Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Chronicles of capital_prototype and Sawsheezle: A Forward

This is what we know...

We know that Sawsheezle and capital_protoptype love the television show "New Girl" (in German: "neues Maedchen") that is partially based on their lives. We also know that Sawsheezle sometimes dances naked to Jamaican music and that his manhood has been known to be considered regal, stately, and a real treat to female roommates who have accidentally snuck a peek at it. We know that capital_prototype and Sawsheezle enjoy having an athletic African-American dude for a roommate because he is cool and good at sporting. What we didn't know is that their mutual interest in Jamaican music and particle physics would take them on a journey neither of them could have ever imagined...

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

NL MVP: And the Winner Is

Player, Team        1,   2,  3,   Total
===========================
Braun, Brewers     20 12 -     388
Kemp, Dodgers    10 16  6    332
Fielder, Brewers     1 4   11   229
Upton, D-backs      1 -    8     214
Pujols, Cardinals     - -   1     166
Votto, Reds              - -   4     135
Berkman, Cardinals  - -  1     118
Tulowitzki, Rockies - - -        69
Halladay, Phillies       - - 1     52

So they got it a little more correct this time. The first glaring thing you should notice is a first place vote for Justin Upton. Are you kidding me? He was sixth according to 2011 THFL metrics. A first place vote is simply irresponsible by the writers. The debate went down to Kemp or Braun for MVP. Braun led in OPS, but Kemp had more hits, HR, and walks. I thought Kemp should have won. Braun was most likely helped by the Brewers appearance in the playoffs for the first time in a long time. Of course, playoffs are not supposed to count towards the vote. Maybe I live in too ideal of a world/mindset? Anyway, Fielder at 3 is what we said. Pujols follows and then Votto. Ok. Another funny thing is that Halladay shows up on this list before Clayton Kershaw who won the NL Cy Young! This reminds me of a funny thing from 2005 when a first baseman won both the silver slugger and gold glove awards as the best offensive and defensive first baseman in the National league, but lost the league MVP award to another first baseman. Of course, I am talking about Derek Lee who lost to Albert Pujols.

THFL: Senior Circuit participation award

Player, Team, POS                  Owner     H/AB      1B  2B  3B HR  BB  IBB  K  HBP SB CS  PTS AVG
=========================================================================
Matt Kemp, LAD OF            Corp        195/602  119  33   4   39   74   24   159   6 40 11         542.3  3.4
Ryan Braun, Mil OF              BAGO    187/563  110  38   6   33   58    2     93    5 33 6           516.7  3.4
Prince Fielder, Mil 1B           BAGO    170/569  95   36   1   38   107   32   106  10 1 1           511.6  3.2
Albert Pujols, StL 1B            CRF        173/579  107 29   0   37    61    15    58  4 9 1              448.6  3.1
Joey Votto, Cin 1B                DETH     185/599  113 40   3   29   110   15   129  4 8 6             446.1  2.8
Justin Upton, Ari OF            CRF        171/592  96   39   5    31   59     9    126  19 21 9         424.8   2.7
Troy Tulowitzki, Col SS      Corp        162/537  94   36   2    30   59    12    79   4 9 3             407.3   2.8
Lance Berkman, StL            SWAN     147/488  91   23   2    31   92    17    93   3 2 6            385.7    2.7
Jose Reyes, NYM SS          BAGO     181/537  127  31 16     7   43     9     41   0 39 7           364.3   2.9
Carlos Beltran, SF OF        SWAN     156/520   89   39   6    22  71     7      88   3 4 2             364     2.6

Again, can we get some consistent text editing here? Tabs anyone? Anyway, Matt Kemp is the guy. Followed by Braun and Fielder. I expect Braun to be chosen because Milwaukee went to the playoffs. Let's see if the writers get it wrong again.

Monday, November 21, 2011

AL MVP: The Votes In Are

Ok. Baseball seems to take a step back almost everyday now. We are going to have more interleague play soon, more wild card teams, a wild card play-in game, we have instant replay now and they want to expand it, Florida still has baseball teams, and now Jose Bautista didn't win the AL MVP award. Again, pitchers already have the Cy Young. Let the MVP go to fielders/DH/offensive players only. Anyway, here are the results.

Verlander, Tigers 13 3 3 280
Ellsbury, Red Sox 4 13 4 242
Bautista, Blue Jays 5 7 4 231
Granderson, Yankees 3 4 4 215
Cabrera, Tigers 2 - 9 193
Cano, Yankees - - 2 112
Gonzalez, Red Sox - - 1 105
Young, Rangers 1 1 1 96
Pedroia, Red Sox - - - 48
Longoria, Rays - - - 27
Kinsler, Rangers - - - 25
Avila, Tigers - - - 13
Konerko, White Sox - - - 11
Sabathia, Yankees - - - 10

How did Ellsbury make it to #2? Jose Bautista was so much higher on the list than him. How did Granderson and Ellsbury even make it ahead of Cabrera? Cano ahead of Gonzales? Can we say that the post season may have affected things somewhat even though it is not supposed to? Did Jose Bautista get shafted because he plays in small-market North Buffalo? Yes. Let me know if you think we got it wrong or if the writers did.

AL MVP: As According to the Todd

Player, Team, POS                  Owner     H/AB      1B  2B  3B HR  BB  IBB  K  HBP SB CS  PTS AVG
=========================================================================
Jose Bautista, Tor 3B, OF        LANC    155/513   86   24   2   43   132  24   111    6    9   5     542.7 3.6
Miguel Cabrera, Det 1B           LANC   197/572  119   48   0   30   108  22    89    3    2   1     525.3  3.3
Jacoby Ellsbury, Bos OF          TOM     212/660  129   46   5   32    52    1    98     9  39 15     508     3.2
Adrian Gonzalez, Bos 1B         SWAN  213/630  138   45   3   27    74  20   119    6   1   0      456.5  2.9
Curtis Granderson, NYY OF    DETH   153/583   76   26  10   41    85    0   169  12  25 10    454.7  2.9
Ian Kinsler, Tex 2B, DH           RJW     158/620    88   34   4   32    89    2    71     8  30   4     437.5  2.8
Robinson Cano, NYY 2B         BAGO  188/623  107   46   7   28    38  11    96    12  8    2     424.2  2.7
David Ortiz, Bos DH                RJW     162/525    92   40   1   29    78  12    83     1   1    1     415.5  2.8
Dustin Pedroia, Bos 2B            LANC  195/635  134   37   3   21    86   6     85     1   26   8    389.5  2.4
Paul Konerko, CWS 1B, DH    BAGO 163/543  107   25   0   31    77  17    89     8    1    1    380.7  2.6


So there you go. We make the distinction that the Cy Young is already for the best pitcher in the league and do not consider pitchers in the MVP voting. Also, MVP means to the Sawsheezle anyway as the best player in the league (hitter only). Whether the player's team went to the playoffs is irrelevant as this is an individual award. We will see later how the writers do.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Nuff Said



Ranting to come after a few more beers and after I have watched New Girl.

Tebowing


NFL Logos: Redux

Awesome ESPN article on rebranding teams' logos. Have a look. The Broncos one is perhaps my favorite.



http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7238430/page-2-rebrands-nfl-logos-better-reflect-field-performance

Thursday, November 17, 2011

NL Cy Young Votes: THFL vs. "The Writers"

NL Cy Young voting totals
Pitcher Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Points
Clayton Kershaw Dodgers 27 3 2 207
Roy Halladay Phillies 4 21 7 133
Cliff Lee Phillies 5 17 9 1 90
Ian Kennedy D-backs 1 3 6 18 3 76
Cole Hamels Phillies 2 13 17
Tim Lincecum Giants 1 5 7
Yovani Gallardo Brewers 1 3 5
Matt Cain Giants 1 1 3
John Axford Brewers 2 2
Craig Kimbrel Braves 2 2
Madison Bumgarner Giants 1 1
Ryan Vogelsong Giants 1 1

Ok Blogger formatting be damned. Again, we correctly predicted the Cy Young winner in NL as we did the AL. The writers again got it wrong though. We had Cliff Lee in 2nd and Hallady 3rd. Ian Kennedy was awesome this year, but the fact that the Diamondbacks got to the playoffs is not supposed to factor into the decision. We had him tied for 5th. Other than that, things look fairly similar between ours and "theirs". So how bad was our metric for pitchers this year? We correctly identified the top pitchers in each league. Some analysis this winter will seek to further validate/tweak the metric.

Next week will will look at the MVP!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

AL Cy Young Votes: THFL vs "The Writers"

American League Cy Young vote
Pitcher, Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Total
Verlander, Tigers 28 - - - - 196
Weaver, Angels - 17 8 2 1 97
Shields, Rays - 5 9 8 3 66
Sabathia, Yankees - 5 7 9 4 63
Valverde, Tigers - 1 3 6 3 28
Wilson, Rangers - - - 1 7 9
Haren, Angels - - 1 1 2 7
Rivera, Yankees - - - - 4 4
Beckett, Red Sox - - - - 3 3
Romero, Blue Jays - - - 1 - 2
Robertson, Yankees - - - - 1 1

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/baseball/mlb/11/15/al.cy.young.justin.verlander.ap/index.html#ixzz1doL8bCEs

Anyway, THFL using our scoring metric agrees with the Baseball Writers of America for the first three spots. They overvalue Sabbathia because of his wins (19) and put him fourth where we said Danny Haren should be (he only had 16 wins. We never considered Jose Valverde because we don't include relief pitchers in our league. Anyway, the rest of the names on the list are in line with what we predicted. Again, we didn't use wins or losses and only looked at aggregate totals of IP, K, ER, and bases given up via walks and such. We didn't look at situational stuff or the playoffs (the writers did considering CJ Wilson is 6th on their list and ahead of Danny Haren).

Monday, November 14, 2011

Toddy Hollandsworths Fantasy League: Awards Season

So they announced the rookie of the year awards today. I wasn't interested in that so I ignored the news conference. I am interested in the Cy Young and MVP awards however. Using our in-house derived scoring system we predict that the Cy Young voting should look something like this in each league. Pardon the stupid blogger formatting.


AL Cy Young
===================================================================
Name, Team                      Owner    IP         H      ER    B    HBP    K     WP    B    Points   Avg.
===================================================================
Justin Verlander, Det SP    CRF      251.0    174    67    57    3        250    7      2    601.2    17.7
Jered Weaver, LAA SP      BAGO  235.2    182    63    56    3        198    8      0    524.8    15.9
James Shields, TB SP        BAGO  249.1    195    78    65    5        225    4     0     500.7    15.2
Dan Haren, LAA SP          LANC  238.1    211    84    33    5        192    6      0     422       12.1
CC Sabathia, NYY SP      RJW      237.1    230    79    61    7        230    2     1     415.8    12.6
Doug Fister, Det SP          DETH   216.1    193    68    37    12      146    3      1    395.6    12.4
C.J. Wilson, Tex SP          RJW      223.1    191    73    74    10      206    6     0     395       11.6
Ricky Romero, Tor SP      Corp     225.0    176    73    80    14      178    9     1     389       12.2
Josh Beckett, Bos SP        DETH   193.0    146    62    52    9        175    6     0     375.1    12.5
David Price, TB SP          Corp      224.1    192    87    63    9        218    2     0     350.2    10.3



NL Cy Young
====================================================================
Name, Team                          Owner    IP          H      ER    B   HBP    K    WP    B    Points  Avg.
====================================================================
Clayton Kershaw, LAD SP    SWAN   233.1    174    59    54    3      248    5      1    572       17.3
Cliff Lee, Phi SP                    LANC   232.2    197    62    42    6      238    0      0    541.2    16.9
Roy Halladay, Phi SP            DETH    233.2    208    61    35    4      220    2      1    536.4    16.8
Cole Hamels, Phi SP             DETH    216.0    169    67    44    5      194    3      3    445.2    13.9
Tim Lincecum, SF SP           CRF       217.0    176    66    86    6      220    9      0    414.4    12.6
Ian Kennedy, Ari SP             RJW       222.0    186    71    55    9      198    11    1    414.4    12.6
Matt Cain, SF SP                  Corp       221.2    177    71    63    9      179    4      0    412.5    12.5
Madison Bumgarner, SF SP  BAGO   204.2    202    73    46    5      191    0      1    336.1    10.2
Chris Carpenter, StL SP        TOM      237.1    243    91    55    6      191    3      1    329.3      9.7
Tim Hudson, Atl SP              FA          215.0    189    77    56    15    158    10    0    327         9.9


It really shouldn't be a race in either league. This is an exciting time to how the scoring metric predicts the awards. The same will be done for the MVP awards that will be announced next week.

Smartfones

Hey, Did any of you guys hear the latest really boring technical feature of the newest release of a new web 3.3 based application phone? It really might affect my next shartfone purchase!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Let's start ranting

First of all, let's have all the retarded football announcers get off the Andrew Luck boner bandwagon because he is not Heisman worthy. He showed that tonight. Stanford was overrated and they are a running team anyway. How is the QB for team that runs the ball the odds on favorite for the #1 pick. I don't get it.

Just started watching the office epsiode. Wow. Please end this. I keep watching just to see how bad it can get. Pam sucks.

Got rejected by another female this week. Shart happens. Why don't they even give you a chance anymore? It is going to keep getting harder to meet females (Caucasians primarily)  given that I work with male Chinese mostly. Shart again. The chick and I went on a second date to a bar that featured a batting cage in the back. I thought we had a good time. We texted a lot the next day during the local college basketball game, but the next day I called her, left a message asking her out for dinner, and she never called back. Again, shart. Alphas to the front.

I haven't watched Zoey Deschanel's new New Girl epsiode yet, but I hope to soon and then send capital_prototype an email summarizing the hilarious parts whilst simultaneously discussing its connection with myself and possibly a one night stand I had recently.

Somehow I get picked on a lot out here which is weird considering I am working on deadlifting three plates (315 lbs) at the moment. There was discussion tonight that I couldn't play varisty high school football in my current shape. I disagreed. They don't realize my resolve nor my overall warrior-esque mental state of mind. They think I am some sort of weakling. Too bad for them.

Ranting continued, just saw a Jim Halpert "interview" or whatever it is they do on the show. Wow kill his character please. Again, capital_prototype had the right idea several fiscal years ago.

More to come ....

I want to admit to the blogosphere that I am very good at barking. Jew Dogs!

Wow. Community is really getting nuts. Forrealzies.

Alright, How I met Your Mother keeps messing with my mind. Let's get one more alphas to the front before nap time.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Monday, November 7, 2011

So i just bought this

Canon Pixma MG5320. Good buy? I hope so.

Kardashians: SNL vs Mad TV

Even though Mad TV is dead, it holds a special place in my heart. They were better than SNL during their prime. I think these sketches ares a nice comparison between the two. They never had a middle-eastern actress or Kristen Wiig, but they had the better package. Anyway, take a look.

SNL



Mad Tv (sorry can't embed)

http://youtu.be/-eGSH-VZeVg

Droid Razr Reviews

http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/07/8682369-motorola-droid-razr-review-the-new-android-king

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/07/motorola-droid-razr-review/

http://www.slashgear.com/motorola-razr-review-07193439/

Seems like a winner so far. You still have to deal with motoblur though.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Another IL reference

Just saw Rum Diary last night and the character Lotterman says something about "a plumber from Normal, IL." I can't remember exactly what it was in regards to. I think it was like "no one wants to be a plumber from Normal, IL."

Friday, November 4, 2011

Phones

Like, omg, who cares about smartphones already.

Aecht Schlenkerla Krausen

This deustch lager tastes like skoal dipping tobacco.

More Posts

Happy Endings from last week featured a nice Matt Besser cameo and an awesome costume. Another Illinois show.

Quotes:

"It is getting hot up in hur"

"Good schools out here"

More Illinois References

In this week's Community, there is a cross dresser character named Urbana Champaign. For realsies.

New Whitney

Watch the new Whitney episode "2 Broke-Up Guys". The show takes place in Chicago I guess. Shart. Anyway. It has some good broments.

Decent article about current MLB managerial openings

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/cliff_corcoran/11/04/cardinals.red.sox.cubs.manager/index.html?sct=mlb_t11_a1

Summary, the Cardinals job is the best in baseball.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

The (smartyphone) Plot Thickens

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/03/htc-rezound-unveiled/

HTC now has a dual, 4G, 720p phone coming to Verizon. Nov. 14th to be exact. I will have to read the reviews of this, the Droid Razr, and the Galaxy Nexus to see which one to get.