Friday, April 23, 2010

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.


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)


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.

7 comments:

  1. Meh, having a lot of wide receivers is one thing, but it's hard to have too many guys who can rush the passer in today's NFL. You put 3-5 defensive lineman on the field at once, after all.

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  2. I only sleep with supermodels...

    We also would have accepted "I only hit chicks that win beauty pageants."

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  3. I heard around the web that the best offers the Giants were getting for Osi were for 5th round picks. I find that very hard to believe. If the Giants could trade him for a second rounder, I think it's a no brainer. A third rounder is probably a good value.

    I certainly won't miss him too much if he leaves, especially if he'd be blocking the way for Pierre-Paul. The best thing about him is that he's cheap--owed only about $10 million over the next three years. Maybe the Giants are just expecting to lose Kiwanuka to free agency next year and are planning well.

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  4. Where do I get that shirt?

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  5. Also, I'm going to the Derby. It's smart to bet a lot of money on a horse who is owned by a former Yankee Coach right?

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  6. Most likely you guys have seen the graphs/charts on FlipFlopFlyBall, may have even linked to him before, but if not put aside some time to be there for a while.

    He did this one on the Braden-Arod ado.
    http://www.flipflopflyin.com/flipflopflyball/bradenia.png

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  7. Laura - It's part of a Victoria's Secret MLB collection. Here's a link:

    http://www2.victoriassecret.com/collection/?cgname=OSPNKMLBTMS&cgnbr=OSPNKMLBTMS&rfnbr=7212

    Mode - I have seen FFFB before and linked to it here maybe once or twice. Hadn't seen that one, though. Excellent find.

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