Astrology Baseball: Fire Signs Bracket

Due to the excitement surrounding the recent Academy Awards (congratulations to The Artist, a well-deserved choice for Best Picture), I wasn't able to finish this project before the start of Spring Training.   But between the excitement of sorting through season-ending injuries and competitions for all 30 5th starter spots, there should be plenty of time to check out the final two Astrology Baseball brackets, the first of which appears below.

ARIES RAMS

Aries as a team has the second-highest total swp; what else would you expect from a group of headstrong, impulsive, forward-thinking pioneers of advanced thought?  Most of these points come from the offense, which is led by 1B powerhouses Miguel Cabrera and Mark Teixeira.  Cabrera, the less defensively talented of the two, will serve as the DH, despite his potential move back to 3B in 2012 - there's absolutely no way anyone is pushing Adrian Beltre off the hot corner for any reason.  Their corner outfield consists of Hunter Pence and Jay Bruce, which creates a logjam for such talented hitters as Michael Morse, Billy Butler, Corey Hart, and Michael Cuddyer.  Carlos Santana, 2011's highest-scoring catcher, is behind the plate, but his supremacy will likely be challenged in years to come by superstars-when-healthy Joe Mauer and Buster Posey.  They've also got Starlin Castro, Aaron Hill, and Cameron Maybin up the middle.

Felix Hernandez is a legitimate ace, Justin Masterson enjoyed very good success in Cleveland last year, and Jeremy Hellickson won the AL Rookie of the Year award.  A pair of innings-eaters who changed teams in the off-season round out the rotation: Mark Buehrle and Jeremy Guthrie.  While the rotation does not quite match the brilliance of the starting lineup, the bullpen is quite possibly the best of any team throughout the constellations.  They've got a pair of 2,000 point closers in John Axford and Jose Valverde, plus veteran stalwart Kyle Farsworth, All-Star setup man David Robertson, and a lefty with closer potential Chris Sale.  Excellence in two out of three positional tiers ain't bad...

LEO LIONS

The Leo team has potential to be good, but very few players reached that potential in 2011 (I'm looking at you Dustin Pedroia, one of the game's premiere second baseman, and Drew Storen, who thankfully for my fantasy team blossomed into an elite closer last year).  I'm firmly convinced that Melky Cabrera's breakout season was a fluke, but he's got two great centerfielders backing him up in B.J. Upton and Adam Jones (with Colby Rasmus hoping to come into his own).  Jones is joined by two of his fellow Orioles teammates J.J. Hardy and Mark Reynolds, who will move over to 1B a) where his iron glove will do less damage and b) to open up a spot for 3B Pablo Sandoval, who had a nice season despite missing some time due to injuries.  In a perfectly healthy world, Sandoval would be at 1B and superstar Alex Rodriguez would man the hot corner, but unlike Big Panda, A-Rod's injury-plagued season was not so nice.

Joining Rodriguez on the list of players who didn't live up to their past greatness are Todd Helton (getting old), Carl Crawford (first year of a huge contract meltdown), Juan Pierre (although he'd be good to provide some speed on the bench, and Grady Sizemore (chronically injured).  Players who have yet to live up to promised future greatness include Jason Heyward (terrible sophomore slump), Mike Trout (last year's #1 prospect), and Madison Bumgarner - who was pretty darn good last year, but I've heard the term "Cy Young contender" bandied about in reference to him, and he's gonna need to live up to those predictions if he's going to headline this Leo pitching staff.  In this world with only 12 teams of around 80 players each, Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison profile as more 4-5 starters rather than 2-3, and the rest of the starting crop consists of promising pitchers yet to make their mark (Max Scherzer, Chad Billingsley) and fading veterans (Randy Wolf, Brett Myers).

SAGITTARIUS ARCHERS

Sagittarius has the least total swp of any team in this project... and that's even with a couple of the best starters in the game right now: a resurgent James Shields and breakout ace Ian Kennedy.  On the back end they're anchored by future Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera.  (Despite his legendary status, he is actually the 4th highest-scoring closer in the bracket... even with 2,001 swp!)  Just like the Leo team, Sagittarius features a triplet of teammates anchoring their offense: Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley of the Phillies.  Both Utley and 3B David Wright are superstars when healthy, but both had ridiculously subpar seasons in 2011.  Other notable players include another future Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate, and member of the Oscar-nominated "Moneyball Draft" Nick Swisher in RF (even though the film skipped over that entire aspect of the A's 2002 season...).

Seven of the nine players in the starting lineup were the worst in the bracket in terms of swp - Rollins and Victorino finished second at SS and CF respectively.  By contrast, four out of the five pitchers in the starting rotation were best in the bracket: the aforementioned Shields and Kennedy are joined at the top by the Shaun Marcum (acquired by the Brewers last off-season) and Mat Latos (acquired by the Reds this offseason).  The surprisingly competent Philip Humber, who finished second, rounds out the rotation.  Backing up Rivera in the bullpen is new Phillies star closer Jonathan Papelbon, Red Sox reliever attempting to make the jump to the rotation Alfredo Aceves, and a couple of veterans with a combined 30 seasons under their belts (Octavio Dotel and LaTroy Hawkins).


Only one more bracket to go: the Earth Signs.  Then it'll be time to focus on Spring Training and the upcoming season!

Astrology Baseball: Water Signs Bracket

Just a little over a week until the first Spring Training games start, and we've still got three brackets left to go!  Let's jump in to my personal bracket: the Water Signs.  First, the Bracket:

Notice that these signs correspond to more muted, cooler colors as opposed to the brighter, flashier ones of the air signs.  I wonder if that has anything to do with the personal qualities of the players represented on these particular lineups.  Although these three teams are grouped around the middle of the pack in terms of total points, this bracket includes both MVPs and both Cy Young Award winners from 2011.

CANCER CRABS

Obviously a big frontline starter in CC Sabathia, and a solid SP2 in former "Big Three" member Tim Hudson.  Although he's hardly the MVP candidate he once was, Derek Jeter probably has the most pure star power of anyone on this team (or of anyone in Baseball, for that matter).  The offense is led by a pair of infielders from the NL Central: Aramis Ramirez (late of the Cubs, newly to the Brewers) and Brandon Phillips, the Cincinnati Cardinal-Hater - both of whom lead the bracket at their respective positions.  The team's next highest offensive point-scorer is second on the depth chart at 2B: Howie Kendrick.  My current version of the lineup has him playing his secondary position, 1B, which pushes Adam Lind to the bench.  The Cancer team has two All-Star caliber catchers in Yadier Molina and Miguel Montero, who occupy the C and DH positions respectively.

The rest of this team is marked with inconsistency.  The rotation includes comeback whiz-kid Ryan Vogelsong and mostly-retired workhorse Javier Vazquez: one unproven, the other imminently on his way out.  Their 5th starter (best among all 5th starters in the bracket) is one Jaime Garcia, who shares the same birthday and date with your humble narrator.  Look out for this rotation in a couple years when Stephen Strasburg joins the pack full time.  The corner outfield is made up of aging veteran Torii Hunter and injury prone slugger Nelson Cruz - Shin-Soo Choo would have been in this mix as well, were it not for his own injury-plagued 2011 season.  The bullpen is full of young stars on the rise: current closers Sergio Santos and Chris Perez, future closer Jim Johnson, and don't-call-me-a-closer Jason Motte.

SCORPIO SCORPIONS

I was trying to think of a better word than "fearsome" to describe a lineup that includes (contested, drug-using) NL MVP Ryan Braun, Ryan Howard, David Ortiz, and Mike Napoli - but I think fearsome pretty much says it all.  And the offense doesn't even stop there: Scorpio also has speedy leadoff man Coco Crisp, breakout All-Star Asdrubal Cabrera, and powerhouse in waiting Mike Stanton.  And how about Nick Markakis and Johnny Damon as your 4th and 5th outfielders?  Almost makes you forget Martin Prado and Marco Scutaro playing their secondary positions of 3B and 2B respectively.  But if any of the infielders falter, there's Yunel Escobar and Darwin Barney with some solid defense in the wings.

On the mound, they've got a pair of All-Star lefty starters in C.J. Wilson and Ricky Romero.  But after those two, it's pray for rain... and for big leads.  Matt Garza is a decent SP3, but R.A. Dickey and Mike Leake are both worst in the bracket by a pretty wide margin.  The bullpen features two 2011 Rookie closers from SoCal teams: Jordan Walden and Javy Guerra.  They're not the only two 2011 Rookies in the bullpen grouped together geographically: setup men Greg Holland and (All-Star) Aaron Crow both pitch for Kansas City.  It's a good thing Joe Nathan is in there to give some guidance to all the youngsters.

PISCES FISH

As fearsome as the Scorpio lineup may have been, nothing compares to the Pisces pitching staff.  They somehow have both the 2011 Cy Young Award winners in the top two spots of their rotation: Justin Verlander (also the MVP) for the AL and Clayton Kershaw for the NL... and what's more, they come at hitters from different sides of the mound!  And that's not all: the rest of their rotation - Yovani Gallardo, Daniel Hudson, and Anibal Sanchez - are all No. 2 starters for their respective teams.  Star closer J.J. Putz leads a bullpen that includes newly-converted closer Brandon League, Brian Wilson (watch out for him when his health/beard returns), and Jonny Venters, perhaps the best lefty setup man in the game right now.  Of the whole pitching staff, only Sanchez does not lead the bracket: he's second to that dude from the Cardinals who shares my birthday.

The offense is short on potent weapons at the plate: Curtis Granderson would be awesome to have if he was guaranteed to repeat his breakout 2011.  Brian McCann is one of the best catchers in the game right now and Paul Konerko is always solid at 1B.  Across the diamond, Kevin Youkilis can mash and take walks if only he could stay healthy.  Dan Uggla has some power at 2B, and he could be looking at a move to DH in the near future when Dustin Ackley comes into his own.  Right now I have primary DH Bobby Abreu playing in LF with No. 2 2B Kelly Johnson occupying the DH spot.  Stephen Drew and Denard Span would round out the lineup in a perfect world, but due to their injury-riddled seasons, Clint Barmes and Jon Jay are the highest point-scorers at SS and RF respectively.


COMING UP: Take a look at some of the most incendiary players in baseball with a look inside the Fire Bracket!

Astrology Baseball: Air Signs Bracket

First, a recap of this bracket:

If you start counting at the beginning of the calendar year, the first sign you'll come across is Aquarius. Despite it having "aqua" in the name, Aquarius is an Air sign.  If you continue counting, you'll see a pattern of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth signs, which repeats thrice, until you hit all 12 signs.  Thus it only makes sense to follow this pattern with my analysis (even though Aries is technically the "first" astrological sign of the Zodiac).  You'll notice, though, that inside each bracket I list the signs as they appear from Cardinal to Fixed to Mutable.  You'll also notice that in place of my customary lineups, I've included graphics of the sort you might expect to see promoting each team on TV were this a nationally televised game (except quite a bit less professional...), each one featuring a representation of what the team's cap might look like using the Zodiac symbol glyph.

LIBRA SCALES

According to my research, the colors associated with Libra are pastels - light blue, pink, yellow - so I picked the recently re-branded Rays to represent them.  Headlining this squad marked by decidedly un-intimidating colors are some of the most fearsome competitors in the sport today, including four starting All-Stars, three Silver Sluggers, the AL Cy Young runner up, and the guy who placed third in AL MVP voting.  Those last two fellas (occupying the top left and top right spots of the graphic) are Jered Weaver and Jose Bautista.  Robinson Cano and Troy Tulowitzki form one of the best (if not the best [see below]) middle infield combinations of the tournament.  Michael Young, who spent most of the 2011 season as DH for the Rangers, will man 1B for our purposes (we're not talking about a full season after all).  Carlos Gonzalez, Tulo's teammate on the Rockies, and Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates round out the rest of the outfield.  And the team wouldn't be complete without an actual member of the real life Rays: Evan Longoria at 3B.

You'll see the team's No. 2 starter, Matt Cain, on the graphic, and following him on the depth chart is Zack Greinke, who in typical Libra fashion, has overcome his anxiety disorder to such a degree that he's agreed to act as his own agent.  Closing games will be Heath Bell, newly signed by the newly moved Marlins, but if he falters, the Scales have a stacked bullpen behind him made up of closers Joel Hanrahan and Carlos Marmol, and soon-to-be-closer Kenley Jansen.  To give you an idea of where this team stands compared to its direct competition, all the players listed except Cano, Gonzalez, and Bell are tops at their positions in the bracket.  To give you an idea of this team's depth, they have a trio of very talented outfielders - Ichiro Suzuki, Drew Stubbs, and Seth Smith - competing for the DH spot.

AQUARIUS WATER-CARRIERS

As un-intimidating as are the colors for Libra, so is the name for Aquarius - the difference is, this team's lineup shares those characteristics.  This team is represented by the Mariners, whose color scheme most closely corresponds to the turquoise color associated with the sign.  The team's biggest offensive threat is Alex Gordon, and he had his only productive season in 2011 after following in the tradition of 3B prospects moving to LF when they can't really play 3B.  He's joined by All-Stars Lance Berkman, who rebounded nicely with the Cardinals after slumping the previous year, and Alex Avila, who wowed everyone in Detroit and justified using Victor Martinez primarily at DH.  Berkman moves back to 1B (as he will in real life) to open up a corner outfield spot for Josh Willingham.  Austin Jackson will play CF and lead off... which should give you an idea of how unimpressive the Aquarius squad looks.

I put Hiroki Kuroda on the graphic because, unlike the team's highest-scoring pitcher Doug Fister, Kuroda has proved he can sustain productivity over more than one season.  Johnny Cueto had a strong season and Jair Jurrjens has potential if he can avoid injury, but again, not very impressive.  If this were 2010, the story would be a little different, with the likes of Ubaldo Jimenez and Josh Johnson... but alas, a new year brings a new set of statistics.  Remember how Libra has three closers on the roster?  Well Aquarius doesn't even have one, entrusting the 9th inning to Tyler Clippard.

GEMINI TWINS

The consensus online was that Gemini is associated with the color yellow, so I matched them to the Pirates... although it was very hard to resist the temptation to just link them with the actual Twins and be done with it.  Remember the debate over the best middle infield combination?  Well Ian Kinsler and Jose Reyes definitely give the Libras a run for their money.  This combo almost didn't happen, since if Kinsler's birthday should classify him as a Cancer, but cusps are funny things, and Baseball Almanac classifies him as a Gemini.  Kinsler's unexpected arrival pushes Ben Zobrist to his secondary position of RF, which should make him no less effective with the bat.  On the infield corners are two players who didn't play those positions in 2011, but Jhonny Peralta played primarily 3B the two previous seasons and Carlos Lee is becoming better suited for 1B now anyway.

After two legitimate stars at SP1 and CL (Tim Lincecum and NL ROY Craig Kimbrel respectively), the pitching staff drops off dramatically.  Starters two thru five ranked last in their bracket, and although the bullpen does feature two additional closers, Fernando Salas is due to be replaced on the Cardinals by Jason Motte and Andrew Bailey found himself traded after struggling with injuries in 2011.  In years past, this offense would look much more impressive, featuring such fading stars as Manny Ramirez, Miguel Tejada, and Travis Hafner, but put mildly, this Gemini team did not age particularly well.

Thoughts About Astrology and Baseball

So far the excitement surrounding the Super Bowl and the Republican Primaries and the Grammys and the impending storm of the Oscars has done very little to alleviate the length of the baseball off-season.  And with 50 days left until Opening Day, I need something more than just news of the latest transactions to occupy the baseball part of my brain.  Luckily I had the foresight to compile a gigantic database with all sorts of interesting sortable information about the players from the 2011 season.  One of the ways I can organize my database is by birthday, so I decided to see what would happen if I generated lineups based on the astrological signs of all the players!

I started paying attention to astrology when I heard this humorous song by "Weird Al" Yankovic and realized that the lyrics would be a good way to learn the signs and their order.  I don't follow horoscopes in the newspapers or even believe in the tenets of astrology per se (although I try to keep up to date on any interesting developments in the field), but I've taken it upon myself to learn a little bit more about it in the interest of providing my project with some context.  Each sign falls into one of four categories corresponding to the four Classical elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.  The three signs from each elemental category have one of three qualities: Cardinal, Fixed, or Mutable.  Each sign is also either Positive (Fire and Air) or Negative (Earth and Water).

I thought the coolest way to organize this pursuit was to set up a series of hypothetical round robin tournaments, whereby the three signs from each element play against each other, with the four winners moving on to the next round.  It's not fully fleshed out yet, but I'm thinking of using some combination of the other astrological qualities and the sum total performance of the players on each "team" to determine the order of who plays whom in the tournament (this is important when we start taking the rotations of starting pitchers into account).  I've also assigned each astrological team to an actual major league team (in case I want to make this experiment an actuality using, for instance, a videogame interface).

Here's a graphical representation of how the project breaks down so far:

The Water Bracket appears to be the most evenly matched division with each team within a few thousand swp of the mean (64,152.9) and within a handful of players of the median in that column (86.5).  It's sad that Cancer is the weakest of the three teams, since that's my sign, but there's no reason to take this personal.  Aries looks like it's poised to run away with the Fire Bracket, which shows a clear decline from Cardinal to Fixed to Mutable (Sagittarius is the lowest scoring of all the teams).  The Libra team leads the league in player efficiency: they average 823.1 swp per player  (Aquarius is last with 579.9).  But the strongest team out of anybody without a doubt is Virgo with 22 more players and nearly 19,000 more points than its next competitor.  It's interesting that that would be the case for players born during the hottest part of both the year and the playoff race.

More detailed analysis to follow, including breakdowns of the best players on all the teams, the process by which I decided which real team should represent each astrological team, and some delightful matchup predictions.  Until then, keep watching the skiis...

Thoughts about LEGO Lord of the Rings...

When I got my first look at the upcoming LEGO Lord of the Rings sets this weekend, I was filled with equal parts excitement (for the hours of fun I'll get building and playing with them) and nervousness (for the hundreds of dollars I'll end up spending on them).  Then excitement took over for good when I thought of the impending possibility of a LEGO Lord of the Rings videogame coming down the pipeline.  I mean, LEGO has made successful games out of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Batman, Harry Potter, even Pirates of the Caribbean... pretty much every property they've licensed that wasn't based on a videogame to begin with (that of course excludes Prince of Persia).

Now, an interesting question about these licensed LEGOs is whether they're based solely on the Oscar winning films, or whether they draw from the source material more directly?  This issue not only affects whether we'll get to see a Tom Bombadil LEGO set, but it also impacts the plot of this potential videogame.  Because, as much as I'm a fan of the movies, I definitely take issue with a few of the storytelling choices made by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens - most notable among these is the complete deviation from Tolkien's character of Aragorn.  I'll explain this particular issue in detail below, and when I do, I hope I will get everyone hoping for a more faithful adaptation of the story in LEGO videogame form.

"I do not want that power. I have never wanted it."

This line is spoken by Aragorn in The Fellowship of the Ring movie when Arwen (haven't seen a minifig version of her yet) brings up the subject of his lineage.  For those of you who missed the movies, Aragorn is descended in direct line from Isildur, who took up his father Elendil's broken sword and used it to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand.  It takes him three movies, but eventually Aragorn owns up to his role in the epic tale, takes up the Sword that was Broken, and takes his rightful place as the King of Gondor.

The story of the unwilling hero, imbued with some great innate talent, but who is unable to use it for whatever reason, is certainly recognizable enough in the line of epic storytelling.  Joseph Campbell describes it in depth, outlining the process whereby the potential-hero leaves the familiar world and goes on a journey of self-discovery in order to "return with the elixir" and activate the hero-potential.  Aragorn is certainly a hero in the midst of a Hero's Journey, but his journey is far advanced beyond the point of having any doubts about who he is, what power he has, or whether/how to use that power.

Aragorn's lineage carries with it more than just his inheritance, which is basically rulership over all the free lands of Middle Earth.  The fact that he's a descendant of kings means that the blood of a more ancient and powerful race of men runs through his veins.  Now, this isn't an issue of racism or eugenics; in Tolkien's world of fantasy and mythology, not all Men (or Elves) are created equal.  The very first and most  powerful humans (the Numenoreans) were taller, hardier, and longer-lived than the current species, their blood having been mingled with lesser men over the generations.  As a direct descendant, the blood of Numenor runs nearly true in Aragorn, which is evident in his advanced age: 87 years old, which is "no longer young even in the reckoning of Men of the Ancient Houses."

Perhaps Aragorn went through a period of doubt about his true potential, but if so, this liminal stage likely took place between age 20 and 25 - after Elrond revealed to him his true name and ancestry, but before his friendship with Gandalf.  All this is detailed in the extensive appendix to Return of the King (the book) and might potentially make good subject matter for a prequel to Aragorn's Quest (the Wii game).  Or maybe even another movie.  Lord knows Peter Jackson and Co. will need to come up with some more ideas before the intellectual property rights default to someone else.  But the point is, over his six decades of adventuring, the literary Aragorn has a fully-developed sense of who he is and what he will become.

Another way the Aragorn of the books honors his link with the past is his relationship with Elendil's broken sword, called Narsil.  This is Aragorn's heirloom, a symbol of both his lineage and his identity; so much so that when the Hobbits first meet Aragorn in the books, he carries the shards of Narsil with him rather than bear any other weapon.  He has the sword reforged in Rivendell (and renames it Anduril, Flame of the West) before the Fellowship sets out, and subsequently invokes the blade's ancient power at many points throughout their journey.  By contrast, in the movies he wields some random sword until the third movie when Elrond finally delivers Anduril to him.  Here I was assuming that Peter and Philippa made all these drastic changes to Aragorn's character so the audience could see him make the choice to become king... but then he doesn't even make the choice at all!

The Lord of the Rings LEGO sets are slated to hit shelves this summer, and nothing about a game has been announced at this juncture.  We can only hope that The LEGO Group takes its tried and true path with licensed products and sends our favorite fellowship to consoles everywhere.  And if/when they do, we can only hope that the game draws from ALL the source material rather than acting as a copy of a copy of an adaptation.  But based on the company motto - LEGO is derived from the Swedish phrase "leg godt" meaning "play well" - I'm sure they'll make the right choice.

Thoughts About Primaries...

Last night, CNN hosted the final debate to take place before the Florida Republican Primary, which is on Tuesday 1/31.  The debate featured the four remaining candidates: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum - a pool that has been significantly narrowed over the previous three contests in the primary process.  By all accounts Romney, the once and future frontrunner, stood his ground against Newt Gingrich, who is generally considered the better debater.  Each candidate's performance in the debate says a lot about their chances of winning the Republican nomination for President, and about their chances of challenging incumbent Barack Obama.  But rather than picking apart their responses to questions about the hot-button issues or analyzing their speech patterns and facial expressions for insight into such crucial intangibles as confidence and leadership qualities, let's take a look at how they all got here.

Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are the only two holdover candidates from the 2008 Republican primaries.  Last election cycle, Romney had some epic clashes with eventual nominee John McCain during the debates, and eventually dropped out of the race in early February.  The former Massachusetts Governor can be recognized by his decidedly Mormon family (an endless stream of smiling, healthy-looking offspring, all dressed in white) and his eerily Manchurian Candidate-esque appearance and mannerisms.  Ron Paul resembles your friend's hip grandpa: he's the oldest candidate on the ballot (even a year older than McCain, although he doesn't look it), he wears a lot of sweaters, and he's never shy about rambling on about his crazy ideas.  The former gynecologist's politics lean more towards Libertarian than Republican, but the GOP has been kind to him during his 20+ years serving in the House of Representatives for Texas, so he remains on the party's ticket.

In his first ever presidential campaign, Newt Gingrich was surging after his double digit victory in last weekend's South Carolina primary, but after last night's debate, pundits are quick to announce that his momentum is waning.  Gingrich served as speaker of the House during the Clinton administration, and is quick to take a bunch of credit for the period of peacetime and economic expansion that Clinton presided over during that time, the longest in the country's history.  Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is still hanging in this race, refusing to throw in the towel mostly based on his win in Iowa.  He won by just 34 votes over Romney, and the contest would have instantly been headed to recount-town were it anything but a non-binding caucus.

The most talked-about candidate who didn't even make it to the primaries has to be Herman Cain, he of the questionable sexual history and policy plans taken straight out of a videogame.  Michele Bachmann took her haunting stare out of the race after Iowa, and Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman followed suit after New Hampshire (despite the latter candidate garnering a strong 3rd place finish with 17% of the vote).  Huntsman - who was a member of a band called The Wizards while growing up in Palo Alto, CA - endorsed fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, while Texas Governor Perry endorsed Gingrich, setting the stage for their all-out battle in South Carolina.

Pundits claimed that South Carolina primary voters pride themselves on voting for the eventual nominee.  With Romney looking like the clear favorite leaving New Hampshire, it's interesting that they didn't jump on the bandwagon and effectively wrap this thing up before Florida.  The fact that they picked Gingrich says a lot about the importance of debates and drives home the point that a poor or effective performance can make or break an election - as if Nixon didn't teach us that lesson effectively enough back in 1960.  But with Romney leading in delegates and in the polls, coupled with his triumph at last night's debates, puts him in a pretty darn good position going forward.  That is, unless the Ron Paul Revolution spreads across the nation (as we all know is inevitable, even if it takes a different name).  If you live in Florida, make sure to vote this coming Tuesday.  And if you hail from anywhere else, just clap your hands if you believe...

Thoughts About Football...

Let's Try to Understand some of the Football that happened Last Weekend

I have, in my hands, a copy of the Sports Illustrated 2011 NFL Preview. It's got Atlanta Linebacker Curtis Lofton on the cover, because Peter King had picked the Falcons to win the Super Bowl. As it happens, they were eliminated one week ago by the New York Giants in the Wild Card round, who (after yesterday's win against the defending champion Green Bay Packers) are now slated to go up against the San Francisco 49ers - with a trip to the Super Bowl in the balance.

In the NFL Preview, each team has a 2-page spread - a pattern I hope to see the Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview return to in the future. There's an article about each team, a profile on the coach, a "Spotlight" on a particular player, and of course the Projected Lineup. Some might say it's useless to look at pre-season rankings this late in the year, since various changes throughout the year will cause most of them to be out-of-date or inaccurate. But they are useful to see how the teams and the players got to where they are now (the playoffs) from where they were then (potential teams, only existing within the pages of a magazine).

I have the pages marked for 4 teams: the Baltimore Ravens, the New England Patriots, and the aforementioned Giants and Niners. These 4 teams will all play next week, and 2 of those 4 will go to the Super Bowl, or so I'm led to believe. This is a pretty important cultural event, the Super Bowl, if for no other reason than the commercials. And Sports Illustrated is a magazine whose predictions are fun to make a story out of. So let's take a look at the men who SI's writers think were likely to factor into the teams that could play in the big game.


New England Patriots
Projected Finish: 1st in AFC EAST
Actual Finish: Same
Spotlight on: Chad Ochocinco, one of the team's three starting Wide Recievers. Now he sat out most of last game, after compiling just 276 yards the whole season. The top-performing player on Tom Brady's offense last week was TE Rob Gronkowski with 145 yards - SI describes him as "highly skilled". The article mostly features the new defense surrounding powerhouse NT Vince Wilfork (who incidentally had 1.5 sacks in their trouncing of the Denver Broncos).

Baltimore Ravens
Projected Finish: 2nd in AFC NORTH
Actual Finish: T-1st in AFC NORTH
Spotlight on: Anquan Boldin. The team's top Wide Receiver was expected to gel better with QB Joe Flacco (pictured (in the magazine, as well as above)) after spending a year playing together. Well, he earned 887 yards this year... after 839 the year before. Not sure if it's working out how they planned, but he's still the team's #1 WR - he had a team-high 79 yards in last week's win over the Houston Texans. I have no idea what stats to use to judge Quarterbacks, but pro-football-reference has him at an 80.9 Passer Rating, a drop from 93.6 the previous year...

New York Giants
Projected Finish: 3rd in NFC EAST
Actual Finish: 1st in NFC EAST
Spotlight on: Jonathan Goff, the would-have-been-4th year Linebacker, had he not missed the whole season with a knee injury.
WR Hackeem Nicks gets the picture in the article. He's supposed to "hold together New York's untested receiving corps" - all signs point to success, as he trailed rookie Victor Cruz in total yards, but still hit the 1,000 mark himself. However it has been Nicks's turn to shine in the playoffs, combining for 280 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Giants' two postseason games.

San Francisco 49ers
Projected Finish: 4th in NFC WEST
Actual Finish: 1st in NFC WEST
Spotlight on: Aldon Smith, a Linebacker who in 2011 somehow ended up with 14.0 sacks in just 16 games... The clear focus of the article was on Jim Harbaugh, their new Coach, recently departed from Stanford (and the brother of Ravens coach, John Harbaugh. There's a chance for the brothers to meet in the Superbowl, if things turn out right.

I'll certainly be pulling for that eventuality as I watch the games next week. Maybe at that point I will also know enough about the teams in question to actually make some meaningful observations about the Big Game.

Top Players: AL & NL 2011

While the analysis of Box Office numbers is fun and insightful and economically significant, let's not forget the original focus of this blog: Baseball statistics. Using my patented Baseball Database, I have calculated the Top Players in each position in each league, which I now present in lineup form.

Some pretty impressive players all around. A good mix of young players and veterans, expected performers and breakout stars. Let's break them down further, not by position or by team, but by how they were expected to do from a fantasy standpoint. Granted, my system is going to be a little incongruous, cuz I'm using mlb.com's rankings and a form of calculating fantasy points (swp) that has been outdated for many years. But I believe that in combining the two, I'll arrive at a sort of Hegelian synthesis of fantasy evaluation methods.


Four (4) of our players ranked within the Top 10 according to MLB: 1B Miguel Cabrera (who anchored my fantasy team btw), SS Troy Tulowitzki, LF Ryan Braun (who won this year's NL MVP, prior to a positive PED test), and 1B Joey Votto. By contrast, there were four (4) total batters who ranked out of the top 100: CF Curtis Granderson (who surpassed all expectations by destroying his career-highs in HR, RBIs, runs and walks), C Miguel Montero (high-ranked catchers are very hard to come by, since catchers as a position don't produce a lot of points), SS Asdrubal Cabrera (a legitimate breakout All-Star season), and LF Alex Gordon. Gordon, a former 3B prospect [see also Ryan Braun] who everyone had just about given up on, was by far the lowest-ranked starter among all others on the team (458).


The highest-ranked pitcher was Roy Halladay (16). The two hurlers who accomplished the near-superhuman feat of breaking 3,000 points were ranked 32 (Kershaw) and 50 (Verlander). One starting pitcher from each league had surprising and unexpected seasons: Ian Kennedy (232) and James Shields (240). Non-Closer Relief Pitchers rarely contribute enough points to warrant a roster spot (unless your league measures Holds, in which case you'll need a couple of the best). Craig Kimbrel was this year's Rookie of the Year, so it's understandable why he was ranked 213 - just 9 slots higher than teammate Jonny Venters, who had a shot to win the closer role right up until opening day. Valverde, who performed significantly worse than Kimbrel in terms of both stats and ability to control his emotions, ranked 117.



This is all part of an ongoing process to use these numbers to hone in on different players' fantasy value, but updates on that project will have to wait, as there is a whole real world out there to see and experience.

New Year, New Lists!

Well, we're back from a glorious 2011 Holiday Season, one that wrapped up the last year before the coming consciousness shift of 2012. With the baseball season over, action shifts to offseason trades, new contracts for free agents, and exchange of arbitration figures. Very little is happening in my Batman world since beating Arkham City - I'm going to remain spoiler-free and skip the 6-minute preview of Dark Knight Rises, and I hardly think the New Years Eve marathon of the 1960s Adam West TV series should garner much coverage on the blagosphere. To occupy this dark cold time of the year, I have been engaging in the creation of two sortable databases that cover the two new subjects of this blog.

The first is a comprehensive look at the 2011 baseball season, with a wealth of information for each qualifying player, including position, swp (for each team in the case of a trade or other mid-season acquisition), birthday, hometown, draft position, and school history. The other is a list of the biggest movies that came out in 2011, listed by release date, distributor, North American opening weekend gross (so we can compare movies from the beginning of the year to later releases), and production company (pending).

As is the case with most database work, there is a lot of number crunching that has to go into play before any interesting or publishable findings can come out, but here are some preliminary findings about how the major distributors did at the box office this year, in terms of opening weekend ticket sales:


1. Warmer Bros. Pictures
$623.7 million

The leader in market share for 2010 continued its dominance last year, grossing the most opening weekend ticket sales out of all the major distributors. Of course, it never hurts when your slate includes the biggest release in movie history (let alone of 2011): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 ($169.2m). The company also boasted the film with the 6th highest opening weekend sales: comedy sequel The Hangover Part II ($85.9m). (The next biggest comedy on their slate was Horrible Bosses, which missed the $30m mark by less than $2m.) Green Lantern, a movie inspired by a property from Time Warner-owned DC Entertainment (formerly DC Comics), grossed $53.2m in its opening weekend, a figure sure to be dwarfed by next year's fellow DC behemoth The Dark Knight Rises. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows was good for $39.6m - who knows how many sequels that franchise will churn out. It's no wonder the film unit accounts for about 40% of parent company Time Warner's bottom line.

2. Paramount Pictures
$535.8 million

With 16 notable releases in 2011, the film distribution arm of media conglomerate Viacom (see also MTV Networks, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and the BET family) took home the silver medal. Its top-opening film - Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon - made $97.9m in its debut weekend, good for the third-highest opening of the year. A pair of Marvel Comics movies - Thor and Captain America, both foreshadowing next year's ensemble epic The Avengers - were basically locked up in a tie for second: $65.7m and $65.1m respectively. Next on their list is another three-quel, this one in the horror genre rather than an effects-driven event film (Paranormal Activity 3: $52.6m). Three animated movies featuring high profile celeb voices (Kung Fu Panda 2, Rango, and Puss in Boots) each grossed over $30m in their opening frames. Rounding out their $30m+ releases is Super 8, Paramount's second collaboration with director J.J. Abrams in the last three years.

3. Universal Pictures
$330.7 million

The studio's biggest tentpole, Fast Five, had just the 5th highest-grossing opening of the year (just edging out Hangover II with $86.2m). The only other movies on its slate that broke the $30m mark were animated Easter comedy Hop ($37.5m) and disappointing period/sci-fi actioner Cowboys & Aliens ($36.4). Bridesmaids, like Horrible Bosses before it, also missed out on the $30m milestone, but what it lacked in B.O. it made up for in breakout performances. If we consider Focus Features (also owned by Universal's parent company NBCUniversal, which is itself owned by Comcast and GE), the grand total goes up by about $36m (the imprint's biggest release of 2011 was Hanna with a mere $12.4m)... but it's not enough to move it up in the rankings, and I consciously didn't want to get too much into the corporate game on this post.

4. 20th Century Fox
$301.2 million

News Corp's film unit didn't make any real big splashes, with their two biggest releases (X-Men: First Class and Rise of the Planet of the Apes) languishing in the mid $50m range. Rio once again proved the lucrativity of animated features with $39.2m in its opening weekend. Specialty division Fox Searchlight contributed barely $3m to the till, but it's hoping to bank big in awards season with Oscar contender The Descendants and pretentious-favorite The Tree of Life.

5. Columbia Pictures
$282.5 million

Here's where the corporate ownership game really comes into play: if we combine Columbia's take with the other banners that operate under Sony Pictures Entertainment (TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, and Sony Pictures Classics) the total goes up to $382.9m, and the conglomerate as a whole rockets up to third place on the year. Combined or not, the company's biggest grosses were Battle: Los Angeles and The Smurfs (tied with $35.6m) followed closely by old TV show remake The Green Hornet and comedy Bad Teacher. A pair of Adam Sandler comedies round out the slate (Just Go With It and Jack and Jill).

6. Walt Disney Pictures

$205 million

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($90.2m) and Cars 2 ($66.1) led the way for the Mouse House, while throwback The Muppets missed the $30m mark by less than $1m. A corporate note: if we add the $107.5 million grossed by Disney-owned Touchstone (led by Real Steel, Gnomeo & Juliet, and The Help) the Disney machine eclipses the News Corp machine.

7. Summit Entertainment
$178.5 million

Summit made basically all its income from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 ($138.1m). Its next highest release, Source Code, garnished just over 1/10th of the haul made by the vampire/werewolf tween drama. The final corporate note of this post: if this week's deal that will see Lions Gate buy Summit for $400m had occurred last year, the combined moviemaker would have grossed $244.1m between them.

Batman walks into an Apple Store on Black Friday

INT Apple Store: DAY


[The crowd is pushing and shoving and shouting, all trying to get the attention of the sales associates. There's even a crowd at the Genius Bar and Lecture Classroom area, filled with people who know it's the craziest shopping day of the year, but can't stay away, because they need their sweet fix of the Apple Store.


[We are looking out at the front door from the inside of the store, just skimming the tops of the customers' heads. Suddenly a black caped form drops from the sky, straightens up, and is revealed to be Batman. A hush briefly falls over the crowd, as the customers' attention turns to the dark figure, shades of irritation in their faces for having their deals interrupted. Batman's eyes narrow.


[The business and hubbub breaks out immediately afterwards, twice as loud and rambunctious as before. No one even notices Batman is there anymore. Our hero confidently wades into the fray. He walks up to the nearest blue-shirt, who is explaining the features on a new iPad to a customer. His name tag says Deron.


[Two shot of Deron talking to the Customer.]


DERON
Now if you touch the screen with three and a half fingers, and drag them in a triple-zig-zag pattern, you can open…


[As Deron turns away from the customer to demonstrate the screen gesture, the camera follows him to look at the appliance. A muffled yell is heard, faintly distinguishable from the general clatter. When the two-shot returns, Batman is standing in the Customer's place.]


DERON
Holy sh…


BATMAN
I need a pair of in-ear headphones with a built-in microphone. NOW!


DERON
Um… well, sir, if you'll just give your name to Stacy here…


[Stacy pops up beside him.]


STACY
I can just put you in our system and the next available…


BATMAN
You don't understand, this is an emergency.


DERON
That may be, sir, but it is Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. We have a lot of customers expecting the biggest deals we have to offer. You can't just…


[Batman grabs Deron by the lapels, swings him around, and smashes him up against a display of 27" monitors. Customers are startled. Stacy screams.]


BATMAN
You listen to me, you pimply little punk. You get me a set of headphones, or people will die.


DERON
Die…? What could you possibly need…


BATMAN
Joker fried my previous set of headphones in our last encounter at the chemical plant, and remotely disabled the Blu-Tooth connectivity in the Batmobile. I need to be able to interface with the voice activated Batcomputer while I'm driving around the city trying to solve the Riddler's clues. It's part of their nefarious plot to force me to venture out into the mall on the busiest shopping day of the year.


DERON
And you couldn't go to a Best Buy…?


[Batman punches the display next to Deron's' head, and sparks fly.]


BATMAN
Your store was closer. Now…


[He draws up close to Deron's face.]


BATMAN
…are you going to be part of the problem, or are you going to help me find a solution?


[Deron is about to pass out from fear, when Stacy comes up behind Batman and tentatively holds out a set of headphones. Batman grabs it without even turning to face her.]


STACY
Free… of charge, sir…


BATMAN
Thanks.


[He drops Deron to the floor and turns on Stacy, towering over her.]


BATMAN
And also one of those carrying cases for a 17" laptop.


STACY
Sir…?


[Batman glowers at her. He doesn't want to shout "Now!" again, or bad things will happen. Stacy knows this and hurries off, through the crowd of people that has gathered.]


STACY
Excuse me, pardon me…


[Batman now stands there silently, next to Deron's limp form, amid a pile of smashed monitors and computers, the unopened set of headphones in his hand. A crowd of people stares, snaps pictures, and takes video footage. Employees do the same with the display iPhone models. It gets a little awkward.]


BATMAN
I mean, might as well pick up a case for my new… portable Batcomputer… as long as I'm here…




END