Scoreboard Watching in the American League

As we enter the final two serieses of the 2012 baseball season, NOT ONE of the American League playoff spots have been finalized. So while the only drama in the NL consists of the Cardinals trying to hold off the Dodgers and (surprisingly surging) Brewers for the second wild card spot, 6 of the 7 junior circuit matchups are going significantly impact the playoff race. Here's what's going on in the various divisions.

AL EAST

The Yankees have had a share of first place since mid-June, but they've watched their lead over the upstart Orioles dwindle to just 1 game going into this crucial last week's worth of games. In that last week, each of those teams has a series against the unimpressive Red Sox. But the O's have to finish the season against the red-hot Rays, only 2 games behind the A's for the second wild card spot and in the midst of an 8-game winning streak.

AL CENTRAL

Before taking on the O's, the Rays finish up their 4-game series against White Sox, a team that has been as cold as the Rays have been hot. Having lost 8 of their last 9 games, the Southsiders fell to second place in their division for the first time since July 24. The team that supplanted them - the Tigers, whom pundits everywhere had picked to win the division hands down - follows up its two serieses against the Royals and the Twins with... two more serieses against the Royals and the Twins. A favorable schedule looks like it might seal the deal for Detroit.

AL WEST

The Rangers' 4-game lead over the second wild card leading A's represents the most comfortable lead in the AL. Splitting a 4-game series against their closest competition helped maintain the status quo, but those two teams will meet up for 3 more games to close out the season. Before that happens though, the Rangers have 3 games against the surging Angels, who just had their 5-game winning streak snapped by the Mariners. Their recent success has tied them with the Rays at just 2 games back in the race for the second wild card.


I'm sure everyone in the Commissioner's Office is hoping and praying for clear leaders to emerge, because (as I linked to before) the tiebreaker scenarios built into the last-minute decision to add another team to the playoffs are absolutely nightmarish. The fans and the broadcasters, however, want everything to go down to the wire, to keep the fans as interested as possible. As for me, I'm just hoping the A's can keep their heads down and power through after a rash of freak injuries, bad luck, and bad decisions has left them to subside on a starting rotation made up entirely of rookies. I think that story would surpass even Moneyball, and perhaps spawn another Oscar-nominated film.

First to Clinch!

Wow, nothing opens your eyes to how close we are to the end of the regular season like seeing that first playoff spot get locked up. With manager Dusty Baker sidelined with an irregular heartbeat, his Cincinnati Reds beat the Cubs to ensure themselves at least a Wild Card spot. Their ace Johnny Cueto was on the mound, which would have made me excited about five weeks ago when my fantasy team (of which he is a member) was still in contention. But now it's just another W tacked onto an impressive season.

The Reds will likely clinch their division - they need another two wins - leaving the Cardinals as the most likely contenders to battle with the Braves in the Wild Card game. The Dodgers could always pull off an impressive 11th hour comeback, but nothing seems to go right for them lately. In the other divisions, it's looking like the Giants and Nationals have no intention of slowing down for the rest of the pennant race.

In the AL version of the nothing-seems-to-go-right category, the A's just lost another pitcher for the year, despite pulling into a tie with the Orioles for the first Wild Card spot. I think it's only fitting to support the A's and celebrate their unexpected run by checking out this new music video from a very talented A's fan. Nothing is safe for the AL division leaders, as the White Sox, Yankees, and (especially) Rangers need to be constantly looking over their shoulders.

On a personal note, I've been so caught up in the inner workings of the playoff race that I completely forgot that the NFL plays on Thursday these days, and that some key players won't play due to injury. So now I have to hope my Fantasy Football team can subsist on just one RB for this week's matchup...

Oh the trials and tribulations of trying to be a two-sport fan. /sigh

Astrology Baseball Championship Preview

What an exciting September this has been! No divisional leader in the AL has a lead of more than two games. Six teams separated by less than five games in the NL Wild Card, including two surprise contenders who were both on the wrong side of big sales at the trade deadline. And the best team in baseball shut down their best pitcher for the remainder of the season. But perhaps the most exciting event that's been going on is the PLAYOFFS FOR MY ASTROLOGY BASEBALL FANTASY LEAGUE!!! GET EXCITED!!1~

For the last two weeks, the first round (also the semifinals) has been taking place. The two interdivisional matchups were the Capricorn Sea-Goats (#1 seed, Negative division) vs. the Libra Scales (#4, Positive) and the Aries Rams (#2, Positive) vs. the Cancer Crabs (#3, Negative). Below is a position by position analysis of the teams. The point totals date back to the start of the playoffs, and the winner at each position is highlighted in bold:

You'll notice right away that we have two battles of pitching vs. batting. Check out these comparisons:

- Capricorn leads Libra in all batting positions but two.

- Aries leads Cancer in all batting positions but two.

- Libra leads Capricorn in ALL pitching positions.

- Cancer leads Aries in all pitching positions but two.

In the latter case, it would turn out to be those two that made all the difference. You always hear that good pitching wins championships. In fantasy (at least the system that I use, which is also the most similar to the system used in fantasy football), the most points wins championships. Now it stands to reason that, since there are more spots for hitters than pitchers, your lineup would be a higher priority than your pitching staff. But pitchers have much higher points per game averages, so they're very important, especially in the short term (cf. Kris Medlen, below). It's a complex situation, but if it weren't complex, it wouldn't hold the interest of thousands of fans each year.

These astrology-based teams, of course, didn't get a chance to pick their players in a draft - the players were assigned based on their cosmic personalities / choices made by their parents of a conceptual (i.e. when to conceive) nature. And yet the teams in these two matchups embody two very different conceptual (i.e. the concept of team strategy) choices - whether to focus on pitching or hitting.

In Libra's case, their pitching-heavy approach is working well: they're leading a very comfortable 2,468 to 1,621 as of this writing, with only one day to go in the two-week long matchup. But there's also something very special happening with this pitching staff. Not only do they have owner of a 2012 perfect game Matt Cain, former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke, former Cy Young Award runner-up Jered Weaver, and the breakout pitching story of the year in free agent-to-be Kyle Lohse, but one of the hottest starters right now, Kris Medlen, is currently eligible to pitch out of an RP slot. He's currently filling in as RP2, since Kenley Jansen is on the shelf for the Dodgers until at least Tuesday. Medlen's three starts accounted for 359 points, the most of any player over the same time period. When the best competition Capricorn can send against these powerhouses is Cole Hamels followed by a steep dropoff, they're gonna be in some trouble.

On the offensive side, Robinson Cano and Andrew McCutchen are no slouches, especially at key positions on the diamond. But it's impressive that Libra could hold off Capricorn's onslaught by the likes of Albert Pujols, Edwin Encarnacion, Matt Holliday, and even the underrated Hanley Ramirez. All the more so considering Libra had nothing more than backup John McDonald to subsist on at SS (he's played in just seven games out of the last 13). Their regular star at the position (and #5 average draft pick) Troy Tulowitzki has been out since late May with a groin injury, and it's doubtful he'll return this year. Also on the injury front: dual-eligible 3B/OF Jose Bautista (#4 average draft pick) has seen his last action of 2012. Luckily two strong rookies - Yoenis Cespedes and Bryce Harper - have been able to pick up the slack in that department. 1B is also weak, with Michael Young their only eligible player there, but C got a shot in the arm when Kurt Suzuki was traded to the Nationals and regained a starting spot.

The Aries offense is not only staggeringly talented, it's also staggeringly deep, helping them to a lead of 2,383 to 1,382. Just take a look at this team's BENCH options: Joe Mauer, Hunter Pence, Jason Kipnis, and Mark Teixeira (once he returns from his calf issue). If you were going to search for cosmic patterns or tendencies regarding players born under specific signs, it would have to start with Aries, because this veritable army of fantasy stalwarts is just unfair. Aside from two legitimate MVP candidates in Miguel Cabrera and Buster Posey, Aries also boasts the top 3B who actually plays 3B Adrian Beltre, 8th ranked OF Jay Bruce, and up-and-coming star SS Starlin Castro. Derek Jeter is showing his agelessness for Cancer and Brandon Phillips and Yadier Molina are some of the game's best at weak positions, but overall the offenses don't compare.

And while Cancer's pitching staff has the depth and bullpen strength, very few can compare to Aries' 1-2 punch of Felix Hernandez (another perfect gamer this year) and Chris Sale (who's eligible to pitch as an RP, but it's actually more strategic to pitch him out of an SP slot). And even though Aries' SP3 (Mark Buehrle) scored less points on the year than Cancer's SP5 (Paul Maholm), and despite the fact that Cancer has the RP depth to keep two legitimate closers on its bench (Jason Motte and Ernesto Frieri), the loss of Stephen Strasburg was too much to overcome. I guess the Aries team proves that a couple of star pitchers coupled with an out-of-this-world impressive offense is the clear strategy to winning. Now the only issue for the rest of us is how to draft that type of team...

I'll leave you with another graphic, this one showing the two teams now almost certain to face off in the finals, along with current stats, and (because ESPN also calculates these) most recent stats:

The final playoff matchup of the fantasy season also signals the final two weeks of actual baseball's regular season (barring all the very scary and very real tiebreaker scenarios). It's been, and continues to be, a fun and awesome season, and it's been an honor to be a part of it, if only through the blogosphere.

Leo Lions: In-Depth Analysis

With a week of regular fantasy season left until the four-team Astrology Division playoffs, the Leo Lions' pedestrian 9-9 record doesn't look like it'll get them a ticket to the postseason. But since we just finished their birthday month, it's time for their In-Depth Analysis feature. I don't know much about the Leo sign, as it has one of the least informative Wikipedia articles around (maybe the stars have aligned to make everyone born in late summer collectively inept at IT), but I do know that they have one of only four astrological signs whose Zodiac symbol corresponds to an actual major sports team. (Bonus points if you can name the other three - I'll give you a hint: they've all been covered by this feature.)

The biggest piece of recent news involving Leo was when their second-highest offensive scorer was suspended two weeks ago after testing positive for PEDs. I wish I could say that Melky Cabrera was the latest player to fall into the synthetic testosterone trap, but the problem is apparently more widespread than anyone but Victor Conte could have possibly imagined. The Melk Man ends his season with a respectable 1,755 points, and up until this weekend he was still leading the NL in hits (Andrew McCutchen just now overtook him by one). Luckily for the Leos, their highest offensive scorer is also the highest scorer in all of MLB - despite the fact that he spent most of the first month of the season hitting .402 for the AAA Salt Lake Bees. (Bees?) Yes, not only is Mike Trout (2,253) the only batter to maintain an average of 20 or more points per game (21.5), but he's also the youngest player ever to have a 20 HR, 40 SB season, plus he leads the AL in the latter category - along with runs scored, AVG, SLG, OPS and OPS+. (He trails Joe Mauer by .004 in the last of the triple slash triple crown categories.) A ROY/MVP season is not out of the question, even if the Angels (hopefully) remain out of the playoff hunt.

Even without Cabrera, the Leo team still has plenty of viable outfielders ready to contribute. The first, pushing Trout to LF (cuz he's eligible there too) is Adam Jones (1,684), a pillar of the Baltimore community who's working hard to justify his megadeal with the Orioles both on and off the field. Playing across the outfield from Trout, is fellow top prospect Jason Heyward (1,744), whose bounceback season couldn't have come at a better time for the surprise-contender Braves. The next two outfielders, and thus the best candidates for DH, are also both centerfielders, giving Leo four such players on their active roster. B.J. Upton (1,296) is a more complete hitter but Colby Rasmus (1,259) has slightly more power (while also playing a slightly better centerfield). While they do hit from opposite sides of the plate, both struggle against lefties, so a platoon doesn't seem all that viable.

While the outfield is deep, the Leo infield is not without its stars as well. Two former AL MVPs line up at 2B and 3B: Dustin Pedroia (1,431) won the award in 2008 and Alex Rodriguez (1,160) took it the year before. While waiting for A-Rod to recover from a fractured left hand (suffered at the hand of recently-perfect Felix Rodriguez a month ago), the Lions will have to rely on Pablo Sandoval (893), known as Kung Fu Panda, but I like to refer to him as Undeserving All-Star. They've also got some depth at SS, with reds rookie Zack Cozart (1,140) and the second Oriole on the team J.J. Hardy (1,184) vying for the positional lead in points. The team is in somewhat of a transitional state at 1B, where the injured Todd Helton's (715) star is falling. Mark Reynolds (869) has struggled at the position, but Anthony Rizzo (584) is quickly on his way towards taking that mantle.

On paper, before the start of 2012, the Leo starting rotation looked a lot less intimidating than it looks now. Madison Bumgarner (1,980) was the only starter ranked under 100 and was projecting as a No. 3 starter at best for the Giants, but he's already eclipsed his 2011 point total by over 100 points and is pitching like a No. 1 even on a pitching staff that includes Matt Cain. All-Star Matt Harrison (1,578) has blossomed into the Rangers' most consistent starter overtaking fellow Leos Yu Darvish (1,166, struggles transitioning to America) and Colby Lewis (979, injury). No one could have predicted that Chris Capuano (1,500) would post the best ERA of his career at age 33, and Max Scherzer (1,480) has really stepped up his game for the Tigers, as he's leading the AL in K/9IP rate. Rounding out the rotation is another Dodger Chad Billingsley (1,239), who has continued his trend of starting slow and ramping it up as the season goes on (he has a 1.80 ERA in 7 second-half starts, as opposed to a 4.30 ERA in his 18 tries before the break).

Leo's best closer on paper, Drew Storen (142), missed most of the season following surgery to remove bone chips in his right elbow, and found his closer's role successfully taken over by Tyler Clippard upon his return. That puts Huston Street (1,240) as the team's top stopper, but he's been battling his own series of injuries this year, the latest being a strained calf that's kept him out of action since early August. Then their second backup option for saves was basically neutralized when Brett Myers (884) was traded from the Astros to the White Sox. Without a proven healthy closer, the team has limped into last place in the league in saves - but surprisingly their pitching staff leads the league in strikeouts. They're a middle of the road team in pretty much every other category.

Looking at the numbers, I think it's mathematically impossible for Leo to secure a post-season berth. Libra and Aries are 3 wins ahead in the Positive division, ditto for Capricorn in the Negative division, and it looks like Cancer will secure the 4th seed this week with a win over Scorpio - the two teams are currently tied with 10 wins apiece, and Cancer has a sizable lead in points... over everybody, strange as it seems. The astrology playoffs start the week after the first round of my actual fantasy playoffs end, so if I get eliminated, I'll spend more time tracking these rosters through the post-season. If I'm still in the hunt, though, expect these posts to be somewhat less frequent.

Cancer Crabs: In-Depth Analysis

Those of you who follow both the Zodiacal calendar and this blog will know that I'm far behind schedule for an In-Depth Analysis profile on a fantasy team very close to my heart: the Cancer Crabs. Besides having two of the most unfortunate names in all of astrology (plus a hilariously suggestive symbol), the Cancer team represents the top major league players born under the same sun sign as your humble blogger. According to the literature on the sign, Cancerians could be either helpful or annoying to have in the clubhouse - they can have a kind, sympathetic, and nurturing character, but they also tend towards being overly-emotional, moody, and hypersensitive. I guess that's what comes from the combined aspects of changeability from a water sign that's ruled by the moon. Let's see what kind of depth chart comes from such a sign.

This team has some more productive batters than I thought would be the case at the beginning of the season, but I'd like to begin by focusing on the real area of strength: the pitching staff - as of this writing, the team's top three scorers are all starting pitchers. Stephen Strasburg leads the NL in strikeouts (and strikeouts per 9 innings) as he approaches his controversial Shutdown Day. All-Star snub Ryan Vogelsong leads the same league in ERA, as the 34-year-old is doing a good job proving that his breakout 2011 season (following a four-year absence from the majors) was no fluke. And although CC Sabathia is trailing the Yankees staff ace Hiroki Kuroda by 2.0 full WAR, he's not a bad fantasy SP3 by any means.

Before rounding out the rotation, let's take a look at this dominant bullpen, which, thanks to injuries and ineffectiveness, now features five (5) relievers who have spent most of the season racking up saves for their clubs. Jim Johnson had been a revelation for the Orioles through mid-July (including a scoreless April), Chris Perez just secured his second straight season with 30+ saves last night, and Jason Motte is the only pitcher on this staff to sport a WHIP under 1. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Brian Wilson's injury catapulted Santiago Casilla into the closer's role (although his job has since been in flux of late), and in Anaheim, the struggles of Jordan Walden (an All-Star last year and 7th in Rookie of the Year voting) prompted the Angels to trade for Ernesto Frieri.

Luckily the rest of the rotation is deep enough to have effective pitchers to replace Strasburg if/when he goes down, although no one can hope to emulate his performance. Recent trade chip Paul Maholm has ramped up his value since going undrafted to start the season and Taiwanese import Wei-Yin Chen been solid for the Orioles. Strasburg's replacement will likely come from a group including Phil Hughes, Tim Hudson, and Edinson Volquez, whose combined 3.99 ERA is a full 1.2 runs above the young phenom's. However Brandon McCarthy's (2.68 ERA in 13 injury-plagued starts) return from the disabled list should make the situation a little easier to swallow.

With the lack of a true first-round pick fantasy stud to anchor the offense, any conversation about this lineup has to start with star power, and for that we turn to Derek Jeter. The 38 year-old Yankee captain might not turn in solid defense at shortstop anymore (if he ever did to begin with), but he does lead the AL in both at bats and hits (80% of them singles). Among other Cancer players known for their positive clubhouse presence are Jeter's double play partner Brandon "Dat Dude" Phillips and Torii Hunter, who doesn't have a starting spot in this crowded outfield.

The leading outfield scorer is Cleveland's Shin-Soo Choo, who, if he hadn't earned an exemption by helping his native South Korean team win a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games, would right now be serving a mandatory military service. Flanking him in the second corner outfield spot is Nelson Cruz, who prior to the season was ranked just one spot behind teammate and first-half fantasy machine Josh Hamilton. Manning center field (because any contender has to prove it's good up the middle) is Angel Pagan, whose days of batting 5th for the Giants are likely over due to their acquisition of a legitimate power hitter in Hunter Pence (his .140 average for the team notwithstanding). But the top offensive scorer overall is third baseman Aramis Ramirez, whose league-leading 37 doubles don't quite make up for the lost production from Prince Fielder, but at least he comes quite a bit cheaper.

Cancer is lucky enough to have two of fantasy's best behind the plate: Yadier Molina (who has recently started making noise with his bat in addition to his well-regarded glovework) and Miguel Montero (whose role as DH is probably on par with starting a tight end as your flex in fantasy football, a sport I'm trying to learn this year). First base was a mess for this team early on following Adam Lind's demotion to the minor leagues. For a while Juan Rivera's backup work for the Dodgers was their best bet, but when Allen Craig came off the DL and started playing at the Pujols-vacated first base for the Cardinals, Cancer had found its man.

In my Astrology Baseball fantasy league that I set up, Cancer is in a 4-way tie for 5th place overall in the standings with an even .500 record. With 3+ weeks to go, they're not assured of a playoff spot, but they've actually scored the most fantasy points out of any team: their 18,346 points are currently 246 points ahead of the Aries Rams. Granted I haven't been changing the rosters regularly - it's enough work maintaining my fantasy team in the league where I actually drafted and am, you know, competing with real people - but neither have I shown Cancer any favoritism, so their performance has to do at least somewhat with the merit of the players. I don't know about you, but I'm pulling for the Crabs to go all the way this year.

Trade Deadline Recap

We can now clearly see both headlights of the 2012 non-waiver trade deadline in our rear-view mirrors and it's now time to get on with the final two months of the regular season. But before we put this eventful and exciting milestone to bed, I'd like to present a recap of the proceedings in the form of (what else) a fantasy baseball list. What follows is a 25-man roster comprised of the best players to be moved via trade before Tuesday's deadline. The list includes each player's primary position, their old and new teams, and their fantasy points at the time they were traded.

Of the five teams that show up the most often on this roster (four times apiece), only one of them - the Los Angeles Dodgers - could be considered buyers. The Boys in Blue are the only team to notch three acquisitions on this roster: 1) a top of the order hitter (Shane Victorino) who is now assured to bat near the top of the order since he's no longer blocked by Jimmy Rollins - the Flyin' Hawaiian has spent only 8 games in the leadoff spot this year. 2) a power bat (Hanley Ramirez) who, despite a general disappointing pall that has fallen on everything Miami this year, has quietly put together a fine season. And 3) a bullpen piece (Brandon League) to replace the one they gave up to get the player #1 on this list (Josh Lindblom). They also recently made the first POST-deadline acquisition (pitcher Joe Blanton, also from the Phillies) but that's a different. Those two hitters they acquired are the 2nd and 3rd highest-scoring batters to change hands pre-deadline this year, trailing only Hunter Pence (yet ANOTHER Philly) who went to division-rival Giants. The Giants also got versatile infielder Marco Scutaro, with the only Major League talent they parted with being backup outfielder Nate Schierholtz (who went to... you guessed it, the Phillies).

The highest-scoring pitcher to be moved went to a team whose only major deal was to acquire the highest-scoring pitcher available at the deadline - however Zack Greinke has failed to win either of his two starts with the Angels - in fact, the temperamental starter hasn't won since June. I'm considering trying to sell him high from my fantasy team before the general negativity of Anaheim causes him to combust. Greinke wasn't the only chip Milwaukee moved; they also sent backup catcher George Kottaras to the A's, the only move made by Billy Beane's club in the first post-Moneyball (2011 film) trade deadline, failing to capitalize on the momentum of a franchise-best July to improve the team in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, in a similar situation to the Giants and the Dodgers in the NL West, the Rangers have matched Anaheim SP for SP, with the acquisition of former NL ERA leader Ryan Dempster (although the fact that his FIP is nearly a run higher than his ERA doesn't bode well for his smoke and mirrors act continuing in Arlington).

Dempster wasn't the only player the Cubs shipped to the Rangers - the two clubs connected earlier on deadline day in a trade for Geovany Soto, whose main purpose it seems will be to leech at bats from Mike Napoli (just another way the AL West is conspiring to undermine my fantasy team). Nor was Dempster the only starter dealt by the Cubs - two days before the deadline, they shipped Paul Maholm to Atlanta (along with fourth outfielder Reed Johnson) after the Braves were spurned by Dempster, who invoked his no-trade protection rights after a deal had been worked out between the two clubs.

Along with the Phillies and Cubs, Miami and Houston were the biggest sellers this year. In addition to the Hanley Ramirez deal, Miami also sent two key players to the Tigers: first time free agent to be Anibal Sanchez and returning 2B Omar Infante, who has cooled off in the last month and a half after swinging a hot stick to start the season. I still bat him second in my projected order because even though his .305 OBP is nothing special, it's better than Ichiro's .287, which shouldn't even earn him the "second leadoff" 6th spot, but he does have a bit of a track record on his side.

In their last year in the NL, the Astros have taken the predictable step of purging themselves of 30-something veterans making $10 million-plus per year: Wandy Rodriguez went to shore up the upstart Pirates rotation and Brett Myers hasn't given up a run yet for the White Sox... they even managed to pull off the rare sell-to-the-sellers trick, sending Carlos Lee to the Marlins before the Fish realized they were fighting a losing battle in 2012. They did receive highly touted 3B prospect Matt Dominguez in the deal, prompting them to trade Chris Johnson to the Diamondbacks to clear up a path for him. They also sent honorable mention J.A. Happ to the Blue Jays in a blockbuster deal, getting some return from the now twice-traded lefty before he hits the open market for the first time. The only other player worth honorably mentioning has to be Francisco Liriano, who is starting tomorrow for the White Sox.

One of the most surprising deals of the deadline had to be the Reds acquiring rejuvenated closer Jonathan Broxton from the Royals, since Cincinnati already features the hardest-throwing closer in the game right now. I wonder if this move will pave the way for Aroldis Chapman to head into the rotation, or if J-Brox will simply languish as a setup man for the rest of 2012. I wonder what would have been better for his 2013 free agent value: setting up for a playoff contender or closing for a team who's dead in the water.

New York Yankees: In-Depth Analysis

It's now been two weeks since the All-Star break, and it's time to jump back into looking at actual teams with an In-Depth Analysis feature on the New York Yankees.  I'd been wanting to profile them since doing the Mets as my last team, and it seems especially appropriate now as they're the number 1 power-ranked team heading into the second half of the season (despite recently dropping 4 in a row to the red-hot-in-July Oakland Athletics).  They've also recently made a splash in the trade market - but in the final days approaching the July 31st trade deadline, I'll bet that will be the case for a lot of teams moving forward.

The Yankees are the winningest franchise in all of baseball, with a sickening 27 World Series titles to their name, more than twice that of the nearest competitor.  They've had some of the game's best players wear their Tiffany-designed logos on their caps over the years: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra, just to name a few.  And yet they've managed to find themselves hated by a large portion of baseball's serious fans - likely because their astronomical payroll flies in the face of every statement Commissioner Bud Selig has ever made about "parity" and because their tendency to win all the time leads to the propensity of annoying, entitled bandwagon fans to come out of the woodwork every playoff season.

But you've got to give the 2012 Yankees credit: even as most pundits wrote them off as an aging team with pitching uncertainty, they've managed to play (and spend) their way back to the top of the heap in recent months.  Below you'll find a graphic representing their current roster, but if you've been paying attention, you'll notice that it's different than the ones I've previously included in this feature.  That's because I've spent the last two weeks completely overhauling my database to reflect stats through the first half of 2012 rather than the already-completed 2011.  The points (and points/g), teams played for, positional eligibility (10 games at a position to qualify for hitters, 5 games for pitchers), and color-coding have all been updated as of the All-Star Break, while pre-season rankings and salaries remain the same.  Check it out!

Highest Paid Yankees

I'm sticking with the same format I used for most of my previous teams just so that I could have an excuse to list these unbelievable salaries.  The Yankees have a staggering 11 players getting paychecks of $10mm or more with three of those cashing in more than $20mm this year (Alex Rodriguez gets $29mm, CC Sabathia gets $23mm, and Mark Teixeira gets $22.5mm).  Ichiro, the newest Yankee having been acquired just yesterday, was getting $17mm in the last year of his deal with the Mariners, and I'm not sure how much the Yankees are on the hook for.  The next four highest salaries go to the middle infield (Jeter and Cano) and the relief corps (Rivera and Soriano, who's getting a chance to earn his closer's salary because Rivera is not able to earn his).  To say that no other team comes close to their level of expenditure would be an understatement.

Highest Scoring Yankees (2012.5)

Cano refused to shake #ASG MVP Melky Cabrera's hand as he rounded
the bases following his 3-run Home Run in the Midsummer Classic.

The two Yankees who have put together the best 2012's through the break also started the All Star game for the AL: 2B Robinson Cano (1,317) and CF Curtis Granderson (1,215).  Mark Teixeira (1,076) has shaken off a bad start to once again put him on pace to reach the coveted 2,000 point plateau. CC Sabathia (1,055), who had to cede his All Star spot due to injury, is the only Yankees pitcher to top 1,000 points.  Just to give you an idea of how potent this roster is, the Bronx Bombers had six other players with at least 900 points at the break.

Highest Scoring Yankees (2011)

The quartet of Yankees with 1,000 points at the break is the same quartet to break 2,000 points back in 2011 - however they were joined by Mariano Rivera whose freak knee injury during batting practice will preclude him from reaching that milestone this year.  This seems as good a time to point out as any that Mariano is one of 10 Yankees currently on the 60-Day DL - the only other team to approach that level of injury is the Padres with nine players out for at least two full months.

Newest Yankees

Let's go in chronological order through the Yankees off-season (and regular season) to see who they added and when.  The first player picked up after the World Series was (drumroll please) Jayson Nix, who has spent most of his time in pinstripes shoring up a LF left vacant by the injury to Brett Gardner.  (During the break, this position looked even less defined with Darnell McDonald and Dewayne Wise also contributing.  Both have since been dropped from the 40-man roster.)  The next biggest name to be acquired, although he hasn't yet pitched for the Yankees due to rotator cuff tendinitis, was Michael Pineda, in what would prove to be the first of two big trades with the Mariners.  Three days later followed the signing of Hiroki Kuroda to a 1-year deal, and the Yankees' pitching staff was deemed bolstered.

The team addressed the only uncertainty in their starting lineup when they signed Raul Ibanez as their full-time DH - although as the graphic shows he's actually been the Yankees' everyday left fielder.  Even before Pineda officially went on the DL, the Yanks lured Andy Pettitte out of retirement because you can never have too much pitching... but you can never have too few pitchers with fractured ankles, as Pettitte will gladly attest to.  Then just two days before Opening Day, the Yankees traded with the Giants for Chris Stewart to replace Francisco Cervelli as their backup catcher.

During the season, we've seen under-the-radar deals for low-profile relievers, only one of which is on the roster at the moment (Chad Qualls, an underrated 7th inning type brought in from the Phillies - Rapada and Eppley were signed to a minor league deal/claimed on waivers (respectively before the season began).  Then of course there was yesterday's deal for Ichiro, acquired for D.J. Mitchell (who had been on the 40-man roster) and Danny Farquhar (who had already been claimed on waivers three different times this season before being involved in this deal. Seems strange that the Mariners would give up up such a valuable piece of their team and culture for a trade chip who was let go by two other teams so far...).  Presumably Ichiro's arm will keep him in RF, shifting Swisher over to LF and Ibanez into a DH platoon with Andruw Jones.

Outlook

The Yankees have enough pop in their lineup and enough big names on the pitching staff to keep themselves pretty firmly in contention for the next couple of months.  I know how competitive the eastern divisions of baseball have been this year, but the Red Sox don't have a single consistent starting pitcher, the Rays' defense has fallen apart, and the Blue Jays have too many question marks on their roster.  Even if the Orioles' fairy tale season continues, they're going to be shooting for one of the Wild Card spots at best.  Their playoff hopes depend on what other (if any) acquisitions they make to strengthen their rotation or bullpen, but as it stands, this team has a good shot to go far.

Words. Cannot. Describe...

...the emotions swirling through my head right now, just over six hours since the credits rolled on The Dark Knight Rises, the thrilling conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. I managed to remain spoiler free through the entire lead-up to the film's release - I limited my exposure to hard-to-avoid billboards and posters (see right, also my phone background), and the only line from the trailer I happened to hear through shut eyes and covered-up ears was, "There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne," which is the title of the first track in Hans Zimmer's striking soundtrack album.  Although, for my money, Michael Shannon does a much more convincing reading of that same line in Take Shelter...

I'm convinced that shielding myself from the trailers enhanced my enjoyment of the movie, particularly after saturating my brain with trailers for The Dark Knight in the months before that came out in 2008.  I mean, I watched the regular trailer, the trailer juxtaposed with scenes from Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, even the trailer reenacted with LEGO.  I knew every beat from the trailer so well that when I eventually saw the movie, I was basically just waiting for those scenes to happen.  Like, instead of being absorbed by the brilliantly-planned and executed car chase, I was just thinking, Oh, here's where they're gonna flip that truck.  It kind of pulled me out of the experience, which I didn't want to happen with the finale.

Whether or not my little spoiler-free experiment contributed to my perceptions of the movie, I have to believe that it made a positive impact.  I left the theater last night thoroughly satisfied - with the portrayal of the characters, with the treatment of the Bat-mythology, and with the narrative structure in general, even though it did fall into the greedy trap of trying to squeeze too many plot points and/or amusing bits into the already-bloated running time.  In my mind it didn't measure up to The Dark Knight (how can you top a Batman movie that features The Joker?), but I could tell instantly that #TDKR is a movie I will be happy to see again many times in the future.

Needless to say, I've been kept busy with all the craziness leading up to this much-anticipated event in Batman's media history (you can check out my live-tweeting of both previous movies) - not to mention LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, another Bat-related pastime that's been keeping me pretty occupied.  Through all this, I've still been keeping up with baseball, although my interest has turned rather internal since the All-Star Game.  While a half-season's worth of stats does not provide a terribly large sample size, the halfway point of a season is a good milestone to pause and take a snapshot and see how each team is faring.  I've praised ESPN's fantasy point system so much that I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but the fact that points are already calculated has helped make the half-season evaluation process infinitely more manageable.

Unfortunately, the baseball world did not pause for me while I was holed up in my cave putting together my reports.  But I'm pretty much done now and just about ready to launch back into the In-Depth Analyses I love so well.  But for now, go to your local theater (IMAX preferably) and check out The Dark Knight Rises as soon as possible... because I can only resist talking about all the spoilers for so long!

Pic of the Week 7/8/12: RIP ERNEST

He was a great actor and a great man, whose many accomplishments were never accepted by the good people of the Wikipedia community...

RIP Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012)

No, I Don't Want No Snubs

A Snub is a guy who can't get no love from.... the All-Star voting community.

It happens every year, and will continue to happen so long as fans continue to vote for their favorite players to represent their leagues in the midsummer classic.  Ever since Connie Mack and John McGraw squared off against each other in the very first All-Star game way back in 1933, I'm sure there were a fair amount of deserving players left off the team and some contributors not quite fit to be called All-Star - although there were probably a lot less of these back then when the roster comprised only 18 players (compared to the modern era's 34) and because the managers selected the entire lineup until 1946 when fan voting was introduced.

Fan voting was actually banned in 1957 following an incident of fans from Cincinnati stuffing the ballot boxes and electing 7 reds to the starting lineup.  The fans were once again allowed to decide the starters in 1970, and in the early part of the last decade - in the same rules-change that made the game decide which team got home field advantage in the World Series - the players and coaches were introduced to the process.  Their ballots decide the reserves (a mirror of the starting lineup with one player at each position) and the pitching staff (five starters, three relievers).  The managers then select their own players (in conjunction with the Commissioner's Office), insuring that at least one player from each team in the league is represented, further diluting the talent pool.

Everybody has their own opinions about who should play in the All-Star game; and apparently Giants, Rangers, and Yankees fans have more opinions than most, as evidenced by three members of each team on the starting squads, the majority of them (roughly 6 of the 9) elected over more qualified candidates.  I'm somewhat of a purist, so I try to cast my votes for the most deserving players in the league rather than my favorites.  I've given you all a rundown of my decision-making process, but now, thanks to real-time fantasy point calculation courtesy of ESPN.com, I have hard and fast evidence of the true (fantasy) value of the players selected to this year's All-Star teams - evidence which I present to you here:

Starter snubs are the easiest to judge because their picks are the only ones that are a direct result of fan voting.  The reserves don't always reflect the players/coaches ballot because if they happen to elect the same player as the fan ballot, the second-place vote-getter is chosen.  In my estimation, the most blatant fan snub is NL 3B David Wright - not because he scored the most points of anyone left off the team (OF snubs Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Braun [who will incidentally start for the injured Matt Kemp] had more) but because the player for whom he was passed over has the least points of any All-Star starter (only Chipper Jones, a last-minute replacement for Kemp, has fewer).

Wright currently is tied for the NL lead in WAR (along with well-deserved All-Star Joey Votto), in addition to serving as a team leader on the surprise-contender Mets.  You'd think that such a high-profile player who plays in the country's largest media market would be able to drum up some more support.  I can understand a player on a losing team like Carlos Ruiz (who currently leads the NL in batting) not getting too much attention from the fans, but to also be left off the player ballot?  I shouldn't complain too much about that, though, because at the time I cast my votes I favored Yadier Molina, if only ever so slightly.

In the AL, Miguel Cabrera is a much more minor snub because Adrian Beltre has actually played a full season and played it quite well. I don't think I can object to Derek Jeter's election, even though Cabrera and Andrus have both played better, because Cap'n Jetes positively oozes star power.  The catcher situation mirrors the NL, with the lowest scoring catcher elected by the fans, the middle scorer elected by the players, and the highest scorer selected by the manager.

As far as snubs left off the roster completely, the list has to start with Edwin Encarnacion, whose breakout season as a DH-who-can-field has to be worth more than Adam Dunn's K-filled bounceback season.  Hunter Pence has had a better season than Jay Bruce, and Tony La Russa didn't even need to pick him to fill the Reds' quota since Aroldis Chapman was already elected by the players.  And in the classic ignorance of defense, Brett Lawrie will not be making an appearance, because 3.4 of his AL-leading 4.8 WAR came with the glove.

For pitcher snubs, the NL is 100% culpable, with such heavy hitters as Madison Bumgarner (seemingly the only Giant left off the All-Star team), Johnny Cueto, Zack Greinke notably absent. Of the unexpected breakout talents, Lance Lynn and Chris Sale (AL) made it, but there's no sign of James McDonald or Chris Capuano, both of whom deserve some recognition for the expectations they've defied.  Many of the AL's best pitchers were denied as well, but as one out of five of them have a chance to join the team via the Final Vote stunt, I'll leave them for now.

So when you watch the All-Star game next Tuesday, while you're marveling at the players on the field, remember to keep a spot in your hearts open for those who were deserving but were not so lucky to have their names up in lights this year.  Your plight will probably not be remembered... but then again it's all just a big popularity contest.