Tuesday Links

Like Kevin Youkilis last night, these links probably contain at least one error, even if it wasn't scored that way.

Apparently Marcus Thames wasn't starting last night just because the Yankees were in Fenway. Brian Hoch reports that the righty is a "near-lock" to see time against lefties. So Thames track record matters when it comes to facing lefties, but Curtis Granderson's doesn't? And Gardner doesn't even get a fair shake? Got that? No? Me neither.

Over at Pending Pinstripes, Matt was one of eight writers who answered a bunch of questions on Yankees prospects. Here are parts One, Two, Three and Four of the octagonal table.

Greg from PP also gathered up the links to his top 30 Yankee prospect profiles.

More from the farm: here is Mike from RAB's Minor League Primer, wherein he posts and discusses the rosters for each level of the minors.

Ross from NYY Stadium Insider did an excellent two part series analyzing the resale market for Yankees tickets this year. Well worth checking out if you are planning on picking up tickets online.

Want to hear some Sawx fans whining about the umpiring last night? Probably not, but here's the link anyway.

The Yankees are checking in at 3-1 to win the World Series right now with the Sox and Phillies next best at 6-1. Any takers?

It turns out that Joba really admires John Smoltz. The former dominant starter and reliever told the youngin' to treat everything like a one inning game, regardless of his role.

Via Craig at NBC, here is evidence that people have been complaining about the pace of play at baseball games since at least 1905. The only thing is, back then, 2:20 was apparently too slow.

Write something misguided about the Tampa Bay Rays and Jonah Keri just might write 4,000 words telling you how wrong you are. You've been warned.

Do you think if we told Joe Morgan that Hal McCoy was listening to the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, he would stop talking?

Sky Andrecheck over at Baseball Analysts looked a how experts make predictions about baseball and developed a model that explains how it might be rational for people to pick teams that aren't actually the favorites. It was similar to what I started talking about here, except it goes about 10 times deeper.

Over at the Hardball Times, Geoff Young did something right up our alley by combining music and baseball. He watched the Yanks/Sox game last night on mute with Radiohead's OK Computer playing instead of the announcers. The results can be found here.

Walkoff Walk compiled a guide to the stadium grub that is new for the '10 season. Nothing new at Yankee Stadium but plenty to check out around the league.

Balls too slippery? Rub some mud on 'em.

Here is a professional poker player talking about how Major League Baseball is "complete garbage" and "totally, and insanely boring to me". He adds:

Teams like Tampa Bay occasionally have a miracle year with a cast of young players, but guess what happens when their contracts are up? They end up in Boston or New York.

Exactly. Like, you know... that awesome player who went from Tampa to the Yankees that one time. Cleveland would have probably been a better example.

Daniel Negraneau is fantastic card player and he makes some fair points, but I don't really care about what someone who is admittedly not a fan of the game thinks about what is wrong with it.

That's it for now. We'll be back with the preview for tonight's game in a little bit.

A Few More Notes From Last Night

Last night's game ran 5 hours and ten minutes and contained 432 pitches spread out over 108 plate appearances. There's still more to be said about it.

Mariano Rivera was obviously excellent last night but much credit goes to the defense played behind him. Johnny Damon made a nice sliding catch on a looper by Chone Figgins. Mo and A-Rod combined to put 4 hands on a popped up bunt by Jeff Mathis (right) and Cano made a ranging snag for the last out in the 10th inning. Mo doesn't usually need good defense behind him, but when he gets it, say goodnight. He's like Phil Ivey hitting a run of good cards. Ya ain't got a shot.

The Baseball-Reference blog puts Rivera's performance as an "Old man on no rest" in perspective. Mo's the man but he's got nothing on Pete Alexander!

Tango from The Book breaks down the final play of the game mathematically. You probably already knew this, but there was essentially nothing to be gained by trying to get the runner at second (if you assume there was no chance they could have turned a double play).

Craig Calcaterra has some thoughts on the game, with some typical Shyster snark, "It takes longer to give up irrational A-Rod hate than it does to learn to be clutch."

Our pals at Halos Haven were not too happy with Joe Buck or the umps last night. The thing is that the biggest call that went against the Angels was questionable but ultimately correct, unlike the double play that Derek Jeter actually beat out in the sixth inning.

Will Weiss doesn't usually do game recaps for Bronx Banter, but he's got a duesy up over there.

Some random musings from the Yankee Universe.

The obligatory wrap up from LoHud.

And pick which quote doesn't fit into this collection.

Enjoy your football Sunday.

"He Did What He Had To Do"

Last night on the YES broadcast, after CC Sabathia threw behind Kurt Suzuki in the bottom of the first inning and both benches were warned, John Flaherty repeatedly praised the action by saying "pitchers need to protect their hitters" claiming it that it "clearly sent a message that you aren't going to abuse our starting third baseman" in addition to the quote in the title.

But did Sabathia really "have to do" anything?

Giving another team an automatic baserunner wouldn't seem to be good strategy ever, but last night's move was doubly unsuccessful since the pitch missed Suzuki and he deposited the very next one in the left field seats for a solo home run.

Looking back at the pitch that Vin Mazzaro hit A-Rod with, which prompted CC's warning shot, it didn't have the looks of an intentional beaning. Pitch f/x on Gameday on MLB.com identified the pitch as a 4 seam fastball, but it had the same speed and trajectory of the first pitch of the at bat which they identified as a two-seamer. Matt used a two-seamer as evidence of Rick Porcello not intending to hit Youk last week and and the same would stand to reason here. The ball broke pretty severely inside, like it got away from Mazzaro, not as if he was trying to hit A-Rod. Why would he have wanted to, anyway?

So why did the Yankees feel the need to respond? Yes, it was the same spot A-Rod got plunked last week against the Blue Jays, and if he was out for a significant amount of time, it would hurt the Yankees tremendously. But the pitch already happened. Did it stop the A's from hitting him again? I very seriously doubt that.

Just yesterday Bill James and Joe Posnanski took a look at hit batsmen over at SI.com (h/t BBTF). Pos noted a historical rise in the frequency of batters being hit, with the number of games which included a HBP climbing 10% from the 80's to the 90's and another 9% into the 00's, now at 36%. James hypothesizes that the advent of the metal bat in amateur baseball allowed taught young hitters to crowd the plate resulting in the recent rise.

Posnanski surmises that historically, the code of throwing at batters was much clearer and now determining intent is far more difficult:

And, all of this just makes it trickier than ever for everyone. Umpires and players and managers suddenly have to guess: "What was that pitcher THINKING?" [...] Suddenly you have to be Dr. Phil. And it's become silly.

All this guesswork leads to blind leading the blind, and hitters getting plunked in retaliation for something that wasn't intentional in the first place.

When Joe Torre was the manager, fans complained that pitchers like Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte would never throw at opposing batters. In general, didn't seem to be Torre's style. He was by nature, a calming presence and by and large had pitchers on his team who didn't seem to be very interested in pegging anyone. I'm guessing he's had a negative HBP differential over his managerial career, but he's not included on this list. Contrast that with Joe Girardi, who in much younger and uptight with two guys in A.J. Burnett and CC Sabathia who Torre didn't have, who don't fear sending a message to the opposition from time to time.

Last night, as home plate umpire Jerry Lane was warning the benches, the cameras quickly panned to A-Rod, who had an almost childish-looking grin on his face. He was apparently quite pleased, or at least amused that his pitcher had his back. Maybe it's just another example of A-Rod having no self awareness (who wouldn't want to sit at a poker table with the guy?), or perhaps there is something about standing up for a teammate that really brings a ballclub together.