Monday Afternoon Linkdown

Why is it that no one ever bothers to think about the other side of the foam finger transaction?

Ross from NYYSI reconsiders some of the previous recommendations he made for standing room only and cafe seating tickets at Yankee Stadium.

I know the demolition of the Old Stadium is going on, but every time I see a new picture of it like this one over at Baseball Think Factory it's still hard to believe how little of it is left.

Quite relevant to these linkarounds, Dave Allen at Baseball Analysts put together a diagram displaying how the top 200 baseball blogs (according to Ball Hype) are related. We are mentioned in the post because of all the links we give out - one of just a few blogs that do a comprehensive round up of other sources. Here is the visual with all of the blogs named (we are "FY"). Allen plans to explore the interrelation of baseball blogs further and I'm looking forward to him continuing the series.

First Ozzie Guillen pulled the cheapshot move of making Javier Vazquez change his glove because it had three colors on it and then he complained about Nick Swisher pumping his first after he hit the go-ahead home run on Saturday (h/t BBTF). For good measure, Guillen also said that Swisher was a "horseshit player" for him in Chicago. In a related story, Ozzie Guillen is a petty bitch.

Did the '09 Yankees have an inflate fly ball rate because they were swinging for the fences at the New Stadium? Pat Andriola from THT revisits one of his old posts with some new data.

Tommy Rancel from Bloomberg Sports takes a look at what's wrong with Javy Vazquez. Frankie Pilere's opinon: probably something mechanical.

Tim Marchman thinks the same thing is causing Jake Peavy's struggles.

Why is Alfredo Aceves owned in 37% of Yahoo fantasy leagues but only 5% on CBS and 2% at ESPN?

What is it with old columnists starting an article with a one sentence sentence? In this case, it's a really, really bad one to begin with.

Who wants to tell Rob Parker that Austin Jackson is going to come crashing back to earth really soon so he probably shouldn't be gloating about the Curtis Granderson trade just yet.

Drunk Jays Fans uncovered video of people doing the wave at Wrigley Field. Is nothing sacred anymore?

Red Sox fans think their team has a better chance of winning the AL East than the Yankees (via Jonah). Alternate title: why text polls during baseball games are still terrible.

Ken Rosenthal wears little boy pants. Literally.

At Big League Stew, Dave Brown uses a dubious assumption to demonstrate the problems with a flawed statistic.

This seems like a pretty sweet option, but for $3000 you could buy you own pool table and have it for the rest of your life.

I'm not sure if he knows it, but Morgan Ensberg just FJM'd Tracy Ringolsby.

Andy from the Baseball-Reference blog reviewed the MLB At Bat iPhone app and comes out a little lukewarm on it. I don't have it, I just use the one from FanGraphs.

Tom Tango wonders how good scouts really are. Not baseball ones, the people who review and rate products for Consumer Reports.

Dan McQuade at Walkoff Walk lampoons the pointless "Keys to the Game" segment that seemingly every network does. I'm with you, Dan.

Spencer Hall did the Kentucky Derby and came back with some great pictures.

This probably came one leg of the Triple Crown too early considering the Preakness takes place in Baltimore, but Deadspin captured a fantastic phenomenon on Twitter: #WireDerbyHorseNames. My favorites from the ones that Deadspin mined out: Proposition Joe, Where's Wallace? Money Be Green, Much Obliged, 40 Degree Day, PAN-demic and Tweedy Impertinence.

I could probably spend on day on this, so here are a few of my suggestions:

Preach On Walon, Stringer's Bells, Brianna's Burden, Miss Anna, Yvette's Brisket, Wassup Latrice?, And I'm Not Even Greek, Cutty's Jim, The Western District Way, Come At The King, Butchie's Bar, Leakin' Park, No Lake No Trout, Girls In The Can, Mr. Lyon, Entrapping Bodie, McNulty's Lumina, The Boy Marlow, Trifilin' Bird, Ain't Gotta Dream No More, Goodnight Hoppers...

If I ever own a horse, I'm coming back to this post to name it.

Back in a while with the preview.

Friday Afternoon Link Party

How convenient, I only sleep with supermodels...

The Steinbrenners aren't the only ones with Yankee affiliations involved with thoroughbred horse racing. Joe Torre owns a horse called Homeboykris (I'm guessing he didn't name it) that has a good chance of running in the Kentucky Derby.

Over at the NYT bats blog, Sean Forman took a look at marathon games that used lots of pitchers (the Mets/Cardinals epic had 19, the second most since 1952).

Tonight, NYY Stadium Insider and Bronx Goblin are putting together a outing at Finnerty's on 2nd Ave between 13th ad 14th for the Yankees game. They've got some excellent specials so if you are in the city tonight and don't have plans, check it out.

Although the series with the A's is over, it's still worth checking out this piece by Jack Curry about Billy Beane and the expectations in Oakland.

Via BBTF, a 12 year old girl from Plant City, Florida threw back to back perfect games in Little League (yes, against the boys). Chelsea Baker primarily relies on her fastball now, but also learned a knuckleball from fellow Plant City resident Joe Niekro before he passed away in 2006. The knuckler could be her ticket to making it to the higher levels of the game, a la Eri Yoshida.

Carson Cistulli previews a host of games scheduled for this weekend at FanGraphs.

In honor of Earth Day yesterday, Steve Slowinski from DRays Bay collected a few ways that you can enjoy baseball more sustainably. My personal suggestion: don't start drinking hard liquor until the third inning.

Remember when the umpires weren't granting hitters time in the Yanks vs. Red Sox series earlier this year? Well they did it to the Rays too and Joe Maddon isn't happy.

Max Marchi ran down platoon splits by pitch type over at the Hardball Times.

The musically-named AAA affiliate of the Brewers - the Nashville Sound - is having Roy Orbison Night tonight. "The first 1.000 fans through the turnstiles will receive free Roy sunglasses and a case of unrequited heartache". (h/t Iracane on GReader)

Another explanation of Bill James disease, this time from the excellent Rogue's Baseball Index.

Late Monday night, Meech from The Fightins put out a call for help, asking if anyone had DVR'd the Phillies game on ESPN. The reason? There was some accidental nudity on the broadcast (obviously NSFW because of the bewbs).

Speaking of the Phils, Roy Halladay is off to an almost identical start to the one that Cliff Lee had for them last year, Bill Baer of Crashburn Alley takes a closer look at Doc.

Dave Allen at FanGraphs looks at how Ben Sheets shifts on the rubber and throws his pitches to right handed and left handed batters from distinctly different spots. There was a Yankee reliever who used this approach in the past couple years but I can't recall who it is now.

Over at the Hardball Times, Pat Andriola did a good job of rounding up some opinions on Bryce Harper's supposed character issues. Dave Cameron, Tom Tango, Rob Neyer and Keith Law all weigh in on Kevin Goldstein's initial take.

This is non-baseball, but the Giants selected pass rushing defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul with the 15th pick of the NFL Draft last night and are apparently not going to be trading Osi Umenyiora. Is Jerry Reese saying this to salvage some trade value for Osi? Is this like the Yankees stocking their farm system with catching prospects or Matt Millen habitually picked wide receivers for the Lions. Obviously somewhere in between, but the Giants now have 5 good defensive ends. It doesn't take a geometer to figure out that's probably a bit excessive.

Hang in there. Only a couple hours left.

Thursday Afternoon Linkaround

Over at the NYT Bats Blog, Benjamin Hoffman talks about the other numbers Jackie Robinson wore playing football at UCLA, in the Negro Leagues and at the Dodger's AAA team, then located in Montreal.

This article from Mental Floss talks about Robinson's MiLB debut and is the source of the picture to the left.

On a day when most are descussing Robinson's legacy, Joe Posnanski talks about the way he played the game.

Curtis Granderson is looking forward to honoring Robinson in the city where Jackie played his home games.

Ross from NYYSI notes that yesterday was the second lowest attendance that the New Stadium has played host to and explains why we might be in for some more low turnouts in the near future. He also created a comprehensive list of the changes that have been made to the Stadium since last year, most of which have to do with the concessions.

Mike from River Ave. Blues has an excellent post about waiting for Mark Teixeira to start hitting and suggests that the Yanks might want to drop him down in the lineup until he finds his swing(s). Couldn't hurt at this point.

Not to keeping harping on the Vazquez thing, but this morning Joel Sherman said:

But this idea that the media is feeding this beast is silly. Does anyone really think Vazquez would not incur boos if no one wrote or talked about 2004?

Really? The media doesn't influence fan perception? Not when another tabloid is saying that Vazquez "can't handle wearing those pinstripes" after two fucking starts? So why does The Post bother writing about the Yankees so much? Obviously because a lot of people read and have their opinions shaped by it.

Booing is contagious and there might be a some people who would do it of their own volition but the stoking of the fire by the Post and Daily News in particular most definitely had contributed to the scope of the boos. I'm not saying they shouldn't write the things they do, but it's ridiculous to pretend that what they put into print has no affect on people whatsoever.

Amidst all the negativity, there were some good deeds going on at the Stadium yesterday as well. An Iraq war veteran saved a rabbi's wife from choking during the game.

Even though they are staunchly anti-Vazquez, props to IIH,IIF,IIc for capturing this gem from Sarah Silverman.

For those of you who have always wanted the option of burning the Yankee logo into your toast, here you go.

Lar from Wezen-Ball searches for the best name in baseball. Unfortunately for Cannonball Titcomb, Jack Glasscock and Buzz McWeeny, it's not that kind of search.

David Pinto notes that if David Ortiz keeps striking out at the rate he's going right now, it's going to be incredibly difficult for him to be productive at the plate. Speaking of Papi, he's riding the pine tonight.

Diane Firstman at Bronx Banter looks back at some notable Yankee strikeout streaks.

Over a Baseball Analysts, Jeremy Greenhouse used batted ball data to create some visuals explaining where guys tend to hit the ball in the outfield. The one to the right compares Jeter and Jesus Flores and there is plenty of other interesting stuff if you click through.

I'm not sure how many of you listen to FanGraphs audio with contributor/occasional destroyer Carson Cistulli, but I highly recommend it, nof only for the "white hot analysis" but for the sly humor that Carson kicks in. Here is the latest version wherein they discuss the current state of PitchFX and here is an episode with an appearance by our friend Joe from RAB.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy says that chewing tobacco makes his in-game decision making sharper. That's called an addiction, folks. (h/t Sam Miller)

And finally, appropos of nothing, here is some badass acoustic guitaring via Boing Boing.