Where have you gone, Giambistache? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. A-woo-woo-woo.

Well, we can only hope the mustache makes a triumphant comeback.

Jason Giambi’s return to Oakland has sparked a resurgence of positive thoughts, according to ESPN’s Howard Bryant. The thong-wearing slugger is full of hopes and dreams for this season and, if nothing else, seems refreshed by his return to the snazzy green uniform.

He is convinced that he is past the strategy of sacrificing average for power he employed during his final years in New York because he no longer swings in agony. He believes the things his body can no longer do he can compensate for with experience and — most importantly — the absence of pain.

As Giambi fans, we must admit we’re hoping for a teensy slump, if only to bring back that glorious facial hair.

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Rick Vaughn athletics, espn, jason giambi

Jason Giambi's mustache provided a much-needed drag reduction as he ran the base paths in 2008.

Benjamin Kabak at River Avenue Blues got a bee in his bonnet over Joel Sherman’s comment about Jason Giambi’s base running. Sherman claimed Giambi was “station-to-station” and “offered no threat on the bases,” which is more or less true, but the guy was second-highest on the Yankees last year in terms of OPS. So this caused Kabak to wonder, how much of a detriment can a guy be when he hits 32 home runs and gets on base better than the vast majority of players?

While he doesn’t provide a definitive answer, Kabak does some math and figures out that Giambi’s one of the least efficient base runners in baseball, at least in terms of runs scored per times he reached base.

With an OBP of .373 in 565 plate appearances, he reached base 211 times last year. He scored just 68 runs for a conversion rate of just 32.2 percent. As Sherman notes, when we omit Giambi’s home runs, he scored 36 runs in 179 times on base. That means that in just 20 percent of his non-home run times on base, Jason Giambi scored a run.

Compare that 20 percent with a league-average 31.5 percent. Now, who knows exactly what that means? Giambi’s ability to score once he reaches base has as much to do with the people hitting behind him as it does his ability to go first to third.

Of the people hitting behind him, he was getting a fair amount of help last year. Throughout the year, Giambi could count on some combination of Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano and Xavier Nady hitting behind him, all guys who get on base quite a bit and posted slugging percentages of .424, .468 and .474, respectively, last year. So it’s safe to say he had a good amount of extra-base hits behind him in the lineup.

Without a larger sample size, though, it’s pretty much impossible to determine just how much Giambi’s scoring efficiency affected the Yankees last year, but Kabak’s numbers still make for a good jumping-off point.

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Joe Blancato benjamin kabak, hideki matsui, jason giambi, river ave blues, robinson cano, xavier nady, yankees

Mark Teixeira - the next Reggie?

Howard Bryant at ESPN drew on his experience in following the Yankees in Spring Training, and considers Mark Teixeira the next in a long line of potential saviors to sit down with Reggie Jackson to have “The Talk.” Every time the Yankees sign a big free agent when they’re on the World Series hunt, Jackson typically takes them out to dinner to give them a rundown on what it’s like to play for New York as a high-dollar acquisition.

Jackson has spoken with Jason Giambi and A-rod in the recent past, and while both of them performed admirably for the Yankees, neither did what Jackson did: win the team a World Series title. Bryant believes much of Jackson’s success was due to his legitimate desire to prove himself in New York: “Reggie came to New York for the most authentic of reasons. Jackson craved New York, wanted it to become a part of him. He left for free agency following the 1981 season; but for the most part, he has been back ever since the day he retired. Wanting to absorb all of New York was real for him.”

There’s no telling on how Tex will shake out, but Bryant’s perspective is an interesting read.

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Joe Blancato a-rod, espn, howard bryant, jason giambi, mark teixeira, reggie jackson, yankees