Chase-ing a Respectable Season

I'm going to make this one short (I promise), because I really don't have that much to say, or a lot of free time. That's the thing about trying to get going on this blog...I say all the right things, I might put one or two posts up and trick everyone into thinking that I'm really serious about it this time - and then life intervenes in the form of endless homework and marching band commitments. Oy vey. But anyways, on to business.

I wanted to just quickly weigh in on the QB situation brewing up here on the Heights. With Shinskie definitively out as the starter, multiple sources are saying that Chase Rettig, a true freshman, will get the nod against Notre Dame in primetime this weekend. The team, however, has neither issued a definitive statement on the situation nor a depth chart for Saturday's game - leaving the door open for speculation.

We Don't Need No Salary Cap

I've argued to friends before that, unlike other sports, I don't think baseball needs a salary cap. Unfortunately, I've never had much to go on other than my personal beliefs and the recent success of the Rays. But today, I made this nifty discovery. That's right, a chart that plots win-loss record against payroll. And oh, would you look at that - as of this morning's standings, the 8 projected playoff teams (Yankees/Rays/Twins/Phils/Padres/Braves/Reds/Rangers, along with the Giants, which had an identical record to the Rangers) have an average payroll of $108.2 million - or about $3 million higher than that of the White Sox. And I don't hear anybody railing against the White Sox for having a ridiculously high payroll (despite them, admittedly, having the 7th-highest in the MLB). Take out the Yankees, who have a payroll a ridiculous 27% higher than the second-deepest-pocketed team (the Red Sox), and the average drops to $94.2 million, or a payroll $700,000 more than the Cardinals, who have the 9th-highest. But again, I don't hear anybody whining about the Cardinals throwing money around. Additionally, according to this chart, 14 teams are getting more or the same number of wins relative to the rest of the league than their payroll would seemingly indicate - most notably, every single one of the eight current playoff teams. Even then, only the Yankees and Phils are getting the same relative number of wins.

You Thought I Had Forgotten, Didn't You?

So, Band Camp once again forced me to take a hiatus from the blog...but never fear, I'm back now*, and have plenty of ideas for stuff to write about. *"Back" being a relative term, since school's now started* These include:

1) BC football
2) The Cy Young races, and the mistake of relying too much on wins
3) Who the heck is Carlos Gonzalez, why has no one bothered to talk about him until now, and how in the world is he THIS CLOSE to winning the Triple Crown (along with going 30-30)?

So buckle up, because it's going to be good. The other in-depth stuff, we'll just have to see. The fantasy baseball investigation may have to be shelved permanently, but I'll let you in on my hypothesis. In my mind, teams that have smaller standard deviations from their average weekly production - in other words, those that perform more consistently from week to week - will be the ones which are generally most successful. Similarly, players that perform most consistently on a weekly basis and aren't streaky are more valuable. Boom, done.

Brett Favre is Dumb, but Josh Hamilton is Incredible

You know that memo to Brett Favre that I wrote 2 years ago, and wanted him to read? I don't think he did. My God, I am completely and utterly tired of the endless "drama" every summer since he left Green Bay. It's pretty obvious at this point, contrary to what this *at the time* awesome ad was referring to - Favre's indecisiveness is nothing more than a contrived scheme to keep him out of training camp. So what if he's 40? If the man wants to play in the NFL, he ought to go through training camp like everyone else. And if - as he claimed this year - medical issues prevent him from doing so, he ought to be way more upfront about his intentions. The guy is a gloryhound who enjoys playing the media like a violin, and media outlets like ESPN (witness their breathless coverage of his reported retirement by text a few weeks ago) are all too happy to oblige.

Just because he's Brett Favre, iron man, doesn't entitle him to skip training camp. Just because he's Brett Favre, NFL legend and holder of several records, doesn't mean he gets special treatment. But the Vikings, lacking the guts to play hardball, are all too willing to go along with Favre's games. It must really suck to be Tarvaris Jackson right now.

New Layout

Yep, I decided it was time for a re-design. I thought the name was misleading, the picture was too big, the color was too blah - basically, if I wanted to make this a serious endeavor, then some changes had to be made. So, summary of the changes -

1) The name: Now "Stretch's Take" instead of "The Weather Up Here." While the original certainly was clever, it made the blog sound too weather-oriented. Since I don't want to go into meteorology, I thought something a little more salient was needed. While the new one is *possibly* a work in progress, it's an upgrade. Stretch, by the way, is my sometimes-nickname.

2) The picture: The original is a great picture, but became outdated once the original title was swapped out. Now, being a picture of baseball stuff, it's more representative of what I hope to write about - as opposed to describing my favorite sunsets over lakes, which may have been implied by the previous picture.

3) The background: It's a little more pro-looking...I guess. More of just a change for change's sake. Great Tupac song, while I'm on the subject.

Deconstructing Head-to-Head Part 1

So of course, for the first post after my pledge to restart the blog, I'm going to do something that wasn't mentioned as one of the ideas bouncing around in my head. Go figure.

Nope, I've decided to go with something that I've pondered about for a long time, but never really figured out how to quantify. As you might have figured from my very long posts 2 years ago examining my fantasy baseball draft halfway through the season, fantasy baseball is kind of a passion of mine. I'm no fantasy nerd, I don't obsess over every fantasy sport I play. Outside of baseball, it's merely just a casual thing with friends for bragging rights (except come March Madness time, when it's sometimes for money). But with baseball, it's kind of a point of pride. Yeah yeah, I know, that sounds awfully pathetic - that I invest a lot of time and even pride in my fantasy baseball teams. See, I view baseball as MY sport, and if I don't absolutely dominate in the fantasy version, then my being the resident baseball expert is in doubt. Yes, I also recognize that that's more of a self-imposed thing than anything else, but still. The fact remains that baseball is my favorite sport, and therefore I "care" more about fantasy baseball.

Back At The Keyboard

For about what seems to be the 20th time, but is really only about the 4th - I've decided to try to restart this after a horrifically long break. Sometimes it's hard to remember about this, sometimes I'm too busy, sometimes I just plain don't have any deserving ideas.

But that's beside the point. The point is that I'm going to try my best to restart this thing, and keep it going moreover. Some different things may be tried, the design may change - who knows. We'll just have to see what happens. In the meantime, here are a couple ideas bouncing around in my head for later posts (in no particular order):

1) An investigation into what songs radio stations (most likely the Top 40 station around Boston) play, and if that has any connection into the owning corporation

2) A look at the 2nd halves of hitters who participated in the HR Derby to see if there's any credence to the popular theory that it screws up your swing and subsequently decreases production

Those are the big two for now, but more time-sensitive topics will come to me, I'm sure. So get ready, because The Weather Up Here is back in business.