Picks and Other Stuff

Baseball is right around the corner. The first pitchers and catchers reported on February 11th, Giants pitchers and catchers reported on February 18th, position players reported on February 23, the first spring training game is today, March 2nd, and the Giants' first cactus league game is on March 3rd, tomorrow. But who's counting?

I had written a complete article in which I displayed a statistical model I made (complete with a graph) to judge a particular team's standings. But two things, trouble with the computer program and unexpected results that I do not want to share until Matt Cain gets his well deserved eight year contract, keep me from posting the blog. I'll hopefully be able to post it in a few weeks. I had three ideas for statistics that I want to share before I get started. First, pitches per inning. This would seem like a no-brainer but for whatever reason "they" don't use it. Second, I believe that If you factor in stolen bases and caught stealing into OPS, it would be a much better measurement. I mean, a single and a steal is as good as a double. And if you further add home runs to OPS (which are admittedly already factored in multiple times) it would accentuate the importance of a homer. Here is my last idea: Take a given batter's runs and RBI total and add them together. Divide them by double the team's total runs scored and multiply by 100, and you will get a percentage which tells you how much of a given offense the player is responsible for. I would really like to see that. I would lead to great pie charts.

I recently heard a great stat. Barry Bonds is the all time leader in walks, intentional and total. So how far did he walk in all those 90-foot trips? a total of 43.6 miles. Coming down the road, probably before opening day, I will publish a rubric I designed to help "score" preseason picks. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes so that will have to wait. But today is the big day. I will give my picks for the upcoming season. See below. Due to my work load I do not have time to narrate. Also, please forgive the convoluted nature of this post. Again, I am really busy. 

AL West

1 Texas

2 Los Angeles 

3 Seattle

4 Oakland

AL Central

1 Detroit

2 Minnesota

3 Cleveland

4 Chicago

5 Kansas City

AL East

1 Boston

2 New York

3 Tampa Bay

4 Toronto

5 Baltimore

NL West

1 San Francisco

2 Arizona

3 Los Angeles

4 Colorado

5 San Diego

NL Central

1 St. Louis

2 Milwaukee

3 Cincinnati

4 Pittsburgh

5 Chicago

6 Houston

NL East

1 Philadelphia

2 Miami

3 Atlanta

4 Washington

5 New York