It's been about a week and a half since the last rankings, so here's round two. Same thing as last time.  The power rankings are established using 50% current record, 25% strength of schedule (from ESPN), 15% run differential, and 10% recent performance.

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Looking at the various MLB power rankings that websites do got me interested in how they come up with their lists. It seems pretty arbitrary, so I decided to come up with somehing a little less random. It's kind of like ESPN's Relative Power Index, but my formula is quite different. The idea is that the number assigned to each team will represent a projected winning percentage so that the rankings also project the total number of wins for the season.

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This is just a sort of quick rundown of what I've noticed about Cardinal ticket sales up to this point on StubHub. There are some fantastic deals right now I'll link for anyone that's interested.

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First off, Ben Sheets. (Clears throat) The current hot stove post is over 430 comments so here is a fresh one. Recent developments include the Cardinals signing Ben Sheets Braves signing Derek Lowe and Kawakami. They now have a formidable rotation from which they may want to trade to bolster their offense... Nothing much seems to be happening on the Cardinals' front, but what else is new? Here is a poll for everyone, but keep in mind that the question is what will the front office do and not what do you want the front office to do. Just to get that clarification out of the way. Ben Sheets.

Poll

What will (not should) the front office do prior to spring training?

21%

Nothing, move(s) will be made during ST

57 votes

7%

Nothing, they are done

21 votes

17%

Trade for a SP

47 votes

0%

Trade for a position player

2 votes

5%

Sign Looper

14 votes

25%

Sign Sheets

67 votes

4%

Sign Wolf

11 votes

15%

Sign Garland

41 votes

1%

Sign a lefty RP (Specify below)

3 votes

1%

Other (Specify below)

3 votes

266 votes | Poll has closed

There has been a lot of discussion on whether or not we should trade Rick Ankiel. If not, should we extend him? He's got All Star potential, a great arm, and a fuzzy, warm story to tell the kids. Baseball, however, isn't all about heart warming stories. What we must begin to ask ourselves, is do we have someone who can make up for his production? The answer is yes, we have Joe Mather.

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The idea of this post is to project the number of runs the Cardinals, as the rosters are currently constructed, will both allow and score in 2009. I first will use the lineup toy from Baseball Musings to project runs scored. Then, I will simply use ERAs for each pitcher on the staff over X innings to determine runs allowed. Finally, I’ll use the, albeit flawed, pythagorean expectancy formula to estimate the Cardinals’ record. I will use each of the Bill James and Marcel projections and I will also do a projection of my own. This is going to be a lot of numbers with tons of room for nitpicking. Hope you enjoy.

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When I first began researching for this fanpost, I intended to present an argument for which team would go down as the best team of the decade (2000-2009). I figured it had to be between the Red Sox and the Cardinals, but that it would all come down to 2009. I soon realized that it is actually the Yankees who have by far the most wins over the past 9 seasons. I know that wins wouldn’t have been the sole determinant, but that fact alone got me thinking. My focus, or lack thereof, had been shifted drastically.

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Poll

Is the pitcher hitting eighth a good strategy (would you do it if you were manager)?

43%

Yes

36 votes

41%

No

34 votes

14%

Maybe...I don't really know

12 votes

82 votes | Poll has closed

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