So we all heard that the Yanks are to sign Rafael Soriano, but It's About The Money takes a good look at both sides, good and bad. Sure, it won't stop the Yankees from doing what they want... probably. But no team has unlimited bucks, and we just spent yesterday talking about how to keep from paying our closer $17.5 million. Now the Yankees are going to spend $27 million on their closer and setup man combined? Sounds like a bad idea to me.
We also saw that the Mets will be on Sunday night baseball twice this year, but NotGraphs Baseball says that it's an example of East-Coast Bias. Who are we to disagree? Come on, you were a little surprised when you heard.
FanGraphs also takes a look at Chris Capuano’s Strange Platoon Split which is doubly interesting to Mets fans. Not only is Capuano a Met, but look at the first comment - garik16 talks about it a little - and he I look into just what is behind this phenomenon in the Annual, and we hope you enjoy.
Do you agree with the mighty, original, Kranepool? Do you only watch if they’re winning? Sometimes, maybe.
Mike Newman from Scouting The Sally takes a look Jefry Marte, 3B, New York Mets, and it's not all bad!
This is a little stat-heavy, but it it's germane to the Francisco Rodriguez talk yesterday; Should we come up with a way to use leverage index to tier saves? Not all saves are created equal, we know that. Tom Tango's THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball takes a look.
Around Major League Baseball
Is it crazy to wonder if trading Mike Pelfrey is the best way to get value out of him? Look at this analysis of The Max Scherzer Trade, Revisited. The Diamondbacks didn't do so poorly after all.
Very little news here, but I love Grant's writing at McCovey Chronicles. Here he talks on the topic of ballpark promotions. I don't know, but how can you not like this kind of writing (and obviously, I'm not alone - 1328 comments right now!):
I have no idea what size the replica trophy will be. Big enough to drink a glass of wine out of? Because I would bring it to restaurants and pay the corkage charges if I needed to. Wait, maybe the wine would spill out of the sides. Then I'd go to the movies and demand that the popcorn be put in my replica trophy. This is probably the #1 promotional giveaway of the year for me. You could wear it around your neck like Flavor Flav. You could put strap it to your head and walk around like the Pope. There are a ton of possibilities. I want one.
Not quite baseball, but this collection of underboobs just makes you wonder why Bleacher Report signed that big deal. Or, maybe it just crystallizes the reasoning in a nice collection of pictures.
This collection of the remaining free agent firstbase / DH types actually looks kinda appetizing. Looks like the Rays' slow game is working out okay so far.
Subscription required, but Dan Wade at Baseball Prospectus takes a look at the remaining free agent relievers. Can we find a guy that can help us avoid the vest?