Morning Linkaround

Good morning, Fackers. As much of the East Coast recovers from the winter storm that swept over it last night, the Yankees are down in Tampa beginning Spring Training in earnest. While we celebrate pitchers and catchers as the beginning of camp, as Joe Girardi said earlier this week, it doesn't really kick into full gear until the position players arrive.

Most of the new arrivals had already went through their physicals and took off by the time the writers hit the clubhouse yesterday, but today they will start doing their first drills as a full squad. Of course, we've still got a while to wait before any action appears on our televisions. A week from today, the first Spring Training game (against the Pirates) will be televised on YES. Marc Carig from the Newark Star-Ledger has the full TV schedule.

Here are some other links to start off the day:

Cliff Corcoran from Bronx Banter put out his annual Camp Classic. In it, he examines every player not guaranteed a spot coming out of Spring Training from the 40 man on down to the non-roster invitees.

Similarly, Matthew Pouliot from Hardball Talk continues his "Diving into the Depths" series with a look at the Yankees and organizes a depth chart by position.

Dan Novick from the Hardball Times spotlights an especially sabermetric statement Joe Girardi made about Robinson Cano's performance with runners in scoring position, via LoHud.

On XM Radio last night, Brain Cashman acknowledged that Brett Gardner might be one of the best center fielders in baseball, but said that Curtis Granderson was likely to be their center fielder this season. Ben from RAB thinks that Cash's statements might be an indication that the Yanks don't see Gardner as a long term solution.

On Twitter, Joel Sherman reports that the Yankees are converting Kei Igawa to a reliever in a last ditch effort to extract value from his $46M contract. Considering Joe Girardi is almost certainly going to select two lefties for his bullpen and Boone Logan might be the front runner for that spot, it appears that Igawa will be given a real chance. You can't blame them for trying to make use of him, but the reaction from fans won't be very positive if he stumbles out of the gate.

It's about the time of year that ESPN typically starts stacking new baseball "analysts" - read: past players and executives - on top to their already bloated crew. To wit, they announced that Aaron Boone and J.P. Ricciardi will be contributing to Baseball Tonight this coming season. We Yankee fans like Boone, and Ricciardi seems like a bright, sabermetrically-inclined sort of a guy, but they might need to add a second row of seats on the set of the show.

Larry from Wezen-Ball put together an interesting graphic showing the history of every Major League park marked with the Championships and Pennants won by the team that in habits it.

The ubiquitous Jonah Keri recently appeared on two podcasts that are worth checking out. The first is FanGraphs Audio, which as host Caston Cistulli proclaims "is like a bald eagle: less endangered now than it had been until recently". The second appearance is on Kissing Suzy Kolber's House of Punte. The relevant portion begins just after the 18:00 mark and there is a bit of overlap with the FanGraphs interview. The typical crowd over at KSK will probably not take kindly to the decided lack of poop humor, dick jokes and NFL character sketches, but you folks will likely enjoy the material.

Ozzie Guillen is on Twitter and already dropping gems like "going to eat in half hour why dye no have a job ?". In honor of his presence, Jonah compiles a list of the 9 sports figures who aren't on Twitter but would be in a perfect world.

Baseball America released its Top 100 Prospects list. Jesus Montero is 4th and they his his power a perfect 80 on the scouting scale. The only other Yankees was Austin Romine and he is 86th. Austin Jackson is 76th. Pat Andriola from the Hardball Times lists a couple of things he disagrees with, including ranking Jackson higher than Fernando Martinez.

We might have linked to this already, but for a more detailed and Yankee-centric prospect picture, check out Mike from RAB's Top 30.

The smart folks at BBTF weigh in on the Orioles/Highlanders/Yankees debate I talked about yesterday.

Josh from Jorge Says No! wonders if the Yankees reluctance to give Johnny Damon a two year deal foreshadows their interest in Carl Crawford.

Off Night Links: Electric Relaxation

After a weekend series packed with high-scoring, long-lasting baseball games, the Yankees get a break today. The schedule makers were kind to the Bombers, cushioning the blow of a 10 game road trip punctuated by a trip to Fenway by bookending that series with two off-days. Per usual, since there is no electrifying Yankees action, we have compiled some links and suggestions of things to watch on this slow Monday evening.

The Little League World Series is on ESPN2 tonight, and the team from Staten Island takes on the crew from the ironically named Urbandale, Iowa at 8PM. The LLWS isn't really my cup of tea, but you can be sure Dustin Pedrioa's brother will be watching intently, scouting for talent.

YES is showing the Game 3 of the 1999 World Series episode of Yankees Classics if you prefer to live in the past.

There is also some preseason football, with the Jets facing off against the Ravens on ESPN. Now that Brett Favre has moved on to some purpler pastures, the Jets have been relieved of all of the distractions associated with him and are left to do what they do best: play mediocre and uninteresting football.

Sorry, Jets fans. For you and others that hate the Giants, here you go.

Plaxico Burress has agreed to an interview with E:60, portions of which will be shown on SportsCenter tonight. (/yawns)

In a battle of Sox, Boston hosts Chicago as they look to widen their lead over the Rangers in the Wild Card standings.

Why does Jim Rice hate America? (h/t BBTF)

Maybe we should ask Peter King. And his baggy shorts.

This can't be true, can it? Derek Jeter would never eat with A-Rod. (h/t to reader Eric Miller)

Via MLBTR, here is the latest on Johnny Damon's, Andy Pettitte's and Hideki Matsui's outlooks for next season.

This may come as a shock to you, but Mariano Rivera actually is aging.

Do the Yanks rely too much on the long ball? Joel Sherman thinks so. He also adds later in the column that the Yanks can finish 17-21 and still win 95 games. Wow.

Main Entry: ten·u·ous
Pronunciation: \ˈten-yə-wəs, -yü-əs\
Function: adjective
Defintion: (3) Having little substance or strength : flimsy, weak. A tenuous connection.

Youk's got a new nickname!

This is probably the most accurate thing I've read all day. (via Joe P)

That's all I've got for tonight, Fackers. Feel free to drop your own in the comments, and we'll see you in the morning.

What's The Difference?

I have a question.

What's the difference between A-Rod's comments regarding Jose Reyes and Derek Jeter's in reference to David Wright?

A-Rod:

I wish (Reyes) was leading off on our team or playing on our team. That’s fun to watch.

Yes, he said he wished Reyes was playing for the Yankees, but listen to Jeter talk about Wright (emphasis mine):

The thing with him, I respect the way he handles himself in New York. I think he shows all the right leadership skills - he leads by example and he's not phony. What you see is what you get from him. It's not an image he's trying to portray; I think that's how he is as a person.

If that isn't a blatant shot aimed squarely at A-Fraud, I don't know what is. (Well, maybe this.)

Had you read the Jeter quote before right then? I hadn't before I dug them up in the Daily News today. Why wasn't there a massive public outcry? Which of those quotes would you rather have aimed at you? This is just personal preference, but last thing in the world I want to be called is phony.

PeteAbe, where were you on that one? When A-Rod made his Reyes comments this is what you said, "It’s truly amazing the fixes this guys gets himself into. It really is."

And here is what you said about Jeter's comments on Wright, "__________". (It didn't even make the blog.)

Listen, I've had as much fun as A-Rod's expense as anyone. This post was responsible for the biggest day in the history of our site (thanks in part to PeteAbe). But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that Derek Jeter has some bulletproof persona and incredible media savvy and A-Rod is just some bumbling buffoon who fucks up pretty much every time he opens his mouth. Actually, I'm okay with the second part of that.

But the self-fulfilling prophecy of Jeter's "public genius" is amazing. Beat writers and media types love Jeter because he's charming and straightforward and therefore they automatically give him credibility. He can get away with saying something almost exactly in line with what A-Rod says, and it gets buried at the end of a Daily News article, while everyone flogs A-Rod for taking shots at the Teflon SS. The funny thing is A-Rod probably just didn't chose his words well, but you can tell there was some angst and frustration behind what Jeter said.

The short answer to the question I posed at the top: The person who said it.

Until I started writing for this blog, I didn't realize the importance of who is actually saying something. We probably all have blog feeds with multiple authors and prefer one to another. If for some reason they posted a Christmas Ape post at KSK under Big Daddy Drew's name, I would probably think it was funnier, given my appreciation for Drew's past work.

Similarly, when Jeter opens his mouth, people expect him to say something uncontroversial and because of that, his quotes are presented as carefully calculated insights. A-Rod is no stranger to saying and doing inexplicable things, so when he says something asinine, everyone thinks to themselves, "I fucking knew it", right before they clobber him for it.

It's human nature. I don't mean to call out PeteAbe for not liking A-Rod because he's the best Yankee blogger we've got, and if any of us were in his position, we'd probably hate A-Rod's guts just as much or more.

Case in point:

Jeter says he admires the way both Pedroia and Youkilis play "every game like it's the last game they're going to play. You appreciate that."

I didn't hear anyone say: "ZOMG, did he just take a shot at the sometimes lackadaisical-looking Robinson Cano?!/?1!?/11!?1 He's no Captain."

Dr. Dre, would you please tell these mahfackers:

Thursdays Just Got A Whole Lot Less Cool

We here at Fack Youk make no secret of the fact that the name of of this rag tag outfit was inspired by Drew Magary's brilliant transcription of Bawston-speak onto the intertubes. During the NFL Season he writes the incomparable Thursday NFL Dick Joke Jambaroo, but I looked forward more to his offseason Balls Deep column, in which he seamlessly blended insights into life, sports, drinking and sex with hatred, profanity, and sarcasm. Back in June, he delivered a stirring address to the Graduating classes of '08:

You think you’re gonna make a difference? You got some nerve, asshole. You’re just part of another class going through the same routine as the class before you. You’re no different. You’re just as full of douchebags and shitheads as any other class. In fact, given the rising popularity of lacrosse, your class is probably even worse. The rest of us eventually had our dreams crushed by the cruel realities of the world. I see no reason not to burst your bubble right here and now. Heed these words, then fall in line like the rest of us.

Truly inspirational.

He also used that regular column to come up with some genuine insights into life, including when he explained why, selfishly, he was voting for Obama:

I’m voting for Barack Obama this fall. Now, I have lots of reasons to do it, all of them blatantly self-serving. Don’t like Obama? Feel like voting for McCain? Fine by me. I’m not interested in starting any sort of political flame war. But the main reason that I’m voting for Obama is because he offers something that McCain does not: an opportunity for me to “be a part” of a historic moment.

It’s an inescapable fact for both candidates that a black man winning the White House would be a far a greater milestone in American History than if another old-ass white guy were to keep the streak alive. The reason Obama can talk about change all the time without getting too specific is because he doesn’t have to get specific. He IS the change. The act of him winning, by itself, has a huge impact.

So there’s something immensely appealing to me about the prospect of living through that sort of moment. I was born in 1976. I have lived through exactly one seminal moment in American history, and that was 9/11. I would very much like something to counterbalance it. I’d like to bear witness to history and not feel ashamed for the odd kind of thrill it provides. I’m voting for the moment as much as I’m voting for the man.

Well, in yesterday's Jambaroo, the last of the NFL season, he announced that Balls Deep was no more.

Also, I regret to inform you that Balls Deep, the regular Thursday column I ran in place of the Jamboroo during the offseason, will not be returning. Much to Buzz Bissinger's relief.

Instead, I'll be continuing my editor at large duties here by popping in for random posts every so often. My hope is to litter the site with more Great Moments in Poop, polygraph tests, Nazi Shark picks, and poorly worded, profanity-filled rants. I believe I also owe the editor of this site a Cultural Oddsmaker column, so look for that, too.

Lastly, not that you needed the incentive, but I've joined Penthouse magazine as a new monthly columnist. Someone on Facebook told me they only masturbate to it for the articles. Me too!

It's a sad day to be an occasionally vulgar sports blogger. Good for Drew, Penthouse is the perfect forum for him, and I hope that what he writes over there resembles all the fantastic stuff he has done for Deadspin over the years.

The first Balls Deep column I read completely blew my mind. I didn't know you could do THAT. There wasn't (and probably still isn't) another place to get random sapient sports-related insights very specific to the college/20's demographic presented without pretense, self consciousness or an editorial filter.

I can tell you that reading his stuff not only helped encourage me to build this little thing here, but to expand my range and talk about all sorts of stuff, and not be afraid to use words that might offend some people. But like all good things, this came to an end.

We still have KSK, and like he said above, he will still make surprise appearances at The 'Spin. But on Thursdays from early February to late August, there won't be something that will make me drop whatever I'm doing at work around 4:00 and head to my Google Reader.