It’s Monday January 30, 2012 and here are some links, quotes, and miscellaneous items to get you going today.

Honestly, I’m feeling like the Boomtown Rats and wanna shoo oo oo oo oo ooot, the whole day down and it’s only 9:00a.

Hiroki Kuroda opened up about why he left the Dodgers and signed with the Yankees. In a piece by Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times Kuroda said he received offers from five or six major-league teams. He was either going to sign with the Yankees or return to Japan and pitch for the Hiroshima Carp. He pitched for Hiroshima for 11 seasons.

He also said he had better financial offers from other teams but the Yankees’ tradition lured him in.

“They contend for the championship every year. I wanted to play for a team like that. When you get to my age, you don’t know how much longer you can pitch and I wanted to experience that before my career ended.”

Can we count on Kuroda? Rebecca Glass of Pinstriped Bible thinks we can.

Over at the Yankee Analysts, Steve S wrote a piece that was inspired by this piece by Chad Jennings of Lohud. In Steve’s piece, he explores just what life would be like for Yankees fans had the team not traded away it’s highly touted prospects of the past few years.

More from Chad Jennings of Lohud: He puts the pieces of the current 40 man roster together by categories: via drafted, international market, trade, and free agents. The Yankees have more free agents in the bigs (9) but they also have the 13 drafted players sprinkled throughout the 40 man roster.

Hannah Erlich of River Avenue Blues want to know which countdown you go by when it comes to baseball returning. Do you count the days until Pitchers and Catchers report? (I do.) Or when the whole squad arrives and they all practice together? Or are you the type who thinks Opening Day is the be all end of countdowns? Hannah weighs the pros and cons.