Big day in IIATMS history, friends.  Huge.

Effective immediately, IIATMS and The Yankee Analysts have merged!

It’s with tremendous pride that the incredible team at TYA have agreed to join us here at IIATMS to help deliver what we believe will be the most complete, cohesive and entertaining Yankees-centric site around.

A merger of IIATMS and TYA has been long viewed as inevitable, with the earliest discussions going back to late 2010, although the timing wasn’t right back then. Moshe Mandel, Larry Koestler and I have always viewed ourselves more as colleagues than competitors, each with a healthy respect for one another and the efforts each has put into developing the sites and their followings. We are here, now, proudly together, to bring you the very best in Yankees news, analysis and discussion. We thank you for your continued readership and support.

Best,
Moshe, Larry, Jason and the entire staffs of IIATMS and TYA

(please click “view full post” to read more)

Longtime readers of IIATMS know my equally long-standing appreciation and friendship that I have for agent Matt Sosnick and his agency. It’s with no shame that I can say that if there is one person who helped (unwittingly, mind you) launch my site from a bitty blogspot destination, it’s Matt.

To refresh: I was bored on June 2, 2008, desperately searching for something to write about. So I quickly threw this on the screen. So thanks to a random posting about Josh Hamilton, a fortuitious coincidence with a John Heyman news and notes story an hour later, and a Google alert, I connected with Matt. That lead to interviews with him, his players and other sorts of things that I remain eternally grateful for, things he never needed to do but did anyway because that’s exactly the kind of guy he is. I’ve been very fortunate that this little writing outlet of mine has put me in contact with some truly great people. Matt is at the very front of the line. That interview with Matt gave me my first ever ESPN link. The rest, friends, is history.

Naturally, when my RSS reader refreshed and Tim Dierkes’ posting about why Jay Bruce chose his agent, I jumped, compelled to share it. Am I biased? Damn straight. Sue me.

Here’s my favorite portion, but please head over to MLBTR and read the whole thing yourself:

He made me feel like I was a priority. Matt was on the phone and made it an easy decision for me, and that was the true start of what I consider a great relationship both on and off the field. That showed how Matt is as a person. That means a lot to me. He takes a genuine interest in my family and really goes beyond the job description. That’s important to me, but it’s not important to some people and I completely respect that. I really value my relationship with Matt, and he’s also done a great job, so it works out. I definitely understand that if he didn’t do a great job for me and we were friends, it would be a little tougher to move on or even have that conversation. I consider him a friend, but he does an unbelievable job with contract negotiations.

Good afternoon, all. For the last two years, my work schedule has prevented me from taking the same active, day-to-day role in contributing to this site. While this hasn’t been easy for me, since I truly love and miss the regular writing and interacting with all of you, it has been easier thanks to Brien Jackson’s diligence and persistence. Handling the day-in, day-out role of running a site like this is not easy and Brien has done a great job in my absence.

Recently, Brien let me know he would not be able to run another season at the helm of this ship for a few reasons, all of them perfectly legitimate and understandable. Brien has indicated that he will continue to contribute as he’s able but not at the pace of the last two years. Thank you, Brien, for your unrelenting drive and desire to keep IIATMS a major Yankees news, info, commentary destination.

Of course, Brien stepping aside left me with one of two choices, and only one was a good one. Thankfully, that’s the direction I’m thrilled to share today. Stacey Gotsulias, who came aboard last year as a contributor, has agreed to step in and assume command of IIATMS. She’s done a great job so far and I have zero concerns about her running things going forward. I couldn’t be happier her accepting this challenge.

Please join me in officially welcoming Stacey as our new lead voice and writer here. I’ve got a few ideas for her, but really, we want to know what you guys want more/less of at IIATMS. Suggestions and comments are welcome below.

For those not yet following Stacey on Twitter: @stacegots

GSN: Derek Jeter speaks about his ankle, 2013 outlook

GEICO SportsNite has coverage of the Yankees catching situation.

GEICO SportsNite has reaction from Mariano Rivera, who threw a bullpen session Wednesday as he makes his return from knee surgery.

GEICO SportsNite has coverage from Yankees Spring Training as Joe Girardi discusses getting back his injured All-Stars for the season:

From our friends at MLBNetwork, on tonight at 10pm:

Yeah, our boy Derek Jeter will be on there.