I have promised myself I'm done posting Santana rumors until something seems ready to happen. I don't expect that to be until after the Winter Meetings.
So here's everything else Yankee related I could dig up:
- First, Brother Pete continues to marvel at the disappearance of Brian Cashman:
Maybe this is what Li'l Stein meant by "transition"?
With Li'l Stein preparing to attend the Winter Meetings I've been having nightmares of Big Stein and 1984.
- Our next stop is The Baseball Think Factory, where Dan Szymborski is refining his projections of minor leaguers.
He clarifies in the comments:
This got me thinking about the right handed half of our first base platoon. Shelly Duncan struck out about 22% of the time in 2006 (AA/AAA). He struck out about 25% of the time in 2007 (AAA/MLB). His walk rate was also pretty level.
His BABIP was about .272 in 2006. It soared to .323 in AAA, but dropped back to .255 in MLB, which averages (weighted) to 304. So which of these is the outlier?
We're obviously dealing in small samples, but if Duncan's true ability (perhaps brought out by his adjusted approach) is closer to .300 than .250 we're in for a treat. Bill James projects Duncan to put up a .282 BABIP with a .333 OBP/.510 SLG.
I'll take that from Duncan every day and twice on Sundays.
- Our last stop is to help you round out your holiday wish list. Will I look better in the black or the blue sleeves?
