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River Ave. Blues » Administrative Stuff » Page 3

Mailbag Update: New Email To Submit Questions

August 10, 2015 by Mike 19 Comments

Just a heads up, we’ve ditched the “For The Mailbag” form in the sidebar. It was kind of a pain, mostly because it didn’t give any sort of confirmation message, so people were submitting their questions like ten times. Also, apparently the anti-spam question was harder than we realized. More than a few people emailed us asking for help with the answer.

Anyway, we’re going to go back to the ol’ “email us your questions” system. Here’s the email to use: RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com. Easy enough, right? There’s a little widget in the sidebar — below the YES videos and above the Aaron Judge Watch — with the mailbag email address in case you forget it and need it in the future.

As always, the mailbag is posted each Friday morning. I usually write it up Thursday afternoon/evening, so it’s best to get your question in before then if you want it answered that week. We do get a ton of questions each week, so don’t be discouraged if yours doesn’t get answered. There just isn’t enough time to answer ’em all.

Filed Under: Administrative Stuff, Mailbag

Introducing our newest contributors: Katie Sharp and Sung Min Kim

April 7, 2015 by Mike 53 Comments

As I mentioned in the open thread last night, we’ve added two new contributors to the site: Katie Sharp (@ktsharp on Twitter) and Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim). Sunny has written some stuff for us before and Katie is coming over from IIATMS. You’ll see their first posts very soon. To help you get to know our newest contributors, Katie and Sunny were nice enough to write up some background info, so consider this their introduction.

Katie Sharp

To be honest, I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love sports – whether it was playing them or watching them. My dad (a Long Island native) made sure that I was a Yankee fan from day one, and although our trips to the Stadium were rare when I was kid, I devoured box scores every morning and tried to watch as many games on TV as I could. After a few years of working in the finance industry following college, I realized that my obsession with sports was just too big for me to remain a desk jockey for the rest of my life. I somehow then landed my dream job at ESPN as a researcher, and spent seven years there working mostly on baseball, college basketball and college football shows.

I got my start in blogging while at ESPN (the Stats & Info blog and the ESPN New York Yankees blog), and it was also there that I developed my love for quirky stats and analysis-focused writing. A year ago, I left ESPN and relocated to Vermont where my husband had gotten a new job, and that’s when I started trying to do this sportswriting/blogging thing on a more permanent basis. I’ve been a long-time and devoted reader of River Ave. Blues and was absolutely thrilled when the guys asked me to come on board as a writer. As for the type of writing you can expect from me, I’ll be doing my Yankeemetrics series recaps on a regular basis (first one on Friday!), and also contributing other stats-based analysis posts that hopefully will make you a smarter Yankee fan.

Sung Min Kim

Hi all! My name is Sung Min Kim. People around here like to call me Sunny and that’s fine. You can also refer me as SMK, which is my unofficial moniker in the student newspaper I work at.

I became a Yankees watcher when I moved to Connecticut back in 2002 – I was 11 years old then. I started to watch baseball consistently starting 2004 (sad, I know) and I’ve been a RAB reader since 2008. The earliest memory of reading the website was around the time when we drafted Gerrit Cole in the ’08 MLB Draft. I balanced reading between this website and LoHud Yankees Blog for my daily dose of the Yankees as a teenager so I’m pretty stoked to join the RAB crew!

I am currently a student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. I major in broadcast journalism but I work a lot in online/print multiplatform kind of stuff. Last semester I had classes taught by Kevin Blackistone (Around the Horn panelist) and George Solomon (former sports editor for the Washington Post) so that was quite awesome and it definitely intensified my interest in sportswriting. Besides that, I am a staff news photographer and a music blogger for The Diamondback, University of Maryland’s independent student-run newspaper. Recently I won a regional award for breaking news photography (for this article) so that’s one thing in my life I’m proud for. Lastly, I’ve also been a college radio DJ for three years. I have a show every Thursday from 6-7pm at WMUC-FM.

Okay, enough with shameless plugs. Needless to say, I love baseball and I love writing about it. I’m very excited and fortunate to have an opportunity like this. I hope I can deliver some good content for you guys from now on and represent the website to its best. My Twitter handle is @sung_minkim and I tweet a lot about baseball, music and college life stuff. Thanks for reading!

Filed Under: Administrative Stuff

Poll: The 2015 Prospect Watch

April 7, 2015 by Mike 180 Comments

"I will be the Prospect Watch." "Okay Aaron."
“I will be the Prospect Watch.” “Okay Aaron.” (Presswire)

One of our long-running features here at RAB is the annual Prospect Watch, where we pick a prospect, then keep track of his progress throughout the season in the sidebar. Some say the Prospect Watch is a curse, I say the Yankees aren’t particularly good at player development. RAB’s pixels don’t influence career paths.

We’ve been running the Prospect Watch so long now that I’m starting to forget who has been featured. I know it all started with Phil Hughes, and last year we had Eric Jagielo, but I can’t remember all the names between those two. Jesus Montero and Mason Williams for sure, and I think Manny Banuelos as well. The Andrew Brackman Watch sounds like it was once a thing too.

Anyway, with the minor league season set to start on Thursday, it’s time to vote on this year’s Prospect Watch prospect. In the past I made an executive decision and picked my favorite prospect, but the last few years I’ve opened it up to a reader poll, and that seems better. It’s worked well so why stop? I do still get to pick the candidates, however. Here are the six players up for this summer’s Prospect Watch, listed alphabetically.

1B Greg Bird (No. 5 on my Top 30 Prospects)
Brian Cashman called Bird “by far the hitter” in the farm system a few weeks ago and the numbers back it up. The 22-year-old Bird followed up his dominant 2013 season (170 wRC+ in Low-A) by hitting .271/.376/.472 (139 wRC+) with 30 doubles, 14 homers, 14.3 BB%, and 22.2 K% in 102 games split between High-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton in 2014. Then he hit .313/.381/.556 (156 wRC+) with six homers in the Arizona Fall League and was named MVP. Then he hit .353/.421/.706 with three doubles and a homer during Grapefruit League play. All Bird does is hit. He’ll start the season back with Double-A Trenton.

OF Aaron Judge (No. 1)
Judge, 22, was the second of the team’s three first round picks in 2013, but he couldn’t make his pro debut until 2014 due to a quad injury. Judge proceeded to hit .308/.419/.486 (158 wRC+) with 24 homers, 17 doubles, 15.8 BB%, and 23.3 K% in 131 games across two Single-A levels last season. He showed a more advanced hit tool and approach than even the Yankees expected when they drafted him. Like Bird, Judge is ticketed for Double-A Trenton this month.

SS Jorge Mateo (No. 8)
Mateo is the new hotness. The 19-year-old is the fast riser everyone is touting as the next great Yankees prospect. A wrist injury limited him to only 15 rookie ball games last year (119 wRC+) but that isn’t enough to stop the team from sending him to Low-A Charleston this year. Mateo has elite speed, solid contact skills and patience, and surprising pop. He’s not going to hit a ton of homers, but he will steal a boatload of bases and could hit for a sky high average.

C Gary Sanchez (No. 3)
It seems like Sanchez is the black sheep of top Yankees prospects. He’s been around for a while and people are bored of him. And yet, Sanchez is a month younger than Bird, seven months younger than Judge, and he put up a .270/.338/.406 (108 wRC+) batting line with 19 doubles, 13 homers, 9.0 BB%, and 19.1 K% as a full-time catcher in a full season at Double-A last year. The Yankees are sending Sanchez back to Trenton this summer, where he will still be two years young for the level.

(Presswire)
(Presswire)

RHP Luis Severino (No. 2)
The Yankees have a very position player farm system, so the 21-year-old Severino is only pitcher in this post. He had an absurd 2014 season, pitching to a 2.46 ERA (2.40 FIP) with 27.8 K% and 5.9 BB% in 113.1 innings while jumping from Low-A Charleston to High-A Tampa to Double-A Trenton. Severino had the lowest FIP among the 551 minor league pitchers to throw at least 100 innings last summer. He was that good. The Yankees will have Severino start this season back in Trenton, but don’t expect him to be there long.

2B Rob Refsnyder (No. 13)
Since being the team’s fifth round pick in 2012, Refsnyder’s done nothing but hit. The 24-year-old has put up a .307/.400/.457 (145 wRC+) line with 70 doubles, 20 homers, 12.1 BB%, and 16.1 K% in 267 games at four minor league levels since the start of 2013. His worst performance at an individual level is the .300/.389/.456 (137 wRC+) batting line he put up in 77 games with the RailRiders last year. Refsnyder will go back to Triple-A to start the season but will surely make his MLB debut at some point this year, likely once he learns to play passable defense.

* * *

If you were hoping to vote for someone like LHP Ian Clarkin or 3B Miguel Andujar, sorry. Their time will come. I focused on players capable of putting up big numbers this year because hey, everyone wants to follow a prospect who’s dominating, right? The guys just holding their own are boring. To the poll.

Who should be the 2015 Prospect Watch?

Filed Under: Administrative Stuff, Minors Tagged With: Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Jorge Mateo, Luis Severino, Rob Refsnyder

It’s that time of year: Sign up for Yahoo fantasy baseball

February 10, 2015 by Joe Pawlikowski 71 Comments


You’re going to play fantasy baseball this year, right? I thought so. With pitchers and catchers just 10 days away, plenty of people are getting out in front of the ball and setting up leagues right now. Because why not? If nothing else it’ll give you a little extra time to find an extra team so you’re not stuck with an odd number.

If you want to start a new league, sign up with this link.

If you want to join an existing league, sign up with this link.

If you want to just join and find a league, sign up with this link.

While I won’t be partaking this year — having a kid takes up all my free time — feel free to coordinate in the comments and set up your own leagues. It’s not quite the RAB fantasy league relegation system we dreamed up a few years ago, but it’s a way to compete with some of your favorite, or least favorite, fellow commenters.

If you do set up a RAB league, email me, joe at riveraveblues dot com and let me know. If we get enough of them maybe we’ll hold some kind of competition.

Filed Under: Administrative Stuff

Update on the RAB Daily Digest

December 15, 2014 by Joe Pawlikowski 17 Comments

We’ve recently received a few complaints that people signed up for the RAB Daily Digest but weren’t receiving them. That’s a shame. It’s been a fun couple of weeks producing this daily email, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Of course, I goofed.

That sign-up bar atop the site? Yeah, it wasn’t pushing signups to our list.

I’ve gone and imported the email addresses, so you should be getting tomorrow’s edition. I’m sorry. This error is totally on me.

If you signed up by another means and are receiving the Daily Digest, no worries. You won’t get doubles or anything. Although if you signed up with two email addresses you might get doubles. There is that.

Also, the sign-up bar on top of the site now works. Hooray!

If you signed up for the top bar and no longer want the email — understandable, given the circumstances — email me, josephp at riveraveblues dot com, and I’ll have you removed. If you get one tomorrow morning and don’t want it, just click that unsubscribe button and you’ll never see another email from us again.

Again, I’m sorry.

Filed Under: Administrative Stuff

Win a pair of tickets to PITCH: Talks on Baseball at B.B. King’s

December 12, 2014 by Joe Pawlikowski 26 Comments

Pitch Talks at BB Kings

There are still plenty of interesting players on the market, but they’ll soon find homes. By mid-January we’ll be in the depths of the off-season, with transactions behind us and Spring Training still a month away.

To help baseball nuts stay sane during this trying period, the PITCH: Talks on Baseball series is holding an event at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill on January 14.

And RAB is giving away two pairs of tickets. to the event on January 14, 2015 Doors open at 6 p.m., and they kick off at 7:30.

Check out the event at the B.B. King Blues Clubs & Grill website.

The speakers

Pete Abraham, Boston Globe (Moderator)
Matthew Cerrone, Metsblog
Joel Sherman, New York Post
Tyler Kepner, New York Times
Jay Jaffe, Sports Illustrated
Adam Rubin, ESPN
Sweeny Murti, WFAN
Buster Olney, ESPN

How to enter: Just fill out the form below with your name and email address.

No Fields Found.

We will choose a winner on 12/30. Please, submit only once (it might appear as though your submission didn’t go through, but once you hit submit trust us, it did).

The catch: In order to win, you have to be signed up for the RAB Daily Digest. We’ll check the entrants list against the email list when we pick a winner on the 30th. And hey, the Daily Digest is good fun, too. Just take it from reader Benjamin:

“Great Daily Digest. I was hesitant signing up because I already visit the site several times a day, but this is top notch. Thanks!”

Sign up below so you’re eligible to win one of the two pairs.



Filed Under: Administrative Stuff

Get Yankees stuff for cheap – Cyber Monday deals

December 1, 2014 by Joe Pawlikowski 7 Comments

As you’re all aware, retailers have tried harder and harder to push merchandise in the past few years, what with stores opening on Thanksgiving and all. Cyber Monday is just another one of those gimmicks that they try. But hey, if they’re offering discounts, and you need to buy stuff for people anyway, you might as well get it at a discount and not pay sticker price.

As we’ve been saying, if you buy through the RAB Shop — stuff you’d buy anyway — you’re helping support the site. Seriously, don’t go out of your way to buy crap you don’t need. But if you’re going to buy Yankees gear, we’d appreciate clicking through our links so we can get a cut of the sale — again, of stuff you were going to buy anyway.

A few of our partners have some deals, so you can click through these links if you need to buy someone a jersey, cap, or other Yankees gear this holiday season. And seriously, check out the RAB Shop link above. We have a Derek Jeter replica jersey with no name on the back for like $120. Sure beats spending double that on an authentic, right?

Huge Black Friday Savings at Fanatics.com

MLB Shop: Buy One Get One 50% Off Sitewide + Free Shipping. Valid 12/1 & 12/2 Only

Holiday deals at Steiner Sports.

Thanks again for your support.

Filed Under: Administrative Stuff

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