2008

Record: 92-70, first place, won NLDS 3-1, won NLCS 4-1, won World Series 4-1

RS: 799, RA: 680, Pythag record: 93-69

Opening Day payroll: $98.2m

Destroyed cars: unknown

World Phuckin’ Champions.  The losingest franchise in sports history won its second World Series in 125 years, to much rejoicing.   The Phillies rode a second consecutive late season hot streak to the division title (helped once again by a Flushing choke job) and kept it going throughout the playoffs, going 11-3 in their run to glory.  It was a deserved title—nothing like the fraudulent 2006 Cards—but it merits a closer look nonetheless.

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Howdy.  This is an open invitation to join a Yahoo fantasy league my friend is running.  We have four open spots.  League parameters: 12 team mixed, points-only scoring.  Max games per position: 162.  Max innings: 1375.  The scoring is based on linear runs, so the idea is to draft players who are actually good at baseball.  Live draft, currently scheduled for Thurs. March 26 at 9pm.

Here are the positions:

C,C,1B,2B,SS,3B,CI,MI,CF,OF,OF,OF,OF,UT,UT,P,P,P,P,P,P,P,P

7 bench spots, 2 DL spots. 

Notice that we do not distinguish between starting and relief pitchers.  Drafting all starters won't help you beacuse of the innings limit.  It's up to you to find the right balance of starters and relievers.  The main idea is to reflect the fact that a 100 ERA+ starter is far more valuable than a 100 ERA+ closer.

Here are the points values:

The pitching stats start with OUT.  As you can see, there is no K category.  The categories are essentially the components of OBP and SLG.  Also note that we penalize for CS.

If you're interested, reply to this thread and I will send you the league info.  Some of us in the league already are more competitive than others, but in general, it's just a group of laid-back SABR-minded dudes.  If you sign up though, please plan on sticking with the league at least through the August 16 trade deadline.

Woohoo! Yeehaw! Yippee-Kai-Yay!

Uh....300 Characters! Hooray! Extra Innings is back on cable!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

300?

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Following up ken's excellent Phillies preview was a challenge, but I hope everyone enjoys this preview of the Metropolitans. Main sources for this include Baseball Prospectus, the Hardball Times, baseball-reference.com, and Tom Seaver's Wikipedia page.

Disclaimer: I may have gone a bit overboard on this one, but I was procrastinating!

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Baseball Prospectus just released their 2007 PECOTA projections. Here are some notable Reds' offensive projections. The one that blew me out of the water was Votto. Hopefully he'll be up with the team sometime in 2007. Remember, these are the "weighted mean" projections.

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Hey all! I know I've been a stranger since law school started, but given the importance of these last 5 games, I felt like I had to get on here express my wishes for good mojo upon the Reds and horrible voodoo curses on the Cards and 'Stros.

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For those who don't remember, I spent a week in July with my brother on a baseball stadium tour of Detroit, Cincy (twice), St. Louis, and Kansas City. Here are my reports with a few photos thrown in.

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Tomorrow I am embarking on a journey with my little brother that will take us to 4 ballparks we have never been to, plus a couple of Reds games. Itinerary is as follows, if you want to live vicariously:

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Bud Selig is a buffoon.

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