Opening the Notebook

As some of you might remember, for the past few months I've written a monthly piece on the Yankees, Florida Marlins, and Pittsburgh Pirates on the Baseball Prospectus website, as part of their Prospectus Triple Play series.

Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. The bad news is that the PTP series has been canceled, and so my monthly column is gone. The good news is that I'm on board with PTP's replacement, the Prospectus Notebook. Like Triple Play, Notebook will be a regular free feature of the website. The biggest difference is that rather than do a whole column all by myself, now I'll be contributing several smaller pieces along with the other members of BP's free content team: John Erhardt, Tom Gorman, Dave Haller, and Paul Swydan.

This also means I'll have the opportunity to cover potentially any team in the Majors at any time. So if you have suggestions, send them over. My first piece under the new format appears today, it's the first segment, about the Yanks and the Rocket. Here's a sample:

With the Yankees on a losing skid, it is now open season for Yankee fans, New York media and mercurial team owners to start coveting the Next Big Thing. You will recall that the Yankees' current (if titular) ace, Randy Johnson, was the Last Big Thing. Prior to that, Javier Vazquez was the flavor that the Bronx Boys savored. Vazquez's failure on the big stage prompted the acquisition of Johnson, in a similar fashion to how the twin failures of Jose Contreras and Jeff Weaver prompted the acquisition of Vazquez and Pinstriped Dog House resident Kevin Brown.

By most reports, the Next Big Thing actually turns out to be an old Big Thing: current Houston Astro and future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens.

Please check out the article. I'm fascinated by the "grass is always greener" effect that the organization's big money (and the Boss's big willingness to spend it) has on Yankee fans: there is always some player out there that we yearn to acquire. The question for me is, when do we run out of objects to lust after. As it is, I've seen two of the three most dominant pitchers of my lifetime take the mound in pinstripes (we missed Greg Maddux--and it's too late now). If getting Randy Johnson isn't enough, who is there left for Yankee fans to lust after?

Something to think about as the Yankees lose, again, this time to the Milwaukee Brewers. Man, does it suck when $200MM isn't enough to beat the Brewers.