Hey there Sports fans! To celebrate the launch of Moneyball, aka the 1st movie about Brad Pitt and Statistics, we decided it might be swell to grab some hunks of data on whether this whole money isn’t speech wins thing holds true since everybody who can stomach sports writing now knows the secrets of Beane and Jonah Hill’s mad science. Unfortunately, the Oakland A’s have not been able to succeed in games or with their Klout Score this season, despite being just 22 minutes from the epicenter of influence: Klout HQ. However, there is only one other team with more wins that spends less money on salary and those guys are from Canada – land of Polar Bears and free healthcare – so it’s not really a fair comparison. - http://corp.klout.com/blog/2011/09/moneyball-klout-cash-and-baseball
Barring some late inning heroics, Manchester Community College will not field a baseball team this season. The Cougars, four-time defending Region 21 champions who finished third at the NJCAA Division III World Series last May, are one of the many victims of a cut of about $1 million in state aid the community college received earlier this year. President Gena Glickman announced the elimination of the school’s baseball program in an email to faculty and staff over the summer; Manchester Community College was the only community college in the state that still offered the sport. - http://ellington-somers.patch.com/articles/mcc-baseball-team-a-victim-of-its-own-success-d4708c6c
Signs of hope: The Giants once again featured championship-caliber pitching, as the staff’s 3.89 Fair Run Average trailed only the Phillies’ 3.74. Their fielders finished with a .717 Defensive Efficiency, the fourth-best figure in the big leagues, though they may have enjoyed easier opportunities than most thanks to the hurlers’ knack for inducing weak contact—Matt Cain, for one, has recorded a .265 BABIP this season and boasts a .269 lifetime mark in over 1300 innings. Cain and Tim Lincecum’s predictably superlative run prevention has been reinforced by unlikely reclamation project Ryan Vogelsong, who has amassed nearly three wins despite having given all appearances of bidding the big leagues adieu after 2006, Madison Bumgarner, the 21-year-old lefty who has not only avoided a sophomore slump but has come within a fraction of a win of being the Giants’ best pitcher according to WARP (4.7), and a strong bullpen highlighted by setup men Sergio Romo (who has struck out 58 of the 119 righties he’s faced, against only four walks) and Santiago Casilla. Pablo Sandoval recovered from a down year to outdo his 2009 season on a rate basis, though he missed a month and a half at midseason with right wrist surgery and gained back much of the weight he’d shed over the offseason as the campaign wore on. - http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15177
But last night we saw the best of baseball. Collapses took place that will be talked about for a long time, three decisive games were lost in either the ninth or extra innings, and two teams that were so far on the fringe that yours truly was hard pressed a month ago to continue including them in my columns as contenders are improbable postseason contestants. A word about spoilers. For anyone among you who might be a casual fan, and who thinks that only teams in the playoffs can get excited at the end of a season, take a look at the Orioles' reaction last night when they put the final nail in the Red Sox' coffin, which was then pounded into place later by the Rays. Last night showed baseball at its best. Fans in Atlanta and Boston won't want to hear that, and may not want to watch another game until spring training or until next April. But when everything clicks into place on the final day and playoff possibilities and matchups change multiple times in one night -- there is just nothing better. - http://cleveland.sbnation.com/cleveland-indians/2011/9/29/2457523/baseball-at-its-best
The truth is that Cumberland, the 46th overall Draft pick in 2007, a player who only five months ago figured prominently in the Padres' plans, should be playing baseball, tackling the game the only way he ever has. "With his hair on fire," said Randy Smith, San Diego's director of player development. Instead, Cumberland's playing career, barring an unforeseen medical miracle, is over, as he has been diagnosed with a rare neurological condition called bilateral vestibulopathy, in which the portions of both inner ears that control balance are damaged. The condition, coupled with a history of concussions as an amateur then as a professional, have led to debilitating migraine headaches as well as vision and balance problems his entire life. - http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110817&content_id=23335214&vkey=news_sd&c_id=sd
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