Friday's Yankees Run Down

Figured I'd try to keep this up on Friday. Dumping out the rest of the Yankees' links for the week:

• According to Baseball Prospectus, if you played the rest of the season a million times, the Yankees would have a 76.2% chance of making the playoffs (50.7% chance of the division and 25.5% chance of the Wild Card) and would finish with 94.2 wins. That's a 17.1% bump in postseason odds in the past 7 days.
• If you adjust that with PECOTA, the stats are very different. The Yankees would have a 92.9% chance of making the playoffs (65.4% division and 27.5% Wild Card) and would finish with 97.6 wins. I like that version better ;)
• Can you believe it's been over 12 years since the Yankees introduced their first Japanese player amidst much fanfare? The New York Times story from that day is pretty fun in retrospect.
• Peter Abraham writes about the curious case that is Robinson Cano. This is something I've been saying for a while. For my "Yankeeography Fail" I'm going with "Robinson Cano: How To Hit With Runners On Base"
• I said to someone that I saw A-Rod grab away Matsui's helmet from Melky after Godzilla's walk-off blast. Deadspin has proof of the the theft.
• Joel Sherman runs down about the Yankees playing kids to fill holes and how well Cashman has done with that (especially in light of the Mets' problems)
• Tyler Kepner writes about the Yankees and Athletics who got engrossed in Buehrle's Perfect Game
• River Ave Blues says that Jonah Keri thinks the Yankees need to go get Chad Qualls. They think the Yanks shouldn't give up Jesus Montero to get him. I agree on both counts. I wouldn't trade too much for Qualls right now with the bullpen running on all cylinders.
• FanGraphs is not a fan of Andrew Brackman so far.
• Rob Neyer asks if Mariano Rivera should really be Mr. Automatic?
• Behind The Moat has a midseason poll of underrated Yankees
• Ok...I was off on Bobby Abreu. He's been pretty darned good (minus the defense). The Los Angeles Times calls him "an executive producer". The Yankees should have never offered him arbitration. But for $5 million or so, he's been a steal for the Angels.
• I was also off about Jarrod Washburn who would have been a good pitcher for the Yankees to have this season and has been The Man for the Mariners as The Seattle Times notes.
• WasWatching thinks the Yankees success in their last 25 games (20-5) is easily calculated: hitting home runs, not walking the opposition, and a strong bullpen
• Free speech at Yankee Stadium now extends to Kate Smith (or, for that matter, Ronan Tynan) singing God Bless America according to The New York Times.
• Mark Feinsand notes in this post that Jorge Posada is moving up the Yankees' all-time runs list
• The Onion pokes a little fun at Derek Jeter and John Sterling. Pretty funny.
• Ken Davidoff writes about the one who got away--twice: Ted Lilly (I totally agree with him)
• Lastly, Ken Davidoff has two issues that are near and dear to my heart:

• Issue Four: Now what do you think about Joba Chamberlain? I think it's hilarious that every single Chamberlain start becomes a new referendum for the "Starter or reliever?" debate. The guy clearly has the potential to be the sort of frontline starting pitcher the Yankees envision him being. He was excellent yesterday, on eight days' rest. We'll see what he looks like Friday, with the normal four days off.

• Issue Five: Could Don Zimmer have made the difference in the 2004 ALCS? Zimmer quit as the Yankees' bench coach following the 2003 season...In the immediate aftermath of the '04 ALCS, some Yankees officials wondered whether Joe Torre missed Zimmer's presence on the bench. And that was before we knew that series would hover over the Yankees organization, like a dark cloud, for four years and running now. I think the benefit of time has only strengthened the notion that Zimmer could have made a difference. That series was just so darn close, at least before Game 7, and it featured such unfathomably bad in-game strategy on the Yankees' part. How could they not even try running on Tim Wakefield in Game 5, when Jason Varitek couldn't catch any of Wakefield's pitches. How could they not even try bunting on Curt Schilling in Game 6, after Schilling's infamous ankle procedure? Torre listened to Zimmer and at least considered his ideas. He didn't have anywhere as close a relationship with Zimmer's successor Willie Randolph. Alas, the same vigor that Zimmer brought to his job was what led him to leave after '03.