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.)

How We’ve Been Found: March 11th to March 17th

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:

• 03/11: 20
• 03/12: 16
• 03/13: 10
• 03/14: 5
• 03/15: 8
• 03/16: 5
• 03/17: 13

Search Engine Terms:

• 03/11: (info unavailable — dammit, WordPress!)
• 03/12: “pretty boston” (1)
• 03/13: “wbc i love japan” (1), “cole hamels batting” (1)
• 03/14: “does barry zito ex girlfriends” (1)
• 03/15: “sexiest picture ever” (1), “barry zito’s girlfriends” (1)
• 03/16: “philadelphia eagles tattoo” (1)
• 03/17: “zito ex girlfriend” (2), “kevin mench” (1), “barry zito girlfriend” (1), “potentially amoral blog” (1)

A few quick notes: It looks like we’ve gotten our first view by someone searching for us specifically …. Our next post may be about Barry Zito’s ex-girlfriends, considering the high level of demand …. If anyone knows how to find information for specific search dates beyond the past 7 days, shoot me an email and I’ll love you forever …. Who else wishes that Chase Utley would keep on rockin’ the high socks during the regular season? …. Are any of you still reading this?

How we’ve been found: March 5th to March 10th

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:

• 03/05: 31
• 03/06: 15
• 03/07: 10
• 03/08: 7
• 03/09: 14
• 03/10: 4
• Total: 81

Search Engine Terms:

• 03/05: “barry zito hat”, “jon lester”
• 03/06: “find a amoral in a sentence”, “dan uggla”, “joe mauer running”, “jon lester”
• 03/07: “wbc”, “+’dan uggla’ +’derby'”
• 03/08: “wbc japan korea”, “kevin mench”
• 03/09: “yu darvish wbc photos”, “wbc korea vs japan”, “japan vs korea”
• 03/10: (none)

This week’s Potentially Funny Prize is for anyone who wants to know about Kevin Mench and/or Barry Zito Hat. If you’re one of those people, I’d like you to tell me why you care. No, seriously.

Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to Dan Uggla.

Team USA Roster Rundown!

Catcher:

• Brian McCann. I know the dude’s on the Braves, but he can hit. I don’t know if he can catch, but he can certainly hit. He posted a .301/.373/.523 line in ’08, good for his second Silver Slugger award and his third consecutive All-Star selection. Ian Kinsler and Hanley Ramirez round out his ‘Similar Batters’ list on B-R, and Yogi Berra shows up on the ‘Similar Batters through Age 24’. Not bad, eh?
• A.J. Pierzynski. Love the name, hate the player. Well, not ‘hate’ per se, but he’s awfully annoying (and I don’t even care about the White Sox). He should be the primary backup, if there is such a thing.

First Base:

• Kevin Youkilis. I really can’t stand this guy and his batting stance, but he’s a good enough player. If he goes into a slump, then there’s always Mr. Playoff Miracle himself…
• …Evan “E-Lo” Longoria. It might seem slightly weird to see him playing first base, but he can’t do too much damage there. I mean, if Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder can “field” this position without causing irreparable damage to the psyche of everyone around them, then I’m sure that the reasonably smart and extremely athletic Longoria can manage just fine. Plus, he’s got as close to a porn star name as you’ll find on this roster, and some people think that’s hot. Don’t worry, I won’t judge you.

Second Base:

• Dustin Pedroia. The really awesome tiny guy who swings from his heels and is good at everything will find a way to make the opposing pitchers uncertain about their depth perception.

See? He's just so small-looking.

Barry Zito is the Sexiest Idiot Ever

Alright, so, everyone knows that Barry Zito can’t pitch anymore. Everyone knows that he’s the most overpaid fifth starter in history, and so on and so forth. For the past couple of years, these overwhelming failures on the field have been overshadowing something much more impressive: He might also be one of the most adorable pitchers in history.

My neighbor, Spencer, does that with a sack of coffee beans. He tried to teach me, and trust me, it's damn hard.

Introducing: Crane

Generally: Hi everyone. I’m Natalys Crane, but I go by Crane because it’s easier to spell and because my favorite Batman character is Dr. Jonathan Crane, also known as Scarecrow, who was most recently portrayed by the superhumanly lovely Cillian Murphy in Batman Begins. I study at UCLA, I train horses in my spare time, and as far as sports go, I’m mostly just a hyperobsessive baseball fan.

Baseball: I am first and foremost a National League girl, and although I don’t think I’ve quite found “my team” yet, I have Dodgers season tickets, serious crushes on a couple Phillies, and an inexplicable soft spot for anyone who is or was on the Marlins.

The perennially sexy Cole Hamels. Do I need to explain my love for Parade Day any further? (Whoa, I think I might've almost split an infinitive there.)