The miracles of revenue-sharing save the cash-strapped, small-market Angels, in the spring, a manager’s fancy turns to thoughts of manufacturing runs, and we had April 5 in the pool for the first misguided comparison of performance analysis to rotisserie leagues.
It’s Opening Night. It doesn’t have the same ring or even the same importance as “Opening Day,” but it’s still nice to see games that count. It’s fun to see the season open with something like a Doug Glanville full-count walk or a couple sac bunts in the first inning. Oy, baseball is a long season, but this we don’t need. At least Alex Rodriguez went deep. Even better, the game looks great on the big screen and I’m ready–beer, chips and salsa, and coffee–for the 12-hour orgy of baseball that will be my Monday.
Last year, I introduced a new measure of a team’s efficiency: marginal dollars per marginal win. An article by Michael Lewis in the March 30 New York Times Magazine excerpted from his forthcoming Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, used my analysis to illustrate how Oakland gets so much more performance than other teams out of its low payroll.
BP’s authors shoot the breeze, giving their takes on their surprising AL West unanimity, the wide-open NL Central, the viability of Vlad for MVP and Mark Prior for Cy Young, and more.