Thursday Afternoon Linkarooski

Like seemingly everyone on the Yankees, these links are day-to-day.

A recent calculation by Forbes determined that the Yankees have the most valuable brand of any sports franchise in the world. At least internationally, I think this has more to do with this association with New York than their history as a baseball team.

I'm sure others who have traveled abroad have had the similar experiences, but I've talked to a good amount of people in counties like China and South Africa who were wearing caps with the interlocking NY and had no idea what the Yankees even were. To them, the hat stands for New York City and not the Yankees as a baseball team.

On Monday, Curtis Granderson wrote about his road to recovery - which included a case of strep throat - at Big League Stew.

Thanks to everybody who sent this one in: the NC State baseball team's media guide had a fantastic misspelling of "Wolfpack" that us Fackers were all too happy to see.

Apparently Matt Garza hasn't stopped being a complete cock between last July and now.

Still down about last night's loss? The first comment on this page should cheer you up.

Both Larry from the Yankeeist and frequent commenter Jimmy suggested the same thing this morning: moving Derek Jeter out of the lead off spot. As Matt said in the comments, it wouldn't be worth the media backlash and given how many balls Jeter has hit on the ground, particularly to short, he would be on a record setting pace for double plays this year.

So it appears that Josh Beckett is really hurt, unless putting him on the 15 day DL is just another part of the Red Sox elaborate ruse.

The Yankees are purportedly interested in Yunesky Maya, a 28 year old, right handed Cuban pitcher who has recently been unblocked after defecting nine months ago.

Ross from NYYSI discovers the seedy underbelly of Yankee Stadium's Bat Day.

Here's a puff piece from USA Today about George Steinbrenner and his contributions to the city of Tampa.

Joe Posnanski wrote a post explaining his contention that it's "just barely above possible" that Derek Jeter will break Pete Rose's hit record and then made some more predictions about which career numbers players including A-Rod, CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera will reach.

The WSJ says that Rivera is the best Yankee pitcher of all time. I don't agree with their methodology because Mo has a distinct advantage in categories like ERA and I'm not sure how they are isolating his "impact on attendance", but it's hard to argue with their conclusion. Mo is the man.

By now you know that Hanely Ramirez was benched for jogging after a ball that he booted into left field and was back in the lineup last night after apologizing to his team. Morgan Ensberg took him to task for it, David Ortiz told him to apologize, Bert Blyleven thinks how he dealt with it in the media was the real problem, and Posnanski mined some comments from his readers who imagined what Derek Jeter would have done in that situation, such as:

Jeter wouldn’t have chased the ball. The ball would have chased Jeter.

Plenty of words have been spilled about Ramriez think already, and it's basically over, but very quickly, I think it's kind of amazing amazing that we expect athletes to give maximum effort (or at least act like they are) on every single play, and for the most part, they do. We are imperfect as humans but we are capable of trying pretty damn hard.

Theo Epstein went to a Pearl Jam concert during a Red Sox game. Wearing a disguise. No big deal, Matt did the same thing when he saw them in Hartford. Gotta find a way to deflect all the attention from the roving hoards of Fack Youk Floozies, you know?

Ryan Wilkins explored what exactly the addition of historical WAR to Baseball-Reference.com means for the future of baseball history.

Angel Pagan hit and inside the park homer and started a triple play yesterday. And the Mets still lost.

Dave Cameron wonders why the respect for Ken Griffey Jr. is a one way street.

Ultimate Zone Rating just got a facelift. Over at FanGraphs, MGL lays out the updated primer and David Appelman announces the introduction of home/road splits for UZR (which unfortunately will be a small sample size minefield and probably only useful for outfielders).

Carson Cistulli's series at FanGraphs rolls on with Why Tommy Bennett Writes. It's both incredibly well-written and a veritable tour de force in one downsmanship. Here is Will Leitch's installment as well.

Bronx Native Randy Ruiz has been released by the Blue Jays and is heading straight for Japan.

Ben Jacobs from THT was at the game Stephen Strasburg started against the Rochester Red Wings last night and wrote about the phenom's performance.

AL East Q&A: Drunk Jays Fans

And now it's time for the final installment of our quest to survey the landscape of the AL East. After this, we can all stick our heads back up our asses and go back to only caring about the Yankees and the team they are playing at the time.

In some ways I think we've saved the best for last. Drunk Jays Fans has been providing the kind of vulgarity and analysis that we at Fack Youk strive for since the very beginning of 2007 - back when this blog was just a couple of pixels in a server in White Plains. Andrew Stoeten and Dustin Parkes might be drunk, but they are kindly drunks. One of the signature offerings on their site are the helpful guides which explain things like how to delude yourself into believing your team will still make the playoffs and how to sneak down into good seats at the Rogers Centre. They also do a post each year breaking down the most prominent Blue Jays-related blogs on the interwebs which is well worth the read. Now they well help us make sense of where the Toronto Blue Jays are at heading into the 2010 season:

FY: For the first time since 2002, the Jays' Opening Day starter will not be Roy Halladay. How are you dealing with the loss? Are you satisfied with the package that the team got in exchange for Doc? Could Kyle Drabek help the Big League club this year?

Dustin Parkes: Jays fans have had so little to cheer for outside of every fifth day when Roy Halladay would start otherwise meaningless games that removing him from the team is like cutting off the index fingers of a thumbless man. It hurts for now, but if there's hope that the procedure somehow leads to having Antonio Alfonseca hands in the future, the pain becomes berable.

While no one is going to replace Halladay to Toronto's fan base, as far as the package that the Jays got in return, Brett Wallace can definitely fill out a pair of trousers. And Kyle Drabek and Travis d'Arnaud aren't too shabby either.

I recently saw one of those Jim Bowden videos on FOXsports.com where he interviews baseball executives on a webcam (because he just like totally gets social media and internetty things). In the episode that I saw, Bowden spoke with all of the GMs involved in the Halladay deal, and while Alex Anthopoulos doesn't come right out and say it, it's fairly clear that he got the best deal he possibly could have.

Considering that Roy Halladay in his prime couldn't help the Blue Jays out of their mediocrity, it's doubtful that Drabek, Wallace or d'Arnaud will supply anything close to an immediate impact. However, if Toronto's playoff drought has been good for anything, it's been in developing patience and all Jays fans have right now is the hope that things will improve, and this threesome makes that hope more realistic than it's ever been.

FY: Thirty-two year old Bronx native Randy Ruiz was excellent at the plate for Toronto over 130 plate appearances last year, smacking 10 home runs (3 against the Yanks) and accumulating a line of .313/.385/.635. How does he fit into the picture this year? Will he finally see significant playing time in the Majors after 10+ years spent almost exclusively as a farmhand?

Andrew Stoeten: He doesn't really fit into the picture, and it's unfortunate, but there just isn't a realistic place to put him-- especially with a manager like Cito, who would love nothing more than to fill out the exact same lineup card every day of the season. (Ugh). Most fans, I think, would love to see the Jays give Ruiz a genuine shot, but not if it means watching Adam Lind butcher balls out in left field all year, or anybody other than Lyle Overbay attempting to corral all the throws Edwin Encarnacion is going to try to launch into the first row.

It's funny, because this year's Jays are exactly the kind of team that should be giving a guy like Ruiz a chance to show he's not just a AAAA player, but barring injury I really don't see it happening. Even if Overbay is eventually moved, it will open the door more for Wallace than Ruiz.

Perhaps if he makes good use of the few at bats he's given something will change, but as far as it seems now, as usual, it's a longshot.

FY: The Jays signed Cuban prospect Adeiny Hechevarria to a $10M deal in March and rumor has it that he passed on a larger offer from the Yankees. How do you feel about the acquisition and how high in the farm system is he going to start the season?

Stoeten: There's really nothing not to like about the deal. Ownership and the new GM have said repeatedly that, while they're not going to spend money just to spend it, they've still got capital, and they're open to anything that they believe will help the club in the long run. Not only does the Hechevarria deal add the kind of potential asset that, as Alex Anthopoulos likes to say, doesn't often become available, it also shows ownership's willingness to put their money where their mouth is.

Most expect him to start at New Hampshire in Double-A, which sounds reasonable-enough to me.

FY: Aaron Hill broke out with 36 homers (more than twice his highest previous total) and a .357 wOBA last year (also a personal best), but his OBP (.330) was slightly lower than his career mark. IS HE ON STEROIDS? In all seriousness, what are the chances he can duplicate or improve on his production this season? Where do you think he ranks among the very deep second base crop in the AL East?

DP: Here's my theory on the Aaron Hill power surge: While he was out with a concussion for most of 2008, the only thing he could do was lift weights. He managed to beef up a bit and it resulted in a more powerful swing. However, it would be foolish to expect the same power numbers this year. What we might be able to expect, based on his Spring Training numbers, is a more patient approach at the plate.

Less home runs, but more doubles and walks will still rank Hill as the most valuable second baseman in the AL East, no matter what Dustin Pedroia's brother tries to tell children.

FY: Lastly, how do you think the standings will look when the season comes to a close?

Parkes: Yankees, Rays, Sox, Orioles, Jays.

FY: Thank you gentlemen for your time.

An Ugly End To An Otherwise Lovely Road Trip

Ooof. Where to begin? This was an ugly one with four errors, four runs forced in by three walks and a HBP with the bases loaded given up by the Yanks. It was close until the fifth when a strikeout swinging that got away from Jose Molina ended up leading to the Yanks undoing. A lone bright spot, Derek Jeter picked up three hits and a walk, pulling within 5 hits of Lou Gehirg for first place on the Yankees' all-time hits list.

It was sloppy from the get-go with errors by Jerry Hairston Jr. and Robinson Cano to begin the first two innings. The Jays scored 3 in the 1st but Mitre escaped the second without any further damage. The Yanks came back to tie it up in the third with two outs on a single by Hideki Matsui and double by Nick Swisher that scored Matsui from first base.

Matsui scoring from first base? How is that possible, you might ask? Well the count was 3-2 so Matsui was running on the pitch and the "double" was really just an incredibly high pop up that somehow found a space between the Jays outfielders down the third baseline. While anyone else on the team would have scored easily, Matsui looked like he was running underwater and was only safe at home because he knocked the ball out of Rod Barajas' glove with his slide. He was initally called out and 3rd base coach Rob Thompson had to yell to home plate umpire Bob Davidson that the ball had been dislodged before the call was reversed.

The Yankees actually lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning 5-4 on a two run shot by Nick Swisher but gave back the lead in a major way. Sergio Mitre started the inning by giving up a single, and then got Vernon Wells to ground into a fource out. Edwin Encarnacion struck out swinging but Jose Molina couldn't hang on to it and it got far enough away from him to allow Encarnacion to reach first.

From there the flood gates opened with four straight singles, followed by two bases loaded walks, the latter by Mark Melancon. He just faced 4 batters, walked two and recorded only one out before being replaced by Josh Towers. The first batter he faced was Randy Ruiz, who he hit directly in the side of the face with an 0-2 pitch, forcing in yet another run. Ruiz was removed from the game but walked off under his own power.

Towers was supposed to be used for bullpen depth for tomorrow's double header but instead mopped up the final 3 1/3 innings today. Considering the final score, it's fortunate that the brunt of the impact was absorbed by just two pitchers. That said, it wasn't the kind of game the Yanks needed heading into the double header against Tampa tomrrow. At least it's a short flight home.

Hurts So Good

Today was supposed to be a getaway game. A West Coast road trip without an off day was looming over the Yanks and the best case scenario would have been to get out of there quickly with a win, and board the plane to Seattle. The length of the game turned out to be the least of their problems.

It started as soon as the Yankees came to the plate. Leading off the bottom of the first, Jeter was in the hole 1-2 against Ricky Romero when he took a curveball off the top of his unprotected right foot. It didn't appear certain that he would stay in the game, but he hobbled to first, advanced to third on a double by Johnny Damon and scored on a grounder by Jorge Posada.

The Jays answered with a homer in the 2nd by Randy Ruiz, his second in as many nights. The Yanks added two more in the 3rd and 4th on solo shots by Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano to retake the lead and subsequently stretch the margin to 3-1. In between those two, Ramiro Pena was brought in for Jeter at shortstop, which is never a good sign. X-Rays were negative on his foot but Jeter may still need some time off to recover.

Through his first five innings, A.J. Burnett managed to distribute 7 hits, a walk and a wild pitch such that Ruiz's solo shot was the only run scored against him. In the sixth, however, it caught up to him. After retiring Vernon Wells, he allowed back to back singles to Ruiz and Edwin Encarnacion. A.J. followed this up with another wild pitch, which moved the runners over, and a single, which scored Ruiz. He got Joe Inglett to strike out for the second out of the inning, but with an 0-2 count on Marco Scutaro, Burnett's third wild pitch of the day rolled far enough away from Posada for Encarnacion to tie the score at 3.

From our seats in Sec. 410, none of those wild pitches, let alone all of them, looked like they should have been scored as such. This might explain why Burnett didn't want to talk about them after the game. David Robertson threw another one that hit Posada in the glove in the 7th inning which was also scored a WP. Shortly thereafter, Jorge was hit by a foul tip on his bare throwing hand, but unlike Jeter, remained in the game for the duration.

After Burnett exited the game, the Yanks bullpen was once again flawless. Phil Coke, D-Rob and Phil Hughes combined to keep the Blue Jays off the board through the end of regulation, at which point Chad Gaudin made his Yankee debut. While the Yanks went down in order in the bottom of the 9th and 10th, Gaudin kept the Jays off the board in the tops of the 10th and 11th.

Just like Jeter in the first, A-Rod was hit by a pitch leading off the

inning. Also like The Captain, A-Rod stayed down for an extended period of time while Joe Girardi and Gene Monahan checked where he had been hit above his elbow protector. Knowing that some majorly awkward defensive switches were going to have to be made, A-Rod gutted it out and took his place at first base. The other walking wounded, Posada, singled to left and moved A-Rod to second. Robinson Cano stood at the plate, with runners in scoring position no less, and ripped the first pitch he saw into the gap in right center, it one bounced against the wall, and that was that.

It wasn't an expedient at 3 hours and 56 minutes, nor was is painless, with three very close calls on injuries during the game. Now the Yanks have are headed out to Seattle with three nicked up core starting players and a taxed bullpen, but they finished the homestand at 6-1 and still hold a 5.5 game lead over the Sox, who won easily behind Josh Beckett.