I thought this article from SB Nation's Beyond The Box Score was amazingly different. I can't begin to explain the stats or how this works, or really anything about it at all, but it includes statistics that I haven't seen before and I thought would be fun to share. Basically, we're measuring umpires.
Here's what I can surmise: Pretty much, there are two things calculated when deciding if an umpire is hitter or pitcher friendly; Strikeouts/Walks and Strikezone analysis. Combined, this will let you know if an umpire is friendly to a pitcher or a hitter.
Here's the tease, and the criteria for the umpires included:
First, I wanted to look at how many walks and strikeouts each umpire allowed. So I took the total number of plate appearances, strikeouts and walks over the past 3 seasons and figured out the number of K and BB's for every 27 ABs (this number could be changed, but it won't matter in the analysis). I found a cut offline for umpires that worked regularly and took those that had been behind the plate for 3750 plate appearances over the 3 years. I only used these umpires for the analysis.
Seriously, check it out, especially if you can name more than five umpires in the league. They are all charted. I will tell you that based on the data, there is one umpire that pitchers love, and five umpires that hitters love. I know there are some other sites that also run these stats; I'd be curious if anyone has used/seen these type of stats before. At any rate, this should be fun data to include in game threads.
And now the news you've all been waiting for! AN held its fantasy draft on Tuesday night, and I must brag that we got through 30 rounds of the draft in barely two hours. I am told that is not normal, but what would I know? Drafts are fun! And fast!
In our quest for the mirror ball trophy, we have assembled twelve teams of major league players, and as you probably already suspect, Team BBG (otherwise known as Chicks Dig The Green And Gold) drafted awesomely. I'm sure you want to hear all about it, and if you don't, I can always talk more about the 25-man roster.
My team includes a lot of ex-A's, which makes sense, because aren't they always good when they leave the A's? Miguel Tejada, Carlos Gonzalez, Tim Hudson, and Octavio Dotel will have SUCH fun playing together; they're going to be BFFs on Team BBG this year.
Okay, and I KNOW I said I wouldn't draft any A's this year, but when people leave them in perfectly good spots, you kind of have to, right? I have Panda playing third (to keep an eye on the other Bay Area team) and Adam LaRoche playing first; Chris Davis, Daric Barton and Kevin Kouzmanoff are backing them up.
In case you were worried, I actually have Jimmy Rollins starting over Tejada, Brandon Phillips at second (Mark Ellis backing him up), and Ryan Doumit catching (with Pudge in the wings).
I wish the A's had my outfield; I'm sporting Ryan Braun, Mike Cameron, Carlos Gonzalez, Andrew McCutchen, David DeJesus and Nelson Cruz (so I have a legitimate incentive to harass Ron Washington about playing time).
My pitching is also awesome; Sabathia, Buchholz, Kershaw, Hudson, Nolasco, Slowey and relief pitchers Soria, Soriano, and Stasburg. I call them the Killer S's.
We're soooo going to win. How's that for a little trash talk?
Today's games are both at 1:00PM, A's vs. Cubs, A's vs. Rangers. (What is up with me drawing the split-squad games?)
Remember, you can still sign up for CBSSports.com's Fantasy Baseball Commissioner's League for half-off using this link. That takes the price down to $89.99 a league, which is less than $8 a person for a 12-team. If you do start another CBSSports.com league (either with fellow ANers or on your own with friends), email me at baseballgirl1976 at hotmail. Both SB Nation and baseballgirl will make sure you have a fabulous prize to offer the winner.
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This post is one of a series of sponsor endorsed posts related to the CBSSports.com Fantasy Baseball Commissioner League.
