Yankees News And Notes: 6/24/12

Mood Music: Know Your Enemy by RATM

R.A. Dickey has been one of the big stories in baseball this year. Before the Yankees look to get Dickey off his hot streak, we should probably take a look what makes the pride of the Mets staff's knuckleball so effective. The Yankee Analysts looked at it, and it's all about the movement.

Russell Martin left last night's game in the ninth inning with stiffness in his back. Martin said he felt his back start to lock up in batting practice and it just never loosened up. He told Yankees.com he's dealt with this issue before, but normally it's later in the season. Despite how touch-and-go as Martin is at the plate, hopefully this isn't an ongoing issue the rest of the way. Full-time personal catcher Chris Stewart or Francisco Cervelli aren't exactly ideal replacements.

Is Curtis Granderson a three true outcome player? Probably. He's always been a free swinger with exceptional power, so it's not terribly surprising that label surrounds him. An A-Blog For A-Rod raises the question: did Kevin Long's adjustments make Granderson's TTO tendencies worse?

You knew this was going to happen. LeBron James finally won his first NBA title Thursday night, putting to rest the one on-court knock against him. So let's track down Alex Rodriguez and draw some parallels. Despite being incredibly talented, it took both guys a long time to win a championship and the New York Daily News is on it.

More draft pick news. Kevin Levine-Flandrup with PinstripesPlus.com reports the Yankees have signed second-round pick Peter O'Brien, a catcher from The U. Waiting on you now, Ty Hensley. Keep up to date with the draft signings over at Baseball America.

Bryce Harper! Giancarlo Stanton! Angelo Gumbs? Sure, why not. Mike Newman recently had a chance to see Gumbs play and sees some similarities with Harper and Stanton in his game. His full report on the RiverDogs second baseman is over at Fangraphs.