ANcillary Terms

ANcillary Terms - Nicknames

Current Players

• Daric Barton-Staples, Staplehead (as a reference to Daric's swimming pool cement-induced head trauma), Dale (apparently his first name, if you trust Gary Thorne's butchering on national television)
• Ryan Sweeney-Swooney, Swingles (referencing Sweeney's lack of power), Bad Sweeney (created when the then better Mike Sweeney was also on the team)
• Jack Cust-Spartacust
• Cliff Pennington-Moneypenny
• Trevor Cahill-Trevordacthill (a twist on Cahill's self-given nickname of Pterodactyl)
• Mark Ellis-MaEl (because he has Kryptonian origins), Unicorn (because of his golden magical chariot of glory)
• Chris Carter-Trogdor (he's probably half-dragon)

Former Players

• Emil Brown-DFA (the popular option at the time)
• Greg Smith-Nibbles (a reference to Smith's utter reluctance to throw anything at the middle of the plate)
• Jack Hannahan-Hannahmontanahan (which later evolved into Miley)

"Metrics For Dummies" - A Statistical Primer

• BABIP (Batting Average on Balls In Play): A statistic that calculates the batting average only for batted balls that are put into play. This excludes home runs, strikeouts, walks, and any other events where a ball is not put into play. Because studies show that pitchers usually have little control over balls put into play, an abnormally high or low BABIP (outside of .290-.300) could indicate that a pitcher is getting lucky or unlucky on batted balls. The same effect is present for hitters, although certain hitters can consistently achieve high or low BABIPs due to hitting style and speed.
• EqA (Equivalent Average): See wOBA
• FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching): A statistic that studies a pitcher's performance by only using the events that are directly under his control. Only home runs, walks, strikeouts, and hit by pitches are used in the calculation. The statistic is scaled to resemble ERA. xFIP is a variant which gives all pitchers the league-average home run/fly ball ratio. A FIP above 5.00 is very poor, average is usually around 4.20 to 4.60, and a FIP under 3.50 is generally All-Star level.
• tRA: A pitching statistic that is similar to FIP which includes ground balls, fly balls, pop ups, and line drives. The scaling of tRA is similar to ERA or FIP, except tRA numbers are scaled to R/9 rather than ERA. Because of this scaling, tRA is approximately 8% higher than its equivalent ERA or FIP. tRA* is a variant which regresses tRA to the average proportionally with sample size. Average is usually around 4.30 to 4.70, below 3.60 is All-Star level, and 5.00 and above is very poor.
• UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating): A defensive statistic that judges a fielder based on the number of runs that he allows or prevents, compared to the average for his position. The statistic looks at range, errors, arm (for outfielders only), and double plays (for infielders only). Catcher and pitcher defense is not included.
• WAR (Wins Above Replacement): A truly catch-all statistic that sums up everything about a player. WAR is always based on other statistics. The most common are wOBA (for batters), FIP or tRA (for pitchers), and UZR (for fielders). These statistics are converted into a scale that shows how many runs a player was worth, which is in turn converted into wins. A WAR of 0 is set at replacement level. The most common form of WAR is the one found at FanGraphs, which uses wOBA, FIP, and UZR. Average WAR is around 2 to 3. A WAR of 4.5 or higher is All-Star level, and anything below 1 is very poor.
• wOBA (weighted On Base Average): A comprehensive statistic that works as a more accurate version of OPS. Includes hits (singles, doubles, triples, and home runs), walks, bases reached on errors, and hit by pitches, all correctly weighted. May slightly vary based on source, as some versions include stolen bases and other factors. Is scaled to the league average on-base percentage. The + variant is not denoted wOBA+, but is instead labeled wRC+. EqA is Baseball Prospectus's very similar statistic, scaled to batting average. Average for wOBA is generally around .320 to .340, .380 and higher is All-Star level, and anything below .300 is very poor.
• WPA (Win Probability Added): A statistic that sums up a player's contributions to winning a single game. For example, before a batter's plate appearance, the chances of his team winning the game are calculated, and subtracted from the chances of winning after the batter's plate appearance. This change can be added up for one game or a whole season.
• xFIP: See FIP
• +: Stats with a + sign after them (e.g., OPS+, ERA+, tRA+) mean that the stat has been converted to a scale where 100 is set at the league average for that year, and each number is a percentage point above or below the average. For example, an OPS+ of 125 means that the player was 25% better than league average that year. Even for metrics like ERA where a lower number is better, a + version of any stat always makes higher numbers better.

Archives (ANcillary Terms From Before 2010)

A's Nicknames

King Richard = Rich Harden
Los Kirk = Kirk Saarloos
Band Camp = Dan Johnson
Booby = Bobby Kielty
Bunnies = Bobby Crosby
Chewbobby = Bobby Crosby with a beard
ChoCoBoCro = Chocolate-covered Bobby Crosby
Crabcakes = contagious Bobby Crosby
Cupcakes = Joe Blanton
Hotcakes = Mark Kotsay
MaEl = Mark Ellis, Krypton-style
Magical little elf (see also "Man-candy") = Marco Scutaro
PORN! = Nick Swisher
Two-buck Chuck = Charles Thomas
Utter Hotness = anagram of Huston Street

Rival's Nicknames

Pico Rivera Angels of Westminster = Or you can basically insert any Southern California name in either position to make fun of the absurd name of the Anaheim Angels
Shrek = Bartolo Colon for his near identical look to the large, gaseous green ogre
Slingblade = John Lackey for his inability to keep his mouth closed and his resemblance to Billy Bob asking for some "french fried taters"
Spicoli = Jered Weaver for his remarkable likeness to the Ridgemont Times character of that name.
Colonel Saunders = Angels pitcher Joe Saunders.
Porn Stache = Garret Anderson for his mustache that looks transplanted from some 70s porn movie...this is interchangeable with Cop Stache
Common (non-statistical) acronyms

DLD = Daily Link Dump
FITZ = "Fearless In The Zone" (Zito's favorite)
LOOGY = Left-handed One Out Guy
NRAF = Non-Resident A's Fan (pronounced "EN-raf" by popular demand)
QOTM = Quote Of The Month

Applied Creativity (some of which refer to or create recurring themes)

Adventures of Diego Chavez (Apricot's comics)
Brokeback Stadium (by monkeyball)
ANtics (louismg's comics)
Poetic Interludes (by monkeyball)

Everything Else

<annika sorenstam venereal disease> = A "golf clap," according to monkeyball

AMPLE = More lewdness related to Bobby Crosby; also AMPLE CROTCHBY

Baking cookies = Off-day activity for Huston, but only a euphemism with Swisher.

Bonobos = Problem-solving primates; methods are not necessarily appropriate for AN.

Chavy's not Mexican enough = From a preseason diary about the WBC.  Now used as shorthand for "we love Chavy, and that guy who wrote that he isn't Mexican enough is, uh, wrong."  Similar to Chavy has no heart/guts/grit, but I can't find a link for the origin of that.

Cindi = AsGirl's explanation:  Cindi is a teenage girl who happens to be one of the many people living in Nico's head...  And please don't commit the cardinal sin of calling her CINDY.  It's CINDI, with a heart over the SECOND i, except for on Fridays.

Conkers = A British diversion.  Spawned "Lemurconkers," see below.

Cuss Jar = Fund-raising effort.

Doing the pound = Nobody really knows...

Face-Lick Girl = Some skank on "On the DL" website; I think McFood gave her the nickname.

Facials! = Off-day activity enjoyed by BFF (Best Friends Forever).

Going to Harvard/Pepperdine = Nudge nudge, wink wink.

Height/Shortness = How tall is Rashad, anyway?

Jack Wilson's hotness = Or something.

Jay Witasick in a tube top = Derived from people thinking californiagirl is Jay Witasick.

Jennifer's basement = Jennifer's explanation: This goes way back to the days of AN v.1. I don't remember what exactly started it, but I decided to build "Superplayer", a combination of the best parts of everyone in the AL. I kept the players locked in my basement until I could clone them. The basement was said to be guarded by Mo Vaughn and my granny. Things snowballed from there.

Klown <something> = Refers to any feat performed by Bobby Kielty (eg. Klown Power, Klobbering Klown), in homage to his Ronnie Mac persona.

kRaZeE bAnNiNg WaNd = Dangerous in the wrong hands.

Lemurconkers = A mutation of Apricot's "Conkers" story.

Man-candy = Usually Venezuelan, ie. Marco Scutaro.

Mr. Sabermetric Spock = WARNING: Halos Heaven link; later spawned "Sabermetric spork," see below.

Nacho Runs = Origin, and nifty commercial.

Pooping in salb918's pants = monkeyball's least nasty habit.

Puppies = Either of two functions:  a) Given to young children by Bobby Crosby so that he can seduce their mothers, or b) A tasty snack or casserole ingredient.

Sabermetric spork = Sabermetric Spock mutated beyond all recognition.

Santa = How Jennifer got banned from Macy's.

Tapirs = From a Valentine's Day article.

Unicorns = Sorry, you gotta read the whole thread to get the full effect.

Vibrational node = sal gives us too much information.

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!! = Game thread cry of anguish when something goes wrong or people start sounding overly hysterical/negative.

What's your f'n problem? = Nothing. What's yours?

Y DOAN YOO GOE CHOO SUMM GUMM = An indictment of our culture of over-capitalized insults.