Bathroom Reads

-Absolutely fascinating article on Barry Zito. His demise has been somewhat shocking, but this article paints a picture of the 2008 version of Barry Zito. Anyone remember what Zito was like in 2002 and 2003? The laid back, surfer dude who seemed like he didn't have a care in the world. Nowadays, Zito's attitude has changed as his performance has declined.

-Wonderful article about K-Rod's season by Tim Marchman. He outlines why he believes that while K-Rod is having a legendary season, the saves record is a by product of the Angel's small ball mentality and lots of close games. K-Rod has been the beneficiary of lots of chances to close, which is why the saves record is not an accurate judge on Rodriguez's ability or dominance.

-Within this piece, Bill Shakin talks to Alex Rodriguez about the Angels and his apparent love for Arte Moreno. Rodriguez continually praises the Angels and Moreno even going as far as to that "If the Yankee thing would not have worked out, I definitely would have considered the Angels." And this is exactly the type of thing that could frustrate Yankee fans about A-Rod: the Yankees have had an abysmal season (by their standards) and here is A-Rod raining praise on one of the Yankees top rivals.

-And finally, we have another interesting article from the NY SUN, this one about the Yankees GM Brain Cashman. Steven Goldman determines that Cashman acted too slowly in when dealing with both Melky Cabrera and Jorge Posada's injury. While I agree that the Yankees waited too long to remove Melky, I completely disagree with Goldman on Posada. I just don't think that there were any catchers on the market worth trading for besides Pudge. The real problem here is the lack of organizational depth within the Yankees. They struggle to find AAAA players who can fill in for a period of time and produce.