The Final Word on IBBs: NoMaas finishes up their series exploring Joe Girardi and his love of intentional walks. They use WPA (Win Probability Added) to determine that free passes, obviously, lower a team's win expectancy, but Joe's walks lower the team's WPA more than a majority of the teams in the American League. Meaning he demands them at worse times. Thanks, Joe.
The PED Diaries: New records in the form of Anthony Bosch's notebooks have been released. The notebooks document a doping regime and contain letters mentioning Alex Rodriguez by his alleged pseudonym, Cacique. The regime included lozenges, creams, and injections to be administered morning, noon, and night. If you want to blame someone, blame Melky Cabrera for failing a drug test, effectively killing Bosch's already failing clinic.
Newman on the Minors: MLB.com has a nice writeup about the Yankee farm system. The article includes some interesting quotes from Mark Newman, the Yankees Senior VP of Baseball Operations, about Sanchez's ability to make it as a catcher and Heathcott's intense playing style. The article also talks about the remaining top 20, those that may fly under the radar and attempts to predict some of the stand out seasons in 2013.
Spring Training Battles: Ivan Nova believes he's got a spot in the rotation. I hope he can back it up with results. He'll be competing against David Phelps and maybe even Adam Warren for not only a rotation spot but maybe even a roster spot as well. In the same article Joe Girardi talks about the catching situation and how they'll determine who will be the starting catcher out of Austin Romine, Francisco Cervelli, and Chris Stewart. Lots of intangibles thrown around.
Breaking Down the Batting Order: The Yankee Analysts break down the Yankee roster into a lineup against right handers and a lineup against left handers. They also talk about where players like Ichiro Suzuki, Travis Hafner, Kevin Youkilis, Francisco Cervelli, and Chris Stewart should bat in the lineup. We all have opinions on what the lineup should look like, but with the way Girardi plans his lineups we all know what it will look like.
What's Wrong with Phil Hughes: NoMaas looks at why Phil Hughes struggles so much and states that he suffers from good, but not great velocity, a straight fastball, and he has good control, but poor command. Phil could be very successful if he only suffered from two of those three shortcomings, but all three make the chances for success rather slim. The numbers off his fastball are unreal and don't look very promising.
Joba Hears Back From Youk: Kevin Youkilis has finally gotten around to texting Joba Chamberlain back. Everyone's friends now and nothing is bad anymore. Unless someone wants to look into the importance of responding to a phone call with a text message.
Another One Bites the Dust: In case anyone was keeping track on about the possible free agent catchers the Yankees could sign, it appears that Chris Snyder has been taken off the table. Oh noez. That leaves only Matt Treanor and Rod Barajas. Right.
Creepy pictures of Michael Pineda rehabbing are here and here!
Editor's Note: Happy Babe Ruth Day! The greatest player in the history of baseball was born 118 years ago today at his father's bar in Baltimore at the same site where Camden Yards now sits. Check out Joe Posnanski's article on The Bambino posted today in honor of Ruth's birthday.