intERrUPTION: Ending the Streak

This past weekend Inter Milan defeated Juventus 3-1 in the Serie A ending Juventus' 49 match unbeaten streak. The match began in typical fashion with the referee allowing Juventus to score a goal in the first minute that was sparked by a pass to a Juventus player in an offside position. The referee, at this early stage of the game, thought he was getting a Maserati from the Agnelli family, a belief he held throughout the duration of the first half. If asked about the call, the referee would wisely tell the media that he was not offered a Maserati and that Juventus were unfairly demoted to the Serie B a few years ago on false information. He would cite the penalty he awarded Inter at the beginning of the second half as proof that he was not favoring Juventus, despite missing a blatant offsides call that directly led to a goal.

Offsides much?

Despite some suspect refereeing and roughhousing from Juventus defender, Inter, headed by a resurgent Diego Milito were able to turn the halftime deficit into a two goal by the late stages of the game. Not even Andrea Pirlo's beard could save Juventus from suffering defeat on this fateful day in November.

The Italian Serie A has come a long way in the past ten years or so. Once one of the very top leagues in Europe in the late 90s and early 2000s, the Serie A is now rated lower than the German Bundesliga. As a result the Serie A has seen reduced automatic spots in the Champions League and is now ranked closer to the French League. Now the Serie A is best known for it's match fixing scandals that present themselves at least once each season, usually involving a handful of teams.

Despite the praise that Juventus has been given over the past season continuing into the current campaign, the only teams from Italy that have found any success in Europe recently are both from Milan, Inter Milan and AC Milan. AC Milan won the Champions League a few years ago and Inter most recently lifted the coveted trophy in 2010, a campaign that included the Italian Cup and the Serie A title, too. Either referees throughout Europe aren't interested in Maseratis or other clubs are offering something better. What is Barcelona's secret? Whatever it is, Fernando Torres didn't care to stick around to figure it out.

Juventus' CEO, Giuseppe Marotta, claimed that Juventus' lack of a "clinical striker" was a major part of the undoing of his club. Apparently this was not a problem during the 49 game unbeaten streak. Alessandro Del Piero's 3 goals in 23 league appearances last season is sorely missed by the Italian giants. Inter could not have possibly won this game because they were the better team, they don't even give the referees presents. If there is one thing that is certain about this match, it is that the referee did not drive home in a brand new Maserati.

The floor is now open for bets on which teams will be involved in a match fixing scandal at the end of the 2012-2013 Italian Serie A season. Good luck and choose wisely.

What do you mean the beard wasn't enough?

Losing Is Good For You!

Don't get confused by the title, this isn't one of those things your parents, teachers and other respectable members of society are trying to tell you.  The whole "losing builds character" thing is fine, but since we write about real sports and real competitions where winning is everything, to hell with character!  Especially since we are talking about baseball, not saying that all baseball players are bad people, but look at the top two all time hits leaders!  One is banned from baseball for the rest of his life and the next is considered to be a disgrace to baseball despite being the leading vote-getter for the introductory class for the Hall of Fame, and is still the 4th leading vote-getter of all time.  I also hold the stiff belief that Barry Bonds was the best player I've seen in my life, possibly only being threatened by Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez and the potential of a healthy Ken Griffey Jr.  So you know what, character is great and I have all the respect in the world for the Chipper Joneses and Derek Jeters of the world, but in some cases you don't need to be the best person to be successful in baseball.  Returning to my point, even though you don't need character and losing builds character, losing can be important in the right circumstances.  Namely, the Championship Series.

Because I respect my readers..

As you should know if you are reading this, the San Francisco Giants are once again the World Series champions, and since the last time I wrote about this topic it went on to be one of my most viewed blog posts ever, I'll see if lightning can strike twice.  They once again won on a great pitching staff, which this time DID include Barry Zito and his curve.  But I don't want to talk about the Giants winning, I'm slightly more interested in talking about the Tigers losing.  They quite possibly have 3 of the top 10 players in the league right now yet looked completely helpless for the entire series, which only lasted 4 games.  The hell of it was that the Tigers also were playing their best baseball of the year down the stretch.  Miguel Cabrera had a fantastic September that catapulted him from "this guy is having a quite good season" to "this guy is winning the Triple Crown" and his Triple Crown is still something I didn't expect to see for a long time.  Their pitching staff was streaking with Max Scherzer and Doug Fister each having awesome Septembers, as well as Verlander being himself.  They had just swept the Yankees in an ALCS that looked too easy.  Yet Despite all this they still looked useless at the bat against San Francisco.  This could, of course, be due to the fantastic pitching staff they have, but that wouldn't be as fun to talk about as why they failed.

"Woah! San Fran can cheer for me!"

Even before the series started I couldn't have helped but remember the 2007 Colorado Rockies, streaking down the stretch of the season to make the playoffs, then not losing a single game before falling to the Red Sox in the World Series.  A World Series in which they were outscored 29-10, although most of that deficit was caused by a 13-1 loss in game 1 to set the tone of the series.  Needless to say the Rockies did not win a single game that series.  Being both a Red Sox fan and a fan of baseball in general, this was an interesting time for me, because while the Rockies swept their NLCS against Arizona, the Red Sox took their sweet time dispatching Cleveland in all 7 games.  So while the Red Sox were gaining tons of momentum coming back to win a series they once trailed 3-1, the Rockies were just sitting there at home waiting to find out where they had to go for game 1, a period of 9 days where they had not taken part in any real competition.  Needless to say if they had any momentum that was helping them out through the playoffs, it was long gone.

Also a little help from umpires, perhaps?

 Are you starting to see the connections yet?  I was vaguely thinking about this at the start of the series, but as it went on it seemed to be more and more like deja vu, so I actually took the time to look at the past results of teams that had swept their 7 game Championship series.  Since the 7 game series was introduced in 1985 here is the exhaustive list of teams that have won it in 4 games. The 1988 Oakland Athletics, 1990 Oakland Athletics, 1995 Atlanta Braves, 2006 Detroit Tigers, 2007 Colorado Rockies and the 2012 Detroit Tigers.  Out of these 6 teams in the playoffs, they have combined for 6 wins in the World Series, (4 of those coming from the 1995 World Champion Atlanta Braves) and a total record of 6-22.  Needless to say, sweeping the Championship Series has not been a particularly good thing for teams that desire to win the World Series, no matter how counter-intuitive and backwards that may seem.  This is by no means saying that if you sweep the Championship Series, you are going to get destroyed in the World Series, but it is starting to look like a trend, so please, try to lose at least one game will ya?

By being less hasty of doing this, you can do this more often!

I do need to make sure that I give proper credit to the San Francisco Giants once again, they played a great series, and got some pretty great production out of all their players.  Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, but don't get too soft the Dodgers are gonna be coming for you next year.  Speaking of next year, MLB Fan Cave look no further, I'm comin' for ya!

America's Most Hated Man

With the New York Yankees pitifully bowing out of postseason to the Detroit Tigers the insults of Alex Rodriguez (A-Rod) are in full swing again. As if those insults ever cease. Not only was the loss of the series 100% Rodriguez's fault, it was also his evil powers that fractured Jeter's aging bone and took out Mariano way back in May. Apparently A-Rod had been planing this one for a while. A-Rod was even lifted due to his lack of productivity at the plate in favor of Eric Chavez. Chavez's stellar .000 postseason average was a major force in the Yankees offensive attack, proving that he was clearly a better hitter in the postseason than A-Rod who hit .120, only 120 points higher than Chavez.

Donald Trump reminds the Twitter universe just about everyday that A-Rod was better when he was on drugs. Much of the criticism of Rodriguez exists due to his enormous salary. Everyone who hates A-Rod because of how much he makes is absolutely correct. None of those people would accept the contract that A-Rod has because they all know they would be unable to live up to it. A-Rod is nothing to this Yankees team which should rid themselves of the man who had nothing to do with the team's 2009 World Series victory. A-Rod's 6 home runs and 18 RBI during the 2009 postseason did not help the Yankees win in the least bit. Derek Jeter could have won the World Series that year by himself.

I'm the number one hated person in America!

Since Alex was born in 1975 he has been a burden to our world. Despite playing in Texas during the 2001 season he shoulders the blame for the September 11th attacks on New York's Twin Towers. He was f**king New York well before signing with the Evil Empire in 2004. A-Rod is also the leading cause of global warming and it is only a matter of time before Al Gore sets out on a stingy campaign against the former Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and MVP award winner. Rodriguez's most recent damage to New York is of the smaller variety. Earlier this summer, A-Rod was the reason the city's mayor banned large fizzy beverages for purchase in his wonderful city. Clearly A-Rod is a major contributor to the obesity problem in the country and the mayor is doing all in his power to crack down on the superstar's terrible influence.

Not only is A-Rod destroying our environment and making Americans fat, but he is ruining our economy. One of the largest issues faced worldwide today is unemployment. The lack of jobs even in our great country has many people sitting at home all day collecting unemployment that they all definitely deserve. Rodriguez's ludicrous salary is preventing the Yankees from signing other overrated pricks to hefty contracts. The nerve of the bastard to do such a thing. If it wasn't for A-Rod the Yankees could be a better team with more than one player tying up the same amount of money. This would help the U.S. unemployment by about 0%, what a selfish f**k.

Apparently I had nothing to do with this

Fans from all over Yankee Universe are calling for A-Rod's head. They want him gone, and who can blame them, the numbers don't lie. In the 2012 postseason A-Rod only had a higher batting average than Chavez, Robinson Cano, and Curtis Granderson. Yankees fans would argue that Jeter would have been more productive playing in a cast or wheelchair than Rodriguez. The fans treat A-Rod the right way, too. If fans want to help out struggling superstars, then booing is the number one prescription to help them turn it around.

Let's not forget all the other horrid things that A-Rod has done during his time on earth. We haven't been hard enough on him to this point, not the Yankee fans, not Donald Trump, or any of the baseball experts out there. Don't forget what he did to New Orleans a few years ago, Katrina's nickname was A-Rod. Don't think you're safe on the west coast either. Those fires out in California were all caused by the same person. That's right, A-Rod, who is now the number one target for Al Gore and Smokey the Bear. Good luck finding your way out of that one, Mr. Rodriguez. A-Rod's devilish legacy has him chasing down even the greatest of evil icons. Watch out Adolf Hitler, A-Rod is hot on your trail. In fact, Donald Trump already thinks that what A-Rod has done to his beloved Yankees is much worse than what Hitler did to the Jews.

Everyone is definitely going to pick on me again

We all know the Mayans predicted the world to end in 2012, but the untold part of their prediction is that the world will end this December because of Rodriguez. The stories about plagues and environmental disasters are simply stories. However, A-Rod is the figure of impending doom and the Mayans correctly predicted him as the downfall of mankind. The Mayans foresaw the 2012 season that A-Rod had at the plate and knew it was all over without any doubt.

If we somehow make it through December of 2012 will the Yankees get rid of A-Rod this off-season? No one knows for sure right now, but we can all agree that he played absolutely no part in the Yankees winning the World Series in 2009. What A-Rod will do next no one knows either. Keep your fingers crossed and hope that the game's most expensive player doesn't f**k what's left of the Yankee legacy and the great country of America.

What a Year!

It's October as Toninho pointed out in a post the other day!  He also talked about the end of the baseball season and the start of playoffs.  That's where I come in, a majority of this was written about a week ago on the last day of the season, I tried to update it as much as I could.

AL East
I say it's obvious that the biggest story of the year in the AL East was the Red Sox deciding to take a very talented team and driving it into the ground again.  Going into this year, this Red Sox team was not the same team that I knew when they reversed the curse and won two titles in 3 years after an 86 year drought.  They had Fried Chickengate, Francona's firing and the sting from last year's collapse on their mind, a real Red Sox team would have gone in with a chip on their shoulder and be what Bill Simmons often refers to as the "Nobody Believes in Us" team.  Instead they got a team full of entitled players and sedated management, it was a disaster from day 1, and now they have to start from scratch.  Meanwhile the Yankees hardly even stumbled through the season and will likely beat the Sox in the two remaining games to clinch the AL East and the top seed (they did).  I can't think of anything positive or negative to say about Toronto other than better luck next year.  The Rays had the season they were expecting to have and would've made the playoffs if it wasn't for those meddling kids in Baltimore.  Yes, the Orioles, a team running completely on bravado winning pretty much every 1 run game they played in and are a jaw dropping 11 games better than their Pythagorean Record.  Holy Buck Showalter Batman!  I can't imagine they can keep this up in the playoffs, but you can never rule out the real "Nobody Believes in Us" team.

Been there, done that...

AL Central

I wrote about them earlier in the season, it turned out to be fairly accurate so read on that and love my predictive talents.  The Tigers put it together and clinched the division despite underachieving, the White Sox did find consistent pitching and held it together until dropping out of the playoff hunt the other night, I overrated the Indians who found a 12 game losing streak in August and never looked back, Kansas City started playing better but they were never destined to much and the Twins are the worst team in the American League.  Detroit is ending the season and going into the playoffs as a streaky team, the magic of October will have to decide their fate.  Meanwhile, Miguel Cabrera is making me look slightly good since I said after this year there won't be any question that he is the best hitter in baseball, winning the Triple Crown will surely do that.  He has been in the top 5 of MVP voting 5 years in his career, including the last 3 years, I think this is the year he going to finally get over that hump.  I'll gush over him more later.

Gushing.

AL West

I honestly can't wait to get to talk about the Astros in this camp next year.  Anyways, the Rangers have been mildly uninteresting like the Yankees and just kept winning and still have (had) the upper hand in winning the division again.  What the people really want are surprises!  Like the Mariners!  Oh wait... they didn't play that well, except for the fact they were probably like 15 games better than I expected out of them.  Lets try again.  Like the Angels!  Kinda... Trout had been a total spark plug and having the best rookie season since Ichiro broke into the league in 2001, Pujols also ended up having a good year after his abysmal start but their pitching betrayed them despite signing C.J. Wilson and trading fro Zach Grienke so they are on the outside looking in.  One more try for the excitement.  Like the Athletics!  Now that is exciting, this team of nobodies who signs a top free agent in Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes, trades their best starting pitcher (Gio Gonzalez) and their closer (Andrew Bailey), should not be competing.  And that's what we thought when it reached midseason and they traded their catcher Kurt Suzuki to join Gonzalez in Washington, yet they just didn't stop winning.  I still haven't watched any of their games so I don't know if they are actually good or not, but I can't think of anything more fitting than them having this amazingly unexpected year the year after Moneyball came out and made a splash at the box office.  The baseball gods have an interesting way of working, I'll call this a team of destiny for now and may the gods (or Brad Pitt) be with them.

This town ain't big enough for the two of us!

NL East

I was a moron and didn't publish my thoughts on the Nationals before this year, but Toninho, my brother and some of my close friends are sure of how I felt before this season.  I thought they were a year away from being a playoff contender, but then they traded for Gio Gonzalez and basically told the world "were gonna be in the playoffs, deal with it."  I knew Gio was a good move but a 20 game winner was beyond my wildest dreams, not only did I enjoy this from a fantasy owner perspective (taking Gio in effectively the 11th round of my draft) but I enjoyed it from the seats as I happened to organize a trip to DC to see a game with some friends and it was the day he won his 20th over the Brewers!  I think the Nationals are going to hang around for a long time and can still make a dent in the playoffs without Strasburg.  I have also been a big fan of the Braves for a large chunk of my life and am really happy to see them playing so well in the final year of Chipper Jones's illustrious career, and am also happier to see Heyward may be stepping up to be the new franchise guy with a great year.  Unfortunately I sat through a game that I could only describe as condensing a long term relationship into 3 and a half hours, to see the Braves lose the Wild Card and Chipper end his career, we'll miss you.  The Marlins were struck down by the baseball Gods after hosting the Opening Night game which is an honor that should go to the defending champs every year.  The Phillies got old.  And the Mets held in there better than I would have ever imagined, especially R.A. Dickey's continued success.

Didn't even mention this fine lad!

NL Central

Fuck the Cardinals.  They are the New York Giants of the MLB and are one of the main reasons I'm starting to agree with Toninho about how the American sports playoff systems are kinda dumb.  They have a very good offense and some fine pitchers but screw them.  If you want a playoff team let me show you the Cincinnati Reds, a team I truly can respect, from the OBP monster Joey Votto, the playful spirit of Brandon Phillips and the guitar of Bronson Arroyo.  I hope to see them continue the success they have seen thus far in the Playoffs (unless the face off with Washington).  Milwaukee saw a late season run be for naught, but saw fantastic years out of Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun, they could be a good team next year.  The Cubs and Astros were absolutely abysmal, it is kind of sad.  And lastly we all missed out on a great story in the Pirates who keep on teasing us by performing admirably until the All-Star break and then losing control.  I want to see them make it back to the playoffs some time.

It's been too long...

NL West
The Dodgers should be ashamed of themselves, they started out the season like wildfire, then by the time California reached actual wildfire season they bought every available player on the market and performed worse.  Now they are paying infinity dollars for a non-playoff team, just like the Cubs!  The Giants managed to keep up their amazing season despite Melky Cabrera informing us that BALCO does, in fact, still conduct their business (Bartolo Colon only confirmed it), mostly due to Matt Cain having his breakout year and Buster Posey stepping up to take the slack.  I guess the Diamondbacks were lightning in a bottle last year as they brought in an improved team and finished at a respectable .500.  San Diego put up a solid year despite having no more than one nationally known player on their roster.  I still don't know what happened to the Rockies, their DL looks like it could win 70 games!  Lets look at award winners now!

I guess there wasn't enough Magic.

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera (Week 1 Prediction: Miguel Cabrera)

Nailed it!  I thought for a little while that I was going to have to give it to Mike Trout, but then Miggy finished the season like a man possessed and gave us the first Triple Crown since 1967.  I am proud of him, as he has put himself above Pujols and could easily be sold as the best hitter in baseball right now.  I can understand how some people still think Trout deserves the MVP, but the modern convention has given precedence to playoff players and milestones.  Trout had plenty milestones, but if Ichiro doesn't get a single 1st place vote for the most hits ever in a season I don't know how a leadoff hitter could ever win (you know unless he manages only a .344 OBP...)  Sorry Trout you put up a valiant effort, but you aren't getting this trophy yet.

NL MVP: Buster Posey (Weel 1 Prediction: Troy Tulowitzki)
Yeouch, Tulo got hurt so I should get a waiver for that, but saying the NL West was winnable for the Rockies was terrible.  I wish Tulo the best of luck in years going forward.  I don't want Posey to win, but I think the convention of the voters will make him the winner, despite making it obvious that the first half of the season is meaningless.  Here are some players that deserve it over Posey.  Ryan Braun, who likely put the whole steroid mess behind him and put up better numbers with a worse guy hitting behind him.  Yadier Molina, who didn't quite have the statistical prowess of Posey but still put up a very good statistical year and is indispensable for a very easy to hate Cardinals team.  Andrew McCutchen for his breakout year everyone knew was coming.  And finally, Adam LaRoche, I can hardly think of a player who was more consistently effective for his team.

AL Cy Young: David Price (Week 1 Prediction: Justin Verlander)
I could still be right, some analysts have said Verlander has put up a better year than Price.  But I am usually of the convention that when WHIP and ERA are comparable you look at wins, not strikeouts, cause sometimes you need a little luck to win a game and you need a little more luck to win a Cy Young.  I wouldn't be surprised if either player won.

NL Cy Young: Gio Gonzalez (Week 1 Prediction: Adam Wainwright)
Apparently I had no feel for the NL awards going into this year.  I am very proud of Gio Gonzalez, when he was traded to Washington I felt that was the turning point for the Nationals to be a playoff squad, and it needed to get more attention than it did.  Seeing him live, I was only more drawn in to his aura, where he seems like a truly nice guy who deserves this honor.  I wish him all the best in his career and will watch over him as long as I can.  Johnny Cueto and R.A. Dickey have also put up good years, but as I said with Price, when all else is similar, consult the wins.  Or give it to the guy whose slugging percentage against is less than .300.

AL Rookie of the Year: Mike Trout
I discussed him for MVP, that is some Ichiro shit right there.  Nobody else should even get a vote, no second place votes, just give Trout the trophy.

He can also catch a ball!

NL Rookie of the Year: Bryce Harper
This was a very close race for a large portion of the year with Harper doing admirably for a 19 year old, but still seeming like he was worse than Wade Miley and Todd Frazier.  Then September happened.  Harper was a monster in that final month of the season, and made me wonder if the way he runs the bases was similar to the spirit Ty Cobb had.  I've never seen a player before that forces the opposition to make a perfect throw as often as Harper has.

AL Manager of the Year: Buck Showalter (Week 1 Prediction: Joe Maddon)
Buck did an amazing job, which I have already talked about.  Now he has to get them to beat the Yankees.  I also feel obliged to mention Robin Ventura.

NL Manager of the Year: Davey Johnson (Week 1 Prediction: Ozzie Guillen)
The Nationals have such a young team, and even though they are very talented it has to take a good managerial job to make them the best team in baseball.  Ozzie Guillen never could get the Marlins off the ground.  I also think Dusty Baker did a good job bringing the Reds back into the playoffs after stumbling last year.  Screw Mike Matheny only because I hate the Cardinals.  Also, I like the Nationals this year.

Playoff Picture
Detroit over Oakland (It's basically over already)
Baltimore over New York (Unless Jeffrey Maier has anything to say about it)
Washington over St. Louis (Go home Cards, you are living a lie)
Cincinnati over San Francisco (Ditto from Detroit)

Detroit over Baltimore (Detroit is a better team than they have shown all year)
Cincinnati over Washington (It pains me to say it)

Cincinnati over Detroit (We may have a new Big Red Machine)

Maybe not...

A Man of Merit

On Friday September 7, 2012, Aries Merritt of the United States broke the world record in the 110 meter high hurdles at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels. The previous world record, established by Cuba's Dayron Robles four years ago, stood at 12.87 seconds, until Merritt absolutely hauled ass to cross the finish line in a blistering 12.80 seconds. .07 seconds in a short race like the 110 meter high hurdles is quite significant, not even mentioning that he ran the fastest time in the event... ever.




Merritt, also fresh off an Olympic gold in the same event, ended the outdoor season on the highest of highs by clinching the world record. Unfortunately, this tremendous achievement demonstrates the United States lack of respect for the sport, especially outside of the Olympics. Sportscenter, a popular sports news broadcast show in the United States, put Merritt's record setting performance number 10 on its top 10 plays. Apparently there were ten other things in the sports world that happened that day or week that were better than setting a world record. However, regardless of whether the other nine plays were from the same day or the entire week, setting a world record should take precedence over them. Merritt is American, too, so you'd think he would get some respect from his home country.

Let's take a moment to recognize what it means to hold a world record. World records are held by people who have achieved results that no other person in the history of anything has ever surpassed. Actually, that's about all you have to know. No one has ever run the 110 meter hurdles faster than Merritt, not the great Liu Xiang nor Dayron Robles, both former world record holders. Xiang who has been plagued by injuries for some time now might not have another chance to compete for this record, or at least not at 100% fitness, but Robles must be thinking "dayuuumn, that dude is flyin'!" He's certainly in for some tough battles as long as he can recover from the injury he sustained in the final at the Olympics in London.

Given this great accomplishment, the guy is under appreciated by people who are not fans of the sport. Even during the Olympics he wasn't praised much for his gold medal in the U.S. It was all about Phelps and some guy who had no legs. It it isn't football (American, take that!), basketball, baseball, hockey (to some extent), or golf, then it doesn't really matter in the U.S. Or swimming if it's during the Olympics.

Track and field isn't alone, soccer gets no respect, either. Just ask the Sportscenter anchor who didn't know how to pronounce Maicon's name when he scored an absurd goal, he was only one of the best right backs in the world. That's not even the start of it, but in general soccer and track are disrespected sports, at least in the U.S.

Congratulations Aries Merritt for your ridiculous run and tremendous accomplishment!

Dan Uggla is Confusing!

I don't have anything particularly interesting or insightful to say about Dan Uggla, but I really do feel that I need to post an article about him in some way.  I really like Uggla, not only because he plays for one of my favorite teams, the Braves, but because I have never been able to make sense of the man.  In general look at him.  He is supposed to be a second baseman but he is 5'11" and weighs 205, when I think of second basemen people like Dustin Pedroia and Craig Biggio, who are 5'8" 165 and 5'11" 185, respectively.  Every time I see him I wonder who the first person was that looked at this strong powerful man and decided to throw him at second base.  In the minors he played a majority of his games at second base, but also had a pretty large chunk of games at third base, which is where I would have put him personally.  Comparing him to some of the stereotype third base body types, David Wright and Evan Longoria, Uggla is a little short (about an inch shorter than Wright) and at a proper weight.  Yet, I can't complain about Uggla as a second baseman as his production at the position has made him a notable player and his defense is solid.  I just can never get used to seeing a guy at second base who has arms as big as the moon.

"I don't get it either!"

I also find Uggla's numbers to be notably interesting.  He is on pace this year to hit around 20 home runs which would be his career low by 7 homers, yet is still amazing for a second baseman (especially when you note he usually hits 30 or more.)  He also has a really low batting average in recent years (.233 last year .206  so far this year), yet his OBP is sticking around his career norms.  The man is currently leading the league in walks!  He also has the dubious honor of being the first veteran player I have known of who has been an All-Star at the midpoint of the season, then at the end it on platoon due to continued bad play.  I was ashamed to have to drop him from my fantasy team when the Braves announced a reduction in his playing time.  His numbers don't make sense to me because it seems that every time I watch the Braves he either ropes a double somewhere or hits a towering moonshot, so apparently he can't hit a beachball unless I'm watching him.  This is getting a little sad now so lets look at his arms again.

Consolation

I guess that concludes all I have to say about Dan Uggla, he is a great player to have in the league due to his position and style of play that leaves me scratching my head every time.  If you don't watch much baseball I do recommend you take the time to watch some of the Braves this postseason, Uggla will be there and he will have large arms and you won't quite know what to make of him.  Keep checking in on the site as I will probably start posting more as the playoffs come into sight, and you can also read this for a little bit of Toninho talking about Uggla (and Manny Ramirez!)

He also knows how to finish out a home run swing in style

Helping Your Own Cause

Baseball is likely the only sport where the game can differ massively depending on what team or league you play in.  I can't think of any other sport that doesn't have standard field dimensions down to every little aspect, granted you need to keep the infield the same size across parks, but beyond that you can do whatever you want.  Giant walls, infinite room in foul territory, a hill in center field, sometimes all you need is an interesting perk to make your team a winner.  Not only that but the difference of the designated hitter rule in the AL and NL makes for an interesting dichotomy.  Most people prefer to watch AL games as the DH makes games slugfests and inflates offense, but I truly love the NL a lot more.  There is so much more strategy in the game to scrape together runs when you can rather than have everybody swing for the big fly.  Also, there is nothing like seeing a pitcher deposit a ball into the 6th row.  It is moments like that that cause fans to yell "That's how you help your own cause!" at their television screens, or sometimes you get Tim Hudson taking almost half a minute to round the bases.  Because I am a nerd and love numbers, I thought that I should adjust pitchers' ERA to reflect the effective amount of runs they costed their team.  Lets get to it!

Lets not forget Mike Hampton, the only pitcher to hold a bat for his baseball card..

So I fetched all of the pitching and batting statistics for National League starters on the morning of 8/9 isn't perfectly current to the writing of this, but it's close enough and we are just doing this for fun.  I also want to point out that some pitchers had the luxury of pitching a few games in AL parks during interleague play so they are slightly lacking in at bats while other pitchers have sometimes been used as pinch hitters, either way it would be too much effort for me to take this into account so I didn't.  Lastly, any pitcher who had been traded midseason is being counted only for their starts with the team they have the most innings for, it also made things easy for me.  So here are the top 10 pitchers according to ERA (min 50 innings).

1. Mike Fiers (MIL) 1.80
2. Brandon Beachy (ATL) 2.00
3. Ryan Dempster (CHC) 2.25
4. Ryan Vogelsong (SF) 2.27
5. Jordan Zimmerman (WSH) 2.45
6. Johnny Cueto (CIN) 2.58
7. Kyle Lohse (STL) 2.79
8. R.A. Dickey (NYM) 2.82
9. Wade Miley (ARI) 2.85
10. Clayton Kershaw (LAD) 2.88

Dickey and Zimmerman are probably being negatively effected by the timing of this as they both had fantastic starts the night after collecting the data.  I also want to point out that I find it interesting that no team repeats in that top ten, but that is not the point of this.  I did a little math magic with my best friend Microsoft Excel to adjust ERA due to excellent hitting and then the top 10 morphs into this.

I wish this morph would be so cool.

1. Brandon Beachy (ATL) 1.22
2. Mike Fiers (MIL) 1.80
3. Jordan Zimmerman (WSH) 2.07
4. Ryan Dempster (CHC) 2.08
5. Ryan Vogelsong (SF) 2.08
6. Stephen Strasburg (WSH) 2.26
7. Johnny Cuteo (CIN) 2.28
8. Wade Miley (ARI) 2.51
9. R.A. Dickey (NYM) 2.52
10. Kyle Lohse (STL) 2.61

That certainly went better than expected!  As you can see this adjustment didn't rock the boat too much (at least for the top 10) but did alter the ordering.  Young phenom Stephen Strasburg is the only pitcher to enter the top ten after the adjustment, jumping 5 spots from 11 to 6.  Brandon Beachy (sadly done for the season) took a commanding lead over Mike Fiers for the top ERA after Fiers has apparently been completely ineffectual with the bat.  I also don't understand R.A. Dickey this year, knuckleballers are not supposed to be so consistent, it's weird!  For those interested the average drop in ERA across all pitchers was 0.26, a number that could help contract talks for anybody.  Lets see which pitchers get the most benefit.

1. Anthony Bass (SD) 4.70 to 3.84 (-0.86)
2. Jaime Garcia (STL) 4.48 to 3.66 (-0.82)
3. Brandon Beachy (ATL) 2.00 to 1.22 (-0.78)
4. Stephen Strasburg (WSH) 2.97 to 2.26 (-0.71)
5. Tim Hudson (ATL) 3.77 to 3.11 (-0.66)
6. Jonathon Niese (NYM) 3.82 to 3.29 (-0.53)
7. Jamie Moyer (COL) 5.70 to 5.20 (-0.50)
8. Randy Wolf (MIL) 5.46 to 5.20 (-0.49)
9. James McDonald (PIT) 3.42 to 2.96 (-0.46)
10. Clayton Richard (SD) 3.79 to 3.34 (-0.45)

Granted Bass, Garcia, Beachy and Moyer have less than 85 IP so their numbers would obviously be helped a little more drastically, but the others all have at least 120 IP so you can assume they have seen continued offensive success.  It makes me happy to see Hudson mentioned again although he has not had any chance to speed up his trot time with no home runs this year.  Strasburg proves to be the real deal where not only does he have the best batting average for all pitchers by over 50 points (.343) but he also sees ERA drop comparable to players who have thrown nearly half as many innings as he has.  Jamie Moyer is 49 years old, that is embarrassing for the younger pitchers out there.  I also want to point out how odd it is that two of the pitchers on the list are from San Diego, a home park that deflates all offensive stats and a team that doesn't score runs, so Bass and Richard would probably be a lot more interesting in a more offensive park.  There's not a whole lot more to say without spitting out tons more numbers, which I would be willing to do if there was interest.  Leave a message in the comment box and I'll do a follow up on this soon.  

UH OH! Hes baaaaack!!!

Don't think I would tease you with a picture of Mike Hampton earlier and not follow up on it.  The guy hit 7 home runs one year, 7!  He has 7 home runs in 79 at bats, if he continued that pace to have enough at bats to qualify, that would be the 61st best AB per HR ratio for any season ever.  He also has the most Silver Sluggers for a pitcher, winning 5 consecutive titles from 1999-2003.  So here's some information about how his career would have been different with this statistic.  His career ERA would have been a rather good 3.38 as opposed to an average 4.04.  In 2001, when he hit 7 homers, he scored 20 runs and drove in 16, enough to lower his season ERA by a staggering 1.29!  In his two years pitching at the bambox that is Coors Field, his ERA would have been lowered from 5.75 to 4.81, neither number is good but any pitcher could use an effectual 0.94 drop on their ERA.  In the decade from 1999 until his retirement in 2009, every season would have put him in this year's top ten for ERA differential, and all but two seasons of his total career.  Needless to say, Mike Hampton was an interesting pitcher, just look at his baseball cards again.

What a man.