Much overdue announcement – I’m now writing for Ladies…!

So you know that blog, the lovely, 3,000+ pageviews-a-day blog about hot athletes that inspired me to create this site? Yeah, well, I write for them now. You heard that right — I, formerly just a lowly little blogger, am now writing for the premier blog of our niche.

Head on over to Ladies… and browse the archives, check out the introduction post, and don’t forget to sign up for the RSS feed. C’mon people, you know you want to read more of my random crap! I’ll probably earn the nickname “pitching-obsessed girl” before too long… it’s happened in every other part of my life.

A few notes

In blog news:

• I’m not doing the stats posts anymore. If that really bothers you, you can leave a comment on this post and complain about it until I start to care.
• I am working on a post about the hottest player(s) from each team, and I keep on forgetting that Rich Harden isn’t on the A’s anymore. If you have any ideas for any of the teams, leave a comment here.
• I follow way too many blogs, and am about to add them all to the Blogroll. I hope it doesn’t implode.

In actual baseball news:

• Jed Lowrie is having surgery on his wrist and will be out for 6-8 weeks. I guess I can stop whining about my carpal tunnel syndrome now.
• UCLA’s Trevor Bauer continues to be the coolest guy in the entire Pac-10, throwing a complete game, 1-hit shutout in a 13-0 UCLA victory. He’s the Louisville Slugger National Player Of The Week, y’all.
• Dan Haren is 0-3 with a 1.89 ERA. Yeah, you read that right. As if we needed more proof that W-L record is stupid.
• The Marlins are 11-1 and currently playing the Pirates. Andrew Miller is pitching, and not particularly well — Jack Wilson just singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and stole third. I happen to know off the top of my head that Jack Wilson has the 3rd most career plate appearances against Roy Oswalt. (Uh, yeah, I know a lot of random stuff about Roy Oswalt. Try not to judge me.)
• Who baldo? Ubaldo! Actually, you’re probably not, but I was at the Rockies-Dodgers game this Sunday and yes, I was totally just looking for a chance to use that joke, and the game was awful, thanks for asking. Not because I like the Rockies — on the contrary, I was rooting for the Dodgers. But to see any team allow that many runs? Disgusting. Appaling. Horrifying. Scott Elbert (the Dodgers’ replacement for the DL’ed Cory Wade) came out of the bullpen and gave up two or three solo shots, but he had a 10+ run lead, so nobody cared. Seriously, I don’t think anyone even noticed.
• I have two fantasy teams, one of which I’m managing seriously (the Europa Eccentrics) and the other of which (the Amoral Astronauts) is a place for me to experiment. The ‘Cents are in 7th and the A’s are in 8th (both are in 12-team leagues) and Jed Lowrie’s injury gave me a chance to add Barry Zito. (I did say I’m experimenting, right? Yeah. Yeah, you never know, dude.)

Impromptu Liveblog: Giants at Dodgers

Alright guys, I’m an hour (and 2.5 innings) late, but here you go. Barry Zito and Eric Stults.

Click here to view the liveblog

How We’ve Been Found: April 1st to April 7th

What’s The Point: This is an installment of our “How We’ve Been Found” series, which will appear approximately every Wednesday. The point of this is to give you a bit of information about how we’re doing statistically, and how people (including you, of course,) have been getting to our blog.

Individual Pageviews:

• 04/01: 21
• 04/02: 12
• 04/03: 8
• 04/04: 8
• 04/05: 3
• 04/06: 25
• 04/07: 25
• Total: 102

Search Engine Terms:

• 04/01: “david wright” (5), “david wright wallpaper”, “david wright bright”, “ted lilly”, “david wright pictures”, “jonathan papelbon tattoo”, “chase utley stance”, “funny photo of chase utley”, “david wright girlfriend”, “barry zito girlfriend”, “yu darvish cute”
• 04/02: “david wright” (4)
• 04/03: “david wright” (4), “david wright wallpaper”, “john lennon tattoos”
• 04/04: “potentially ammoral”, “david wright wallpapers mets”, “jonathan papelbon tattoo”, “david wright high socks”
• 04/05: “barry zito adorable”
• 04/06: “david wright” (2), “john lannan tattoo”, “jon lester”, “how to use word ‘amoral’ is sentence”
• 04/07: “david wright” (6), “david wright wallpaper” (2), “chase utley batting stance”, “chase utley stance”, “site:upload.wikimedia.org david wright”, “jonathan papelbon tattoo”, “amoral sentence”

A few quick notes: People, David Wright is not really all that cute … I’d love to know what an “amoral sentence” is, or why someone would spell “amoral” with two m’s … I watched the Phillies ring ceremony today, and they showed some clips of the players talking about what the championship meant to them, and damn does Chase Utley look good in a suit … My fantasy teams are doing surprisingly un-badly … Trevor Bauer is still the best pitcher at UCLA, while Yankees’ first-rounder Gerrit Cole has posted an ERA over 4 despite recording lots of K’s. Bauer’s K/9 stands at almost exactly 9. Cole needs to ease off the strike zone.

Official Awards Predictions 2009 (Complete With Top 5 Voting)

Figured I’d follow up my divisional predictions with the awards coverage I said I’d have.

Because I’m mean, I’m going to make you follow the jump. You can’t resist the urge to figure out why this post is tagged with “Luke Hochevar”! You know you can’t!

Official Division Predictions 2009

I just want to see how wrong I’ll be.

Actual predictions and pretty pictures are after the jump. (I do have AL predictions, I just don’t like their logo.)

Opening Day Liveblog: Braves at Phillies

Click here to view it. Coverage starts at 8 Eastern … a.k.a. RIGHT NOW.

IT IS OPENING NIGHT AND I AM SO FRIGGIN’ PUMPED, MAN.

Your starting pitchers will be:

• For the Phillies, Brett Myers. He’s making his 3rd consecutive opening day start and is 4-8 with a 4.60 ERA in his career against the Braves.

• For the Braves, Derek Lowe. I don’t know about his Opening Day numbers, but I do know that he’s 4-1 with a 3.02 ERA in his career against the Phillies.

Chase Utley doesn’t care what you think, he’s healthy and he’ll be playing today. Jayson Werth will also be playing — he’s the only Phillie or Brave on my Europa Eccentrics.

How We’ve Been Found: March 25th to March 31st

What’s The Point: This is an installment of our “How We’ve Been Found” series, which will appear approximately every Wednesday. The point of this is to give you a bit of information about how we’re doing statistically, and how people (including you, of course,) have been getting to our blog.

Individual Pageviews:

• 03/25: 36
• 03/26: 32
• 03/27: 17
• 03/28: 7
• 03/29: 13
• 03/30: 4
• 03/31: 10
• Total: 119

Search Engine Terms:

• 03/25: “yu darvish” (17), “david wright” (2), “wbc japanese team pitchers darvish” (2), “jon lester”, “japan vs korea”, “wbc korea hat”, “yu darvish pictures”, “kelli pedroia”, “david wright home run”, “brian roberts”
• 03/26: “yu darvish” (10), “david wright” (4), “david wright girlfriend” (3), “japan vs korea” (2), “amoral in a sentence”, “wbc japan”, “wbc korea japan”, “wbc japan darvish”, “japan wbc cap”
• 03/27: “yu darvish” (6), “david wright” (3), “darvish sexy” (2), “ted lilly” (2)
• 03/28: “david wright” (3)
• 03/29: “yu darvish” (3), “yu darvish wbc” (2), “using amoral in a sentence”, “blake dewitt girlfriend”
• 03/30: “david wright” (2), “amoral in a sentence”
• 03/31: “david wright” (3), “david wright wallpaper”, “david wright and his girlfriend”

A few quick notes: I hate you, David Wright — I don’t care how many pageviews you’re netting us, I hate you … We are now the official top Google result for “potentially amoral”, so break out the Gatorade and party like mad … No, don’t actually do that … Hey hey, speaking of Ted Lilly, he’s getting the start against the Yankees in their exhibition game — I think it’s the first ever game between two Major League teams at the new stadium, and I actually think that his Cubs will win it … Fear the Terrible Ted Lilly Of The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death, people … Sorry this update is so late. I’m ScriptFrenzy-ing.

UCLA’s Trevor Bauer is your Pac-10 Pitcher Of The Week!

UCLA righty Trevor Bauer won the honors after posting these stats on the week: 2 wins, 13.1 innings, 12 strikeouts, 2 earned runs, infinite awesomeness.

Let the blatant homerism ensue!

Oh, and remember Gerrit Cole, whom the Yankees drafted in the first round but who chose to go to UCLA instead? Here’s a graph of his performance vs. Bauer’s. (If the value is positive, it means that Bauer’s been better — if it’s negative, it means that Cole’s been better.)

(Sorry about the excessive whitespace. Click on the graph to see it full-size.)

Here’s what I see when I look at this graph.

1. There are 14 categories.
2. Bauer’s better in 10 of them, and one’s a draw.
3. H/9 is the only non-ERA rate stat on there — I put it up so you won’t be mislead by the fact that Bauer has allowed 5 more hits. I think since you can see that the positive difference in their IP is greater than the negative difference in H, he’d be allowing hits at a slower clip — but maybe that’s just Crane being Crane at one in the morning. (Yeah, that’s a valid excuse now. So hey kids, do as I say, not as I do: go to bed before 11 PM and wake up before 11 AM.)

Dude, I seriously hope I don’t have any typos in here.

Bored yet? Hey, at least I didn’t make you download a PDF.