Friday, March 30, 2012

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Happy Birthday, JT!

On this, the birthday of one John Travis Percell, it is only fitting that I take a moment to recognize his excellent and numerous contributions to the Percell Fantasy Baseball League blog: Out Standing in the Field.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

This smells like the year...

What a beautiful picture. A clean slate. In little over five hours, the umpires will declare 'Play Ball' or ボールを演じてください!But for right now, the score is tied. Nothing-Nothing. I'm sure some of you out there are thinking who's winning???

Prediction time!

Since the season is set to start in a few hours here are my 2012 MLB predictions.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

PFBL 2012 Draft Results


Round 1
Miguel Cabrera (Det - 1B) BackSliders
Albert Pujols (LAA - 1B) Bizarro Royals
Ryan Braun (Mil - OF) Hosmer & Record 6
Hanley Ramirez (Mia - SS) Devil wears Prado
Adrian Gonzalez (Bos - 1B) One Bad Pitch
Cliff Lee (Phi - SP) Colorado TumbleWeed
Prince Fielder (Det - 1B) Bloomington Baseball
Curtis Granderson (NYY - OF) Left Outs
Jose Reyes (Mia - SS) Pioneer Skies
Robinson Cano (NYY - 2B) Bo Knows


Round 2

Mark Teixeira (NYY - 1B) Bo Knows
Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B) Pioneer Skies
Michael Young (Tex - 1B,2B,3B) Left Outs
Tim Lincecum (SF - SP) Bloomington Baseball
Brandon Phillips (Cin - 2B) Colorado TumbleWeed
Adrian Beltre (Tex - 3B) One Bad Pitch
CC Sabathia (NYY - SP) Devil wears Prado
Giancarlo Stanton (Mia - OF) Hosmer & Record 6
Cole Hamels (Phi - SP) Bizarro Royals
Matt Holliday (StL - OF) BackSliders

Friday, March 16, 2012

Monday, March 12, 2012

PFBL 2012 Keepers

For those unfamiliar with the term, a 'keeper' is a player from your roster the year before who will automatically be placed on your roster the next season. According to the PFBL bylaws, every team gets to keep three players: one batter, one pitcher, and a last of either type. The deadline to select keepers passed last Saturday. Rather than just list the keepers for each team, I have taken the liberty to rank each team's selections to give you loyal OSITF readers better context to analyze the selections. 

The Seattle Mariners did not keep Michael Pineda.  Will he be a keeper in the PFBL?  Photo by Associated Press.
The most important criteria when it comes to keepers is the player's overall fantasy value, because at the end of the season, the PFBL trophy is awarded to the team that put up the most points.  In the PFBL, keepers are slotted in the draft according to the round that they were drafted in the previous year--e.g. if you found a seventh round bargain last season, as your keeper this year he will still be your seventh round pick.  This rule allows teams to select the same late-round keeper year after year after year.

Obviously, the later your can draft your keeper, the better--so that you can use the earlier rounds on other, better players.  So in the PFBL, keepers have draft value that is easily calculated by taking the difference between where they will be kept and where they would normally be drafted in a non-keeper league.  My rankings below take into account both fantasy value as well as draft value, with the understanding that in the end, fantasy value is what is most important--since the degree that a team takes advantage of keeper draft value will ultimately be based on the strength of its non-keeper picks.

Behold, the PFBL 2012 keeper power rankings:

10. BackSliders
The downside to being an expansion team is that you have no players to keep.  The upside is that you will get the top overall (non-keeper) pick.  Good luck with that.

9. Hosmer & Record 6
Ian Kinsler - Tier 1 2B, 4th round, 38th pick, Average Draft Position in Yahoo leagues (ADP) 21.4, draft value 16.6 
Brandon Beachy - Tier 4 SP, 21st round, 203rd pick, ADP 122.8, draft value 80.2
Eric Hosmer - Tier 3 1B, 22nd round, 218th pick, ADP 74.5, draft value 143.5

Friday, March 9, 2012

Friday Fathomings

After a week of spring training, there have already been two bizarre baseball injuries.

Watch out for that towel!
The pantheon of weird baseball injuries is long and storied.  Last year, Ubaldo Jimenez landed on the DL because he broke a nail.  Mat Latos strained his "left side" while trying to stifle a sneeze.  Kendry Morales broke his leg jumping onto home plate after hitting a walkoff grand slam.  Russell Branyan's toe was mugged by a hotel room table.  Former Cubs first round pick Mark Pawelek hurt his elbow when he was blindsided by a PlaystationFormer current Cub Kerry Wood injured his "right side" when he was violently ejected from a hot tub.  Joel Zumaya hurt his throwing arm while playing the video game Guitar Hero.  Clint Barmes broke his collarbone trying to carry a package of deer meat.  Former Cub Carlos Zambrano hurt his elbow after ahem spending too much time on the internet.  Former Cub Sammy Sosa went anti-Latos and sneezed so hard that he suffered back spasms.  The list goes on and on and on and on.  Now, the odd injury hall of fame has two new inductees... 

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Thor's Day Thoughts


That is Jonathan Papelbon warming up before the 9th inning of this game.  Papelbon pitched a scoreless frame, slamming the door on a 15-4 loss at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays.  The music playing while Papelbon warms up is I'm Shipping up to Boston by the Dropkick Murphys, a song made popular by The Departed.  During his tenure as closer for the Boston Red Sox, Papelbon warmed up to that same song before each home appearance.  In November, Papelbon signed a four year $50 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.  Now, the Dropkick Murphys have said that they do not want Papelbon to warm up with that song anymore, merely because he no longer plays for Boston.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Odin's Day Oddity

Warning: the following video may not be suitable for young children or pregnant women.

You have been warned.



Guess I won't be buying that game.

Good luck trying to finish any better than fourth place, Cubs.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Tuesday Two-Seam

Baseball uniforms can be beautiful things. They can also be very hideous things. To wit:
There are so many things wrong with this.
 The evil four-letter network recently ranked all 30 MLB unis in a typical arbitrary ESPN style.  The rankings were "based primarily on the standard home uniform," except that alternate unis could propel a team into the top 5 or drive them to dead last.  To the surprise of nobody, the article has drawn criticism.  Uniform rankings will always be critiqued, since beauty, among other things, is in the eye of the beholder.  So rather than just rail against the ESPN rankings (even though railing against ESPN is always a good thing), I decided to throw together my own MLB jersy rankings.

To try to keep everything on a level playing field, my rankings are based only on the standard home jersey for each team--the one which can be purchased via the official MLB.com shop.  That means road unis, alternates, throwbacks, hats, &c. do not factor into my list. 

Here they are, from worst to first:

30. Miami Marlins - A hideous 1980's color scheme and uninspired block lettering make this almost the worst thing ever.

29. Philadelphia Phillies - The most feminine jersey in the MLB.  That script looks like it came straight out of a middle school girl's love letter to Justin Bieber.

28. Cleveland Indians - Chief Wahoo controversy aside, this is a dull jersey with bland script that begs for a block letter ivory alternate.

27. Atlanta Braves - When it comes to uniform analysis, the Braves don't seem to catch as much flak as the Indians do.  Isn't a tomahawk logo just as offensive as a Chief Wahoo?

26. San Diego Padres - You would think that the most expensive home jersey in the shop wouldn't have such bland and uninspired script/color scheme.  The Madres should just go back to the retro unis.

25. Houston Astros - The odd colors, obtrusive pinstripes, and awkward script make for a bad combination.  Again, the *ahem* unique throwbacks really are better.


Monday, March 5, 2012

Monday Minutiæ

The Miami Marlins have installed fish tanks behind home plate. This sounds like a permanent gimmick to boost attendance--they will always have PETA lining up at the park!
  
Actually, this gives me an idea...

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Saturday Shuuto

I tend to agree with Luke Scott. The one game I have attended at the dump of a park called Fenway, I was subjected to something eerily similar to this:

Friday, March 2, 2012