Today I started what will be an offseason session on Roto Savants, writing a counterargument to players who will be expensive next year, I started with Mark Buehrle.

…every year since 2003 Buehrle has given up over a hit per inning pitched (his H/9 over 9.1 every year). Since the White Sox won the World Series in 2005: Buehrle has pitched to a 4.05 ERA, given up 107 home runs and has a mediocre strikeout to walk rate of 2.41.

I also wrote an Around the MAAC piece for Siena Saints Blog about the rest of the MAAC’s Thanksgiving weekend. Akron beat Niagara Sunday by scoring only 2 points less in the second half (57) than Marist was able to score in a game (59) on Saturday.

Sunday I wrote an Around the MAAC piece for SienaSaintsBlog.com. Pretty good stuff there.

Digging into a new book now, very recent one too, “As They See ‘Em” which is about baseball umpiring. Good stuff so far.

I wrote Siena’s unhappy recap for a 4 point loss to Temple for SienaSaintsBlog.com. Good writing too, I am proud of the piece but not the game.

Wow. Well in one of the more interesting finishes, LSU ran out of time against Ole Miss in a 25-23 loss. Now watching the end of this game there were a few problems.

1:16 to go: Onside kick by LSU. McCluster at the front line, let’s the ball go by him because he would have to move within 10 yards to grab it. Now the front line of an onside kick generally protects the mid and back line of players to recover the ball on a pop up kick. This one rolled across and McCluster decided to leave it at 9 yards and hope his teammates grabbed it. I’m sorry but you have to jump on that ball even if it means putting yourself within the 10 yards.

3rd down for LSU: They make a screen pass but let the clock run down by 20 seconds until 9 seconds to go. Honestly, I think this was done on purpose by Les Miles. Miles probably knew that the difference between 20 seconds and 10 seconds to go isn’t much when you have to rush on the field and spike the ball. What turned out happening of course…

4th down: pass completed to the red zone with 0:01 seconds to go on the clock when the referee’s stopped the clock to move the chains. So realistically they would have to run a play to win the game but instead the QB spiked the ball which brought the clock to 0:00.

I think their plan was never to have the kicker head onto the field, I think they were trying to win with a touchdown and it just didn’t work out.

Zack Hample wrote back to a lady who disparages “ballhawks” on her MLBlog:

Hi there.

My name is Zack Hample. I invented the “glove trick” as well as the method of switching into the visiting team’s gear. I don’t have a favorite team. I’m just a baseball fan. I root for individual players, but not for any one team on a regular basis.

[I skip a few paragraphs]

I have a job: I’m a baseball writer. I just signed a contract with Random House to write what’ll be my third book. It’s due out in March 2011, so I’m working full-time on it this year. I also have a girlfriend (who’s a total hottie, thank you very much). When I started collecting baseballs at the age of 12, it was 1990. There was no internet (not in MY house, anyway). No blog. No book. No bragging rights. No glory. It was just my way of connecting to my favorite sport.

You know what it is nice to enjoy a game like this. I’d say that I’ve went with my friends and they’ve caught a baseball or two of their own and that’s what makes it fun for me. A ballpark can be an adventure and that’s what makes it fun. I mean when I have a son or daughter I plan on bringing them to a baseball game or two and since they’ll have a cute factor going for them, they’ll get a ton more baseballs than I will.

Soon there will be an interview with me at Owlified, the Temple sports blog to preview the Siena-Temple game on Saturday. Here’s part of it:

TON: Although this season is very early, it’s never too early to share your thoughts on the way the season will turn out. How do you see Siena’s 2009 season playing out?

SSB: … As for the Saints this year? I think they are the top team in the MAAC but Rider is not far behind. Rider, already with a win over Mississippi State, has a chance for two more big non-conference wins at Virginia and at Kentucky this week. Every MAAC team is a fan of Rider’s to win to boost the conference. I think from there you have Niagara who will have a respectable year and then everyone else. The day of MAAC Basketball Championship semi-finals, I fully expect two of these three teams to face each other.

I also have a midweek Around the MAAC post. I purposefully take Marist to the wood chipper:

It took Marist about 25 minutes to score 38 points against Rutgers on Saturday in their seven point loss to the Scarlet Knights, but it took them a lot longer to get to that number in West Hartford on Wednesday in an embarrassing 75-38 loss. This appears to be the least amount of points scored in a loss Marist Men’s Basketball Division I history. (*In quickly scanning the Marist Media Guide, the least amount of points in a loss in Marist history appears to be 41 in a 43-41 loss in February of 1984) Marist 2nd year Head Coach Chuck Martin did not sugarcoat this one either:

“Arguably the worst game I’ve ever been affiliated with in my 12 years” [Martin] told the [Marist] broadcast team after the game. “The score is really hard to swallow,” said Martin, adding the Red Foxes’ “selfish play” was “something as a staff, we’re not going to tolerate.”

Marist shot a 30.5% effective FG% and went 7 of 27 from three point range. Marist had one double digit scorer in Candon Rusin and freshman have led the Red Foxes in scoring in both of their games. Friend of mine (and so, the site) Greg Hrinya posted his quick take on his site. The good news? They get a long time to practice before their next game at New Hampshire.

I’m reading an interview with Michael Lewis in New York Magazine about his books being made into films which I find to be interesting. He said he thought this book, The Blind Side, would be made into a movie even when it went through apparent development hell. Then the people at “Vulture” for New York Magazine asked about if his other books were sold and I’ll pluck part of the answers I find interesting:

Do your books just get optioned and never made into movies?
Yes! Bought, actually. If you option it, it’s a small sum of money and it expires. If you buy it, it’s a larger sum of money and they own it forever. So if they don’t make it, it’s gone. So, I mean, Warner Bros. owns Liars’ Poker and I think they’ve put something like $2 million into it already and it’s just vanished. … Fox bought it and decided not to make it.

Why’d they decide not to make it?
I’m being honest when I tell you I have no idea. The best writer in Hollywood is a dead writer. … I have no place in the process! … The last thing you want is some writer hovering over his material, moaning and groaning about what they do with it. And the last thing I want to be is that. So that’s kind of it.

My favorite? Thank God people hate Twlight: New Moon. Credit Roger Ebert for his review:

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” takes the tepid achievement of “Twilight” (2008), guts it, and leaves it for undead. You know you’re in trouble with a sequel when the word of mouth advises you to see the first movie twice instead.

… sitting through this experience is like driving a pickup in low gear though a sullen sea of Brylcreem.

In our day, we had pogs. Please make this vampire fad go away! At least make it go away before these vampire sequels aren’t done so people can see how stupid they are.

And in real news, Rudy Giuliani is not running for Governor in New York State, thus eliminating him from the political scene until the follow-up question is asked about running for U.S. Senate:

While many political analysts believe Mr. Giuliani would have comfortably beaten Gov. David A. Paterson, he would likely have faced an uphill battle against Mr. [Andrew] Cuomo, one of the most popular politicians in the state.

… Some have urged him to take on the newly installed Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who has never run statewide and is still introducing herself to voters in parts of the state.

As Siena gets ready to play Northeastern in a few hours, here’s some recent writing I did on SienaSaintsBlog.com:

MAAC Stat of the Day: turns out 40% of all MAAC games (including conference tournament) were close games last year. I did this by finding every team’s margin of victory less than or equal to 6 out of all the conference games. It will be interesting to see if this number increases or stays the same.

Around the MAAC: Rider beat Mississippi State, Niagara gave Auburn a fight and Siena held on to win big at Tennessee State. Loyola impressed too, a whole lot more in the article.

In my continual work as I try to tweak, tweak and tweak with WordPress… I’ve found a new format that I like better.

Here are a few reasons why.

• Pages like “About Me” and “Resume” are situated above the posts instead of to the side.
• A customizable header that I created with photos that I found of me and people. I like it, plus it helped me use Photoshop a lot more!
• The text on the site is larger so I can see it better, a major key for me.

So now that I have been told that it looks like I am engaging in a special relationship with a rock in a certain picture, see bottom right.

I created the photo as a 770 by 220 jpeg but when I inserted it, WordPress told me to crop it. So I did and my me and rock picture at a museum looks a little, different. So I am attempting to change that now!

Here is that picture by the way. Jenna and I visited the American Museum of Natural History in September and I am “attempting to lift up a rock.”

I failed. Though we got to see their Planetarium show, which is what we really went there for. It was a good time.

Then we went to the Shake Shack on the Upper West Side. This is where we found out that the Strawberry shake is really good and the Chocolate shake is really chocolate-y which made me say, “no wonder they serve the Black & White shake at Citi Field.”

So while my parents were trying to find a halloween costume to wear they stumbled upon some of the long lost baseball supply. Other than the glove I can now give to my girlfriend, I found this.

What it looks to be? A Cal Ripken chase baseball.

So I reached out to Zack Hample:

Yep, that’s the ball from when he caught/passed Lou Gehrig. You can find a picture of a new one in this blog entry:

http://snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/07/7609_at_citizens_bank_park.html

-Z

Pretty cool eh? Now if I can just figure out how I got it. If we picked this up somewhere, who would be playing with a ball like this and then maybe lose it?!

I wrote on RotoSavants.com trying to compare Jeremy Guthrie to John Lackey, which someone from MASN tried, but found it to be a tough argument to make. I started it with a short story:

Okay so two guys walk into a bar. One pitched in the playoffs and starts talking about how much he’s going to make in free agency this offseason. One talks about how he hopes to turn the corner next year and be an ace like starter. The bartender asks for their last 3 years stats (oh, just play along with me) so both say their stats. The playoff starter says he went 42-22 with a 3.48 ERA, 1.23 WHIP with 448 strikeouts in the last 3 years. The other player says he went 27-34 with a 4.15 ERA, 1.29 WHIP with 353 strikeouts in the same span.

The bartender, not the biggest baseball fan in the world, still can’t tell who they are. So he asks “how many home runs did you give up over those three years?” The playoff starter says “61″ while the other player says “82.” Then the bartender asks the players, “didn’t you lead the majors in home runs allowed this year?”

One of them says, “yes.”

Also I will have weekly MAAC Updates and some new road game articles at SienaSaintsBlog.com so check them out!

I got there early. Early enough I walked around, went to the New York lottery promotion stand and bought one of the scratch off tickets.

I lost.

But that’s okay because I am about to see my friend Danny. Danny is a Braves fan and he’s going to meet me. Until then I’ll have the stadium to my own, kinda. I rush inside once the gates open. At first I run down the left field steps by the foul pole to find an easter egg ball next to a seat. Then I ran back down the steps, watched Nick Evans catch a ball in the outfield. As the only fan I asked him for it, he turned right around and lobbed it right to me. One more from Josh Thole in left center field and another in right centerfield tossed up by Sean Green meant this was a good day.

Then Danny came and I was ready to help him get his first baseball. He brought his glove and after a home run in right center ricocheted off a seat and back on the field I told him to move down and ask Bobby Parnell for it by saying hey and please as well. It worked. Problem was, it was a practice ball. (And by the way, every ball I got was a Yankees 2008 ball) So then we went to left field for a little while and Danny got picked out by Ken Takahashi as he threw him a scuffed 2008 All Star Game ball. Pretty cool!

By the end of BP not only was I hungry but by the time I got food at the Shake Shack I found a 2nd ticket stub to move down! Both tickets were 2 sections from each other! Nice!

Here they are (Danny’s haul)

Here’s what I got.

These were our seats.

That’s right, Danny’s head is bigger than each scoreboard!

So later in the game we made our move and had a few close calls on foul balls but to no avail.

That Jurrjens guy did pretty well and the Braves won 3-1. Later in the game I wanted to get on the third base side so we were looking around for ticket stubs and nothing, then we didn’t get to ask anyone who was about to leave. I’m already thinking “oops, stupid idea” and I see Danny dart past the security guard who left their post. I walk down after him and we got about 10 rows or so away. I told him to wait and that we cannot go past the person in the burgundy shirt (security guards).

In the game we went to on 9/10, there was a security guard who escorted everyone who tried to sneak past him back up to the usher. I think he had Citi Field confused with Yankee Stadium.

So that was our night. We ended up doing well.

3 straight games with at least one ball
3 straight games where attendee has had at least one ball

I wrote about two trades this week over at RotoSavants.com.

First was the Pirates trading Jesse Chavez to the Rays for Akinori Iwamura. For the Pirates I thought this was important:

• It probably means Delwyn Young will be pushed back into the outfield mix.
• Brandon Moss is not a part of the future as a starter.
• Their commitment to Andy LaRoche will waver as long as Pedro Alvarez can give them confidence in him next year.

Then was the White Sox and Royals mysterious trade of Chris Getz and Josh Fields for Mark Teahen. This is a weird trade and I don’t buy it:

… the White Sox skew very old as it is. If this team stays in tact as is or close to it, I think we’re looking at a team similar to the Giants for part of this decade: old players, very slow runners (minus maybe one or two players) and ok pitching. That might win the Central but I wouldn’t bank on it.