AROUND YANKEELAND, AROUND MLB AND KATE UPTON

There is plenty of news going on around the Yankees and Major league baseball that I had to fill you in on. Plus, you need to realize that alot of these stories don't deserve their own post. Naturally, I didn't want to cheat you. This is perfect "waking up and having coffee" reading. Enjoy this and Good Morning on a hot Yankee off day.

Omar Luis Rodriguez: Never heard of that name before? Me neither. The Yankees signed this Cuban 18 year old left handed pitcher to a minor league contract with a $4 million bonus. Back in 2010 he was a bright spot during the World Junior Championship when he beat Team USA. All this comes from Ben Balder of Baseball America and you can read the full report HERE. According to Ben, "Given his age and experience level, Luis would likely report as high as low Class A Charleston, though he still must be able to acquire a visa, so it's not certain when Luis will be able to begin his career." So, are the Yankees gearing up for their future? I'd say so.

Sadder and Sadder for Brien Taylor: Just when you thought being Brien Taylor couldn't suck enough...it can. It's being reported HERE, that he was indicted on 3 counts of distributing crack had appeared in front of a judge and was ordered to stay behind bars. According to reports: "The former No. 1 selection in the Major League Baseball draft now faces a slew of charges involving the possession of and the intent to sell and distribute cocaine." This is a tragedy. Sure, he never made it to superstar status, but this is a perfect case of a kid with hopes and dreams and no direction. I feel for this guy and his family.

ARod's climbing the charts: Alex Rodriguez is now 6th on the all-time list for RBIs. That's fantastic. Right now Alex has 1925 RBIs and he just passed Jimmie Foxx who had 1924. Rodriguez trails Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, Lou Gehrig, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and all-time leader Hank Aaron in that category. Way to go kid!

Gibberish: Not sure how many people saw or heard this incident surrounding the Rangers play by play announcer Dave Barnett. I know I'm late to the party with this but you really need to feel for Barnett right now. This seems quite scary. They say a migraine was responsible for the incident but can you imagine your brain just shorting out like this? On Monday during the Rangers, Padres game, Barnett said this in the 8th inning: "the go-ahead run is at fifth on what (Mike) Adams is insisting on calling it a botched robbery. What actually happened was his henchman took piece literally all of." Whoa.  

Look, I'm 40. I feel my body breaking down sometimes, the last thing I want is my mind to short circuit like this. Remember a few years ago when that news reporter spoke gibberish during her news report? Look it's below:

  

All I can say is good luck to Dave and I hope they are able to figure out what happened.

Pine tar re-visited: The other night, Davey Johnson, the Nationals manager asked the umpire to go out to the mound and inspect Tampa Bay Rays set up man Joel Peralta's glove. He was suspicious. It turns out Peralta's glove had a crap load of pine tar on it. My guess is Peralta will be fined. Joe Maddon was pissed at Davey Johnson. Read HERE. Well, you may not believe this, but I have an interesting take that you may not expect.

I don't believe in cheating and I've stated that here a ton of times. I don't believe in PEDs and I don't believe in performance enhancing drugs. But I also don't believe that spit balls and pine tar and alittle scuff of a baseball is cheating either. Now look, clearly spit balls are not allowed in baseball, but I am from the school of old time baseball and what I mean by that is this; if alittle pine tar happens to get on the ball, hey, that's baseball.

Like Gaylord Perry, if some sweat or spit or something else helps the ball move a bit while you're pitching, go for it. If you want to use the old baseball and not ask for a new one, that's cool, go for it, that's baseball. Guys have been doing it for years. I am a believer that it's part of the game. Now, I will also tell you that if your blatantly obvious about it and coat your mitt with pine tar, you're deserve to get caught. Sure, it's a fine line but this is my scenario, my opinion on it, and it's just how I feel. In fact, I have a piece that we'll release this weekend on the recent ordeal surrounding Jose Valverde and his recent spitball accusation, read HERE and watch below:

 

Look for BYB's piece on all of this this weekend.

Kate Upton does it again: What do you want me to say. Kate Upton is everywhere and after the huge success of our last piece titled YANKEES NEW, YANKEES OLD AND KATE UPTON, Why not try it again... it's a Yankees off day after all.

It turns out Kate Upton is on the new cover of GQ and of course they got her to pose provocatively. That's what she does... right? Hey, it's working.