Good morning, and happy Thanksgiving, Pinstripe Alley readers. There have been a few interesting stories floating around the inter-Google over the last few days, so with that in mind, here's your usual morning news.
- Keeping things along the Thanksgiving theme, Brad Vietrogoski of The Yankee Analysts took a look at what the Yankees should be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The highlight? "Mark Teixeira should be thankful that popping up on the infield with runners on base isn't a fineable offense in the organization."
- Fox News Latino reported that 2012 could be Mariano Rivera's last season. From Rivera: "I don't know what will happen. I have one year left. I might call it over. I will know more in Spring Training." The day will come eventually, but it is certainly difficult to think of the Yankees without Mariano Rivera headlining the bullpen.
- Larry Koestler took a look at the 2012 Bill James projections for the Yankees. The most surprising? James' very aggressive projection for Jesus Montero: .289/.351/.505, .371 wOBA. In order of wOBA, the Yankees' most productive hitters would be Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Jesus Montero, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Brett Gardner, and Derek Jeter.
- More from Brad Vietrogoski, who took a look at prospect hugging. He came to a very simple conclusion: "Prospects are like hot girls you meet at the bar who turn out to be crazy. You can talk to them and about them, look at them, have fun with them. But don’t get too attached to them. Because more often than not, you’re just going to end up getting hurt if you do."
- Wallace Matthews of ESPN shared a conversation he had with Brian Cashman via text messaging. Kind of funny, and I get the feeling Cashman just wanted to mess with Matthews.