Nightly Links: Burnett, Bullpen, Sanchez

• The A.J. Burnett debacle is finally winding down, and it looks like the Yankees and Pirates are nearing an agreement. While George King believes the deal will be finalized sometime this weekend, Jim Bowden thinks it’ll be done by tomorrow afternoon. It appears the Yankees have offered the Pirates a sliding scale, where the quality of prospects would lessen as they take on more salary.

• TYA  co-founder and River Ave Blues editor, Larry Koestler, wrote a brilliant follow up to his piece on best pitches in the rotation, this time focusing on the bullpen. You’ll be surprised to know that Mariano Rivera‘s cutter had the worst whiff%, of course its pretty outstanding to get 8.1% swing and misses on pitch he throws 86% of the time.

• Mike Newman of FanGraphs and Scouting the Sally hosted a prospect chat today and spoke about a few Yankee farm players.
  On Gary Sanchez-”My worry about Sanchez is the simple fact he has already developed a reputation of being pretty difficult to deal with. Until he matures, it’s very difficult to talk peak projections and ETA. I made that mistake with Mets Wilmer Flores and learned quite a bit from it. I find those projections much easier to make for players with strong work ethic.”
  On Manny Banuelos-“Banuelos may be underrated at this point in time after blowing up prior to last season. People view his 2011 as a disappointment, but he’s still so young. I’m still perplexed by his walk problems though. I never thought from scouting him in person that command would be such an issue.”

• Finally, our condolences to the family of Gary Carter, who passed away this afternoon. The Hall of Famer will forever be remembered in New York for his time with the Mets and help making them World Series champions in 1986.

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