Friday Night Link Roundup

Here is some reading material for you as you wait for the Yankees to take on the Rangers.

At RiverAveBlues, Mike Axisa responds to questions about the Yankees attempting to acquire outfielder Colby Rasmus from the Cardinals. The questioner proposes giving the Cardinals the option of choosing 3 players from the following list: Betances, Banuelos, Brackman, Romine and Heathcott. After attempting to put a monetary value on Rasmus, Axisa agrees that the proposal would make sense from a value perspective.  However, he notes that the Cardinals would probably want more established talent and tries to imagine the Yankees building an offer around Gardner and Nova. Personally, I’d love to see the Yankees acquire Rasmus, but I also suspect that they could get higher end talent than Gardner and Nova.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they asked for much more from the Yankees and if plenty of teams got in on the bidding. Rasmus is a budding star, so let’s hope he stays in the National League.

At Baseball Prospectus, Will Carroll offers a few nice words about the way the Yankees handled Jorge Posada.  Carroll writes that the Yankees have Posada’s brain tested every spring so they can judge future injuries against past results, something leokitty mentioned yesterday.  He also wishes that other teams would adopt this program and model their approach to brain injuries and concussions after what the Yankees do.  I’m no doctor, but I’d echo that sentiment.  It seems insane that it’s taken this long for brain injuries to be taken seriously and not treated as something similar to an ankle sprain.  It’s something that I suspect people in twenty years will look back on with disbelief.  I’m so wary of brain injury that I actually wish every MLB player would wear the Gazoo-helmet to prevent concussions.  Given that Posada has had three concussions, the Yankees deserve credit for being proactive and careful about Posada’s injury and not rushing him back.  They’re the bizarro-Mets.

Finally, over at Yankees: Minors to Majors, George Hadjiconstantinou looks at Girardi’s tendency to bat Gardner first in the lineup when facing right-handed pitchers. Gardner, Hadjiconstantinou notes, has all the features one would want in a leadoff hitter, including speed, a high P/PA, and no serious platoon split.  However, he notes that Girardi seems to be keeping Jeter in the leadoff spot when facing lefties because Jeter hits them so well, thus creating a platoon in the leadoff spot.  We’ll see if this is a permanent change or something temporary.  The true test will be the playoffs, and I’d wager that Jeter bats first in every game. It’s an astute article, so give it a look.