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.