Friday, April 13, 2012

The First A-Bomb Of The Year

(See ya!  Screen cap courtesy of MLB.com)

I've been waiting 6 game for this, and The Horse finally comes through today with his first HR canter of the season.  He must have just been waiting until the Yanks came home.  What a guy.

Friday Afternoon "2012 Home Opener" Linkapalooza: 4/13

It's the home opener today, and I'm sure everybody will be glued to that once it gets going, so here's the Linkapalooza a little early today.  To the links.

- On Monday, Scott Ham of The Bronx View unveiled the Girardi Tracker to follow Joe's usage of his pitching staff.  I've already reminded myself never to check this after a Yankee loss when I'm drunk.

- On Tuesday, Jay Jaffe of Pinstriped Bible stirred the pot a bit on the Yankees' 0-3 start by bringing up past instances of even worse starts in franchise history.  Luckily, the team has rebounded since then.

- Joe Pawlikowski of RAB commented on Derek Jeter's hot start and what could be the major contributing factor.

- On Wednesday, Frank Campagnola of Pinstripe Alley voiced his opinion on Freddy Garcia, and it wasn't a positive one.  This could have been a knee-jerk reaction to Freddy's poor first start, but Frank does make some valid points.

- Greg Corcoran of Bronx Baseball Daily became the latest to point out the fact that despite perception to the contrary, the Yankees are actually good at developing pitchers.

- Dan Barbarisi of The Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece on Eduardo Nunez and his desire to be Jeter's successor as the everyday shortstop.  I admire his commitment and work ethic, but dude really needs to clean his game up to be a viable option.

- Mike Eder of TYA broke down Ivan Nova's first start of the season with PITCHF/x, and made some predictions on what we could see moving forward.

- On Thursday, Jamie Insalaco of Bomber Banter reviewed the trends from the first 6 games in preparation for today's home opener.

- William Juliano of The Captain's Blog crunched the numbers on early-season blown saves to disprove the theory that there have been more of them early in the season than usual.

- William Tasker of IIATMS commented on the small sample size-influenced last place ranking for the Yankees in defensive efficiency, and included a stellar Photoshop as well.

- Delia E. of Yankees Fans Unite used David Phelps' early-season success to form some comparisons between him and D-Rob.  Phelps' MiL history doesn't project K dominance like D-Rob has had at the Major League, but I think we'd all be ecstatic if he developed into something close.

- On Friday, Kate Conroy of Lady Loves Pinstripes unveiled his first weekly MLB power poll of the 2012 season.

- George King of The Post had some quotes from scouts saying that Jeter looks quicker out of the box this season than he has in the past.  No word on whether or not he's importing water from the fountain of youth.

I should be going with "Here Come The Yankees" for the Friday Jam again today for the home opener, but I don't want to use it 2 weeks in a row.  Instead, I'm going with "Bulls On Parade" by Rage Against The Machine, one because I'd like to see the offense perform like a bunch of bulls on parade today, and two because Rage is the shit.



Enjoy your weekends, everybody.

Early Trade Returns

The season is still very, very young, but just for S's and G's here's where the pieces of the Montero-Pineda trade are at through the first week:

- Jesus Montero: 7-25 w/ 0 XBH, 2 RBI, 0 BB

- Hector Noesi: 1 GS, 3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

- Michael Pineda: On the DL, throwing light workout sessions

- Jose Campos: 2 GS, 11 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K

And there's your Friday the 13th weirdness for the day.  The least-heralded part of the trade, at least initially, blowing people's doors off in his first experience in a full-season league while the other 3 guys spin their tires a bit at the wave of the green flag.  If this trade wase a tennis match, the Yankees would be up 15-love in the first game of the first set.

P.S.- Did I get enough completely unrelated sports comparisons in there?