So I woke up this morning to quite the delightful bit of baseball literature: Rob Neyer actually linked to RAB. Neyer agrees with Ben’s stance on Robinson Cano’s arbitration situation, though calls the notion that Cano would be insulted by an arbitration hearing “silly.” Per Ben: “Called out by Rob Neyer. I’ll never complain about that.”

Later today, browsing Peter Gammons’s blog, I found quite an interesting paragraph:

Unfortunately, time keeps most of us from getting to those sites specific to teams. It’s amazing how many club officials read USS Mariner (Seattle), Fire Brand of the American League (Boston), Ducksnorts (San Diego), Athletics Nation (Oakland), Viva El Birdos (St. Louis), Lone Star Ball (Texas), River Ave. Blues (Yankees), MetsBlog.com, FishStripes (Florida), Dodger Thoughts, Bronx Banter (great writing), The LoHud Yankees Blog, Reds Reporter (Cincinnati), Bleed Cubbie Blue, Brew Crew Ball (Milwaukee) and more.

Needless to say, it’s a glorious day here at the RAB offices.

For any of you who are new here recently either from our guest post at Lo Hud or elsewhere, help us spread the River Ave. Blues word by showing your love through our Facebook page. You know you want to be friends with a blog.

If, for some reason, you’re just finding this post, these shirts no longer exist. Sorry. But they were pretty sweet at the time.

It’s all we’ve been talking about for the past week: Should we trade for Johan Santana? Hells no! Why would we risk trading one of our big prospects for a guy who has seen a consistent increase in his BA/OBP/SLG against over the past four years? It’s time to take a stand. It’s time to keep our prospects.

Get your “Save The Big Three” T-Shirts here. We have a variety of styles: gray t-shirt, white t-shirt, navy t-shirt (though there is no text on the back of those), women’s t-shirt, and long-sleeve t-shirt. Larger pics of the gray available after the jump and by clicking on the image at the top of this post.

You can buy these snazzy T-Shirts right here.

Not to brag or anything, but River Ave. Blues currently holds the top spot on the StrikeTwo.net rankings of Yankee blogs. We’d like to thank Alex Rodriguez, Peter Abraham’s new server and all of our readers for making that possible. We’ll enjoy it while we can.

If you’re looking to purchase tickets for this weekend’s ALDS games at Yankee Stadium and plan on using StubHub, go through this link (or click the ad at right). You get your tickets, and we get a small commission that allows us to cover some costs of hosting and maintaining this site.

It’s going to be a slow weekend in Yankee-land. With three games to relax and rest the regulars before the October grind, Joe Torre’s going to be playing a lot of Wilson Betemit and Shelley Duncan and not too much Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui. I would like to see Ross Ohlendorf get into some games but more on that later.

Right now, I’d like to point you to some of the excellent work Tommy and Caleb are producing at Breaking Balls. Check it out:

• Caleb tries to figure out what Padres manager Bud Black should do to win the Wild Card this weekend and avoid a four- or five-way tie for three playoff spots.
• Tommy took a look at some the changes heading Houston’s way in the wake of the Ed Wade hiring.
• Tommy opened up the floor to discussions on the Cy Young Award and the MVP Award.
• Our very own Joseph P. looked at some key playoff matches.
• I posted on a tantalizing rumor involving the Twins and Dodgers.

Go read, comment and join the fun.