Linkage: Halladay, Culver, Oppenheimer

A few links to check out this afternoon because let’s face it, you aren’t getting any work done anyway…

The King Of The Yankee Killers

We hear lots about Yankee killers because it’s a fun story for the media. A gutty little underdog that tops the giants, who doesn’t like it? Over the years we’ve seen guys like Chuck Finley (3.82 ERA vs. the Yanks) and Josh Beckett (5.95) get the label, but the true King of the Yankee Killers is the guy they’re going to face tonight, Roy Halladay. ESPN’s Mark Simon breaks it down in every which way possible, and there’s just no denying it: Doc owns the Yanks. At least now we know it isn’t confirmation bias.

Looking At Other Surprise First Rounders

It’s barely been a week but already it’s been beaten to death … yes, Cito Culver was a surprise first round pick. In this week’s Ask BA, Jim Callis went back and looked at other recent first round surprises, most notably Tyler Colvin of the Cubs (.399 wOBA in 2010) and Ben Revere of the Twins (.331-.393-.419 career hitter in the minors, currently at Double-A). “Quite frankly, we misevaluated Colvin,” says Callis, who admits that teams were higher on the Clemson outfielder than BA when they ranked him 170th on their top 200 draft prospects list back in 2006. He adds that Revere “has established himself as one of the best pure hitters in the minors,” but was just 135th on BA’s top 200 in 2007.

Chat With Damon Oppenheimer

Scouting director Damon Oppenheimer is holding his annual post-draft chat with fans at the Yanks’ official site today starting at 2pm ET. I’ll certainly do something with this tomorrow, maybe breakdown his answers a little further, I don’t know yet, but for now make sure you head over and ask him something remotely intelligent. You’re representing RAB, make us proud.