Last Tuesday evening was the annual Denslow Cup draft.  Luckily I was back home in Farmington so that Griff and I could get together and drink some beers and eat some BBQ courtesy of my mom and buddy/Sombrero enthusiast, Benji.  The Cup’s draft day is one of my favorite days of the year, and this was absolutely no exception.  I was totally amped all day and could barely hold my hand still to click the mouse to select my first pick.  As usual, we played in a 7 X 7 league with R, RBI, BA, Slug %, OBP, SB, and HR as our offensive categories and W, SV, WHIP, ERA, K’s, K/BB, and IP as our pitching categories.  We have tried to incorporate stats we view as essential to Big League success such as K/BB and OBP in an effort to discourage profiting from players who don’t contribute proportionately to their actual teams.  Anyway, I wanted to present my team, the Milk Steak Knives (named after both the Cup’s founder, Robert Vincent Unsell, and Charlie Kelly’s favorite dish), to our readers and offer some justification for my picks.

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Mark Twain is responsible for popularizing the Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke quote, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”  As someone who bases many of his opinions on statistics, I could not agree more.  I could take any player, along with any different combination of stats, and come up with two different opinions on that player.  Anyone who has ever manipulated statistics to benefit their own argument knows exactly what I am talking about.  But what about the other times, when you come to an opinion that has no logical basis other than you just feel it?  Deep down inside your gut you have an inkling, an instinct that something will happen.  There is no real rhyme or reason behind this belief.  Most of the time when you mention these beliefs to friends they call you crazy, or some synonym of loco.  The beauty of these types of beliefs is that when they become a reality, when you have used only your gut instinct to defy the laws of statistical analysis, it is a thing of beauty.  I can honestly say that there is no better feeling in the world.

When I was 11-years-old, living in Houston, I told anyone who would listen how the Rockets were going to win it all.  They defied all odds, coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the first round to defeat the Jazz, then coming back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate the Suns, and finally sweeping Shaq and the Magic in the Finals to win it all; all while becoming the first team in NBA history to defeat four 50-win teams en route to winning an NBA title.  What does this have to do with the 2011 baseball season though?  At 11-years-old, I had no idea what statistics could be used for.  I knew nothing about backing up an opinion with logical information.  I was freaking 11-years-old!  But, somewhere deep down inside I knew, I just knew, that my Rockets were not going to lose a playoff series that year.  Maybe it was because they had the heart of a champion.  Maybe not.  Either way, I made a gut call about sports and it miraculously came to fruition.

Long story short, that premise is the central idea for this article.  In the upcoming weeks you will find a myriad of articles around the web talking about people’s bold predictions.  Most of these predictions have some sort of stat to back them up.  Not me.  I am here to give you some truly outlandish predictions that have no evidence to support them other than I “feel” like it will happen.  This is not about me trying to predict the future correctly.  This is about finding that 11-year-old inside of me who just believed.  This is about having some fun and enjoying letting my imagination run wild with the endless possibilities of what could happen in a baseball season that has yet to start.  So, without further ado, here are my outlandish, completely unwarranted, and instinct-based predictions for the 2011 Major League Baseball season.

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#31 Matthew Moore – Tampa Bay Rays

LHP

DOB: 6-18-89

ETA: 2013

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Walter Johnson Award (Cy Young)

National League:
First Place Vote – Roy Halladay (Philadelphia)
Second Place Vote – Ubaldo Jimenez (Colorado)
Third Place Vote – Adam Wainwright (St. Louis)
Fourth Place Vote – Josh Johnson (Florida)
Fifth Place Vote – Tim Hudson (Atlanta)

American League:
First Place Vote – Felix Hernandez (Seattle)
Second Place Vote – David Price (Tampa Bay)
Third Place Vote – CC Sabathia (New York)
Fourth Place Vote – Trevor Cahill (Oakland)
Fifth Place Vote – Jered Weaver (Anaheim)

After six long months and 162 grueling games (not including spring training) the Major League Baseball playoffs are finally once again upon us. The competition has been whittled away to the cream of the crop and now only the guys who have strung together enough consistency, heart, and luck over the last half year are facing off head to head. Only one more month watching baseball and then it’s on to basketball season and things have already gotten off to a hot start.

First of all, big ups to Philadelphia Philly Roy Halladay. The guy hurled his second no hitter of the season and the first playoff no-no since Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Mercenary ace Cliff Lee also showed up and did his thing in game one for the Rangers against Tampa Bay. Lee gave up only one run in seven innings and struck out ten batters. These were then followed up on Thursday night with Tim Lincecum’s two hit, fourteen K performance in the Giants opening game against the NL wild card Atlanta Braves. Viva la smallball!

Continue Reading ‘Great Pitching Dominates the Start of the MLB Playoffs’>>