't just a loudmouth Yankee fan/blogger talking out of the wrong hole about the rest of the league.  Well, sometimes even the best laid plans go completely to shit, as you'll see after the jump.  Maybe it'd be better if I just stick to being a loudmouth Yankee fan/blogger...

2012 AB4AR Season Preview: The Predictions

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

Well, we've reached the end of AB4AR Season Preview Week, which can mean only one thing...

IT'S YANKEES OPENING DAY, YEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!

I've previewed everything I can preview, and from those previews I feel really good about this year's team.  The lineup is stacked, the rotation is deep, the bullpen is tough, and the bench is serviceable.  As long as Joe keeps his nose out of the bullpen binder and doesn't put the bunt on in situations that don't call for it, this should be a very good year for the Yankees.  There's nothing more to analyze, so the only left to do is get on with the predictions, starting with the AL East.  Because I have horrible math skills and don't feel like putting the effort in on a holiday, this is the only division for which I'm predicting records.

AL East

1) Yankees: 97-65
2) Rays: 90-72 (2nd WC)
3) Fraud Sawx: 88-74
4) Blue Jays: 85-77
5) Orioles: 66-96

Check out the rest of the AB4AR 2012 predictions after the jump