15 Numbers that Actually Mattered in Baseball this year

If Only I would have bet on them every game this year

With the MLB season about over, as I'm writing this I am waiting for game 4 tonight. It is safe to assume that the Giants will win it all this season but we all know that really that isn't what sports are about. So now I will present you with the numbers that actually mattered this year. Also remember that this numbers are just a representation of what people thought thought in the beginning of the year and that gambling on sports is VERY VERY BAD and is not at all the only reason that sports are a major industry.

1. The money on Oakland to win the division this year was +3700 making them the biggest upset among division winners. 

2. Baltimore, while they took second division were at +10,585 to win it at the beginning of the year. I know that a Baltimore fan has to be excited that the team made the playoffs for the first time in forever, but anyone that bet on them ended up 2 games a way from a huge pay day.

3. Washington was the second biggest upset to win the division at +699.

4. The Phillies, at 11/2, were pre-season favorites to win the World Series and did not even make the playoffs.

5. The presumable champion San Francisco Giants started the season at 15:1 odds

6. Oakland managed a 97-62 record against the spread this year

7. The Cleveland Indians were a disappointing 66-95 against the spread

Bye-Bye Bobby

8. Philadelphia and Boston both had disappointing seasons both in gambling and in the playoff rice; finishing 66-92 and 70-91 against the spread respectively

9. The Cardinals and Rangers; who both made the playoffs as well as meeting in the World Series last year finished 74-86 and 74-87 respectively

10. You like a lot of runs? then the Brewers are for you. 55% of their games ended up in the over categorey

11. Do you enjoy the plate being clean the whole game? Then watch the Reds as 63% of their games were under the line

12. Oakland was 61-53 as the underdog and Baltimore was 58-51; meanwhile Texas was 9-13

13.  Yankees were 83-57 as the favorites; Texas was 83-56

14. Oakland covered by an average of 1.2 runs

15. 0, the total number of beers and chicken wings consumed by the Red Sox in the clubhouse this year. Also happens to be the number of playoff games they played in this year.

Owners Are Bad

If you haven't heard the NHL has recently cancelled all games up to November 1st and it is very unlikely that a full 82 game season will be played this year. While I personally think a shortened season may be good for the NHL, look how popular the NBA was last year with only a 66 game schedule, many die-hards (Canadians) would be disappointed in a 6 month season. (The fact that the NHL and NBA seasons are way too long is a completely different issue than how the owners have just lost all touch with reality). The owners will also lose money during the lockout seeing as the NHL just reported record profits last year, which makes no sense to me at all because the only point of having is a lockout is that you would lose money by playing the season. The players on the other hand are either taking it easy playing pick up hockey in the states or bringing in the cash over in Europe. Because the players have other options than playing for the NHL, the NHLPA is by far the strongest Player's union in sports. NBA players could go to Europe, but basketball in Europe is nowhere near as strong as hockey is, and European basketball leagues and the NBA do not get along as well as the NHL and European hockey leagues. MLB players have almost no where to go and NFL players prefer not playing because it saves their brain from concussions.

Garry Bettman-
Represents the Owners

There are two main reasons for the NHL owners having a lockout this year; the first one is that they want to decrease the amount of hockey revenue that players get from 56% to 50% and the second is revenue sharing. Let's start with the first one. In addition to decreasing the amount of revenue the players get the owners want to limit contracts to a maximum of 5 years down from the seemingly unlimited amount of years in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement. Why do the owners want to cut down on the length of contracts? Idk, maybe cause players have been signing 15 year contracts so that the owners can work around the salary cap that they set up. So you are probably asking yourself right now, the owners are the ones offering these deals right? The answer is yes they are, so they only have themselves to blame for this. The other half of this is that they want to cut back on the amount of money that they are players. Again, they are the ones that have to approve of the contracts, so they should really be blaming themselves for what is going on. In the last CBA, the players had to take about a 20% paycut on contracts that owners approved of. The owners don't even need a salary cap, they could enforce an unwritten one (even though that is illegal under American labor laws, no one needs to find out). So basically, the owners want to cut down contracts that they offered to the players 3 months ago.

Next, the owners want to work on revenue sharing. This is no reason to cancel a season however, the owners could work on how to share the revenue while letting people watch hockey. This is actually a big problem in hockey because some teams are able to pull in a lot of money while some are struggling or even possibly in the negatives. I think it is laughable that the owners a creating a work stoppage while they are having problems with each other. If you would put this in the non-sports sphere, would it make sense for a company to shut down a factory because the bosses are not able to decide how they want to spread the money amongst themselves. I don't think so, and this just shows a lack of connection with the entire rest of the world.

Sydney coughfaggotcough Crosby

Pretty much, the owners are being more than selfish here, they are completely ignorant to what is going on. NHL players do not need the NHL, they can play in Europe and many of the younger players have been sent down to the AHL by their organizations. Many players are currently forming "Elite Beer Leagues" with each other not so that they can stay in shape, but because they love playing hockey together. I believe that of the 4 major North American sports, hockey players would be the ones most likely to only play for $100,000 a year. 90% of hockey players are essentially NFL linemen while Alexander Ovenchkin and Sydney "Cindy" Crosby are among the 10% that live flashy lifestyles. 

Eagles lose; again

As an Eagle's fan it has to be hard to believe that we have lost two games by last second field goals but we have actually hit that low point. The sad thing is that we somehow outplayed the other team in both games. The Steelers did not deserve to win that game but as usual the Eagles found a way to give it way through Vick's fumbles and Andy Reid's ability to make smart playcalls. Well the same thing happened again but Vick had a little better game.

Unstoppable 

The Eagles' first quarter was a rough one as they had two turnovers and 3 3 and outs. Vick had another fumble but that was that was not all his fault as his center snapped him the ball when he wasn't looking not once but twice (Eagle's were lucky to have drawn an offsides call on the first one). The Eagles were however to score a touchdown in the second quarter on a surprisingly well called screen play that ended up with Lesean McCoy in the end zone. The Lions were the dominate team in the first quarter as hero of the game Jason Hanson kicked two field goals from 46 and 36 yards to give them a 6-0 lead early in the game. Calvin Johnson was the center of of the Lions' offense with 6 receptions for 135 yards including a remarkable toe dragging grab late in the 4th quarter to put the Lions in field goal range. After Johnson's catch Jason Hanson came up big with a chipshot 19 yard field goal to put the game into overtime.

Fire Him Already

Johnson and Hanson weren't the only contributors to the Lions as Matthew Stafford threw for 311 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. On the other side of the ball Michael Vick had an above average performance (well at least compared to how he usually plays) throwing for 311 yards as well. He didn't have the easiest time in the world as he was sacked 3 times and was constantly getting beat up by the Lions' stellar d-line led by Suh (whose first name I will not try to spell) and Nick Fairley. Jeremy Maclin did a nice job of catching the ball today reeling in 6 catches for 130 yards and a TD. On the other side of the receiving spectrum was Brent Celek who had at least two drops and committed a costly yet controversial  offensive interference on what should have been an Eagles' touchdown. 

The real problem for the Eagles today however was Andy Reid's inability to call a football game. He refused to rush the ball today as starting running back Lesean McCoy had more receiving yards than rushing yards. At the same time, Michael Vick was the team's leading rusher with 59 of the team's 71 total yards. Considering most of those yards came from Vick scrambling not on designed plays, it is safe to say the Eagles' need to rework their game plan. It would help if they had a running back who could run downhill instead of side to side, they could possibly draft a bigger running back this off-season and convert McCoy to a third down running back/slot receiver role where he is likely to be more successful. The Eagles also failed to capitalize on the Lions' lack of discipline as they committed 16 penalties for 132 yards.

Overall the Eagles should be embarrassed with how they played today, in overtime they were unable to get a single yards which forced them to punt from their own endzone therefore giving the Lions great field position. They also failed to shut down Calvin Johnson (even thought that is no small task a team with two of the top corners in the league should be able to do that). It is quite sad that what could be Vick's only decent performance of the year could be wasted on a loss. 

Preparing for Fantasy Basketball Season

For those of you just getting into fantasy sports and this is your first season of fantasy basketball or you have played in the past but have never been able to compete, here is a little guide to help you towards to success. The difficulty on your league depends more on the number of people in your league than it does their basketball knowledge. In a league of 8 teams, everyone should have 2-3 stars on their team, which means that there is less for each owner to keep track of. However, in a 12 team league each team will have 1-2 stars, so some teams will get lucky but others will have to pay attention to role players around the league. After you decide how big of a league you want to play in, you have to decide between a total points and a Head to Head (H2H) Category League.Depending on who the commissioner of your league your starting line up will consist of so many players at each position.   Here is a little preview of what to do in each league.

Total Points League 

In a total points league players are rewarded points for points scored, assists, rebounds, steals, made field goals, made free throws, and blocks while losing points for turnovers, possibly fouls, field goals attempted, and free throws attempted. (If it seems odd to you that you lose points for attempting field goals or a free throw don't worry about it, it didn't make sense to me at first either but it works out). This league will really appeal to people that are just starting off with fantasy sports as your focus should be to draft the best statistical players available and not worry about which stats they get their points from.  According to ESPN, the top 10 projected players for Total Points Leagues this year  will be:

1. Lebron James- no surprise here as the soon to be greatest player of all time is able to put up above average numbers in every statistical categorey

Best in NBA
Best in Fantasy

2. Kevin Love- Pretty much Lebron with a little less points and no assists

3. Kevin Durant- Pure scorer that will provide some boards but also some turnovers

4. Al Horford- Not exactly the most well known player but racks up on boards and blocks

5. Andrew Bynum- Philly's dumbest trade in a while will provide you points, rebounds, and minutes.

6. Chris Paul- the Point guard isn't the greatest scorer but will get steals and assists at an above average rate

7. Blake Griffin- The high energy freak of nature who can't really shoot dominates the boards as well as scoring points (mainly from dunks, and his free throw percentage is not very attractive)

8. Dwight Howard- Rebounder/ Blocksmith will also provide points, and if you find yourself in a league that doesn't factor field goals made/field goals attempted this is the golden boy as he misses so many shots

9. Dwayne Wade- Lebron's second hand man appears to be on the tail end of his career but points up good points despite his lackluster FG%

10. Greg Monroe- if you are asking "Who?" then you are not the only one, you are going to get rebounds galore with decent scoring out of this center

Head to Head Category Scoring

This type of league is for the more serious/informed fantasy players. Each mach up is divided into 8 categories and whoever wins the most wins the match-up. The categories are Points, Steals, Rebounds, Field Goal Percentage, Blocks, Assists, Three Pointers Made, and Free Throw Percentage. The key to this league is to specialize your team so that you are strong in 5-6 categories, mediocre in another and below average in 1. If you try to make your team above average in every category you are gonna start seeing your team being getting blown out every match up. Here are a few hints for keeping your fantasy team a contender.

Rebounding
Ability makes him
key player in H2H

1. Free Throw Percentage and Field Goal percentage will be found with any good player so don't worry about necessarily worry about drafting these stats (and in reality think of every player not by his name but by his stats), a player that gets a lot of rebounds and scores a lot of points will likely get them from high percentage shots. These two statistics are simply bi-products of other stats.

2. You will see that some statistics match up with each other. Blocks and rebounds are often dominated by big men so a player that is good in blacks will often be good at rebounds but will struggle at shooting 3s and getting assists.

3. If a big man gets assists, he is probably the most valuable player on team.

4. If you aren't that familiar with basketball this is a little guide for what positions should give you which statistics. + next to stats that they should excel in, - next to ones they might provide you with

PG- FG%, FT%, Assists +, Points, Steals+, 3PM-

SG- FG%, FT%+, Points, Rebounds-, 3PM+, Steals-

SF- FG%, FT%, Points, Rebounds-, Blocks-, Steals-, 3PM-, Assists-

PF- FG%, Points, Rebounds+, Blocks

C- Blocks+. Points-, Rebounds+

Hopefully this will help with your upcoming Fantasy Basketball season whether you are a 10 year vet or a newbie. Remember to check your lineup everyday and search your league's rules for loopholes that will allow you to dominate.

Introducing True Speed Rating

Ben Revere: The truest speed player

The True Speed Rating measures how much of a pure runner a player is. The goal is to take away the focus from just stolen bases but rather to expand it to how they play their game and how successful they are. How often a player steals a base. How often does a player turn an extra base hit into a triple. These are factors that come into deciding True Speed Rating. The formula is (3B/XBC)+(SB/H+BB-HR). Home runs are eliminated because it is impossible to steal a base after you hit a home run.This is not exactly a measure of how good a player is but how the player plays the game. Mike Trout is the first white person to appear on this list by they way. Here is the list:

Player	Team	3B/XBH	SB/OB	TSR
Ben Revere	Twins	0.3157895	0.227273	0.543062
Jemile Weeks	Athletics	0.32	0.109589	0.429589
Coco Crisp	Athletics	0.1666667	0.26	0.426667
Rajai Davis	Blue Jays	0.0857143	0.333333	0.419048
Michael Bourn	Braves	0.2222222	0.17316	0.395382
Gregor Blanco	Giants	0.2083333	0.185714	0.394048
Angel Pagan	Giants	0.2459016	0.135514	0.381416
Desmond Jennings	Rays	0.1794872	0.197452	0.376939
Jose Reyes	Marlins	0.2	0.165957	0.365957
Will Venable	Padres	0.1904762	0.171429	0.361905
Mike Trout	Angels	0.125	0.225806	0.350806
Shane Victorino	- - -	0.1489362	0.201031	0.349967
Starlin Castro	Cubs	0.2181818	0.122549	0.340731
Alcides Escobar	Royals	0.1666667	0.172589	0.339255
Dexter Fowler	Rockies	0.2619048	0.062827	0.324732
Cameron Maybin	Padres	0.15625	0.163522	0.319772
Elvis Andrus	Rangers	0.2093023	0.090517	0.29982
Drew Stubbs	Reds	0.0689655	0.225564	0.294529
Ichiro Suzuki	- - -	0.1428571	0.147368	0.290226
Melky Cabrera	Giants	0.2173913	0.070652	0.288043

Using PER to rank the major league bullpens

despite the #1 bullpen, the rays were unable to
make the playoffs

It is commonly known that a good bullpen is a key to a strong season. Now that the season only has one day left I believe that now is a fair time to assess each team's bullpen for the 2012 season. According to PER , Hawks Report's new metric, PER, 7 out of the top 10 best bullpens in baseball have reached the playoffs. The number one bullpen in baseball , the Rays,are out of the Wild Card Showdown by 3.5 games before the last games end . The Diamondbacks also find themselves in the top 10 at spot number 6, they werable to finish 6 games out of the wild card despite also having one of the better offenses in the game. The three playoff teams that were outside the top 10 were the Cardinals (16), Tigers (19), and the Giants (25). Here are your 2012 team bullpen PER rankings. Teams in yellow have clinched the wild card,, blue have clinched the division, and orange have clinched a playoff spot.

Team	IP	TBF	Rating
Rays	462.3	1877	0.246297
Braves	478.3	1968	0.243039
Athletics	505.6	2089	0.24203
Rangers	452.3	1870	0.241872
Diamondbacks	464.6	1930	0.240725
Orioles	542.3	2260	0.239956
Nationals	513	2149	0.238716
Reds	430.3	1804	0.238525
Yankees	442	1857	0.238018
Dodgers	461	1939	0.237751
Mariners	453	1906	0.237671
Red Sox	509	2142	0.237628
Indians	524	2207	0.237426
White Sox	463.6	1958	0.236772
Twins	555.6	2347	0.236728
Cardinals	470.3	1992	0.236094
Royals	559.3	2372	0.235793
Angels	442	1875	0.235733
Tigers	453.6	1926	0.235514
Padres	499	2121	0.235266
Pirates	495.3	2114	0.234295
Phillies	416.3	1782	0.233614
Blue Jays	526.6	2259	0.233112
Giants	449.6	1937	0.232112
Mets	457	1989	0.229764
Rockies	653	2864	0.228003
Marlins	454.3	1997	0.227491
Astros	499.3	2204	0.226543
Brewers	507.3	2252	0.225266
Cubs	488.3	2186	0.223376