Stats Week 1

ARE YOU READY TO

After our sponsor's add below (please read), its strictly a geek zone.   All the stats that you'll never admit to your friends that you read, but you'll think about when you're playing right field with 2 out and 2 runners on and Mark Doyle at the plate.

Week 1 of the stats BLOG is brought to you by Waking Life Studios.  If you have interest in a local professional recording studio, DJ services or recording equipment; please contact Dayne Polny through their website at http://www.wakinglifestudios.com

Well, there wasn't a lot to week one, was there?  One completed game, one false start, no diamond two at Coventry, no lights at Geoff Keogh Park 15 emails to the town, countless phone calls and 10 postponements.

But I've still decided to do a stats BLOG edition. There's two reasons for this.  The first is to give the rookies, who are already proving to be loyal followers, a glimpse of what to expect and the second is give our vets some target practice on what to shoot for.

I've added into all the individual stats the leaders of the categories for each of the last two years. There's some staggering numbers!

Oh, there is another reason for doing this.  When is someone going to move Doug (the good) DeLand up to a #1????  He's the league leader in damned near everything!

Postponements

Just a word on postponements, and as I've promised to never swear in this BLOG I can't use the word I want!  I know everyone is frustrated.  We've lost early season games to cold and rain before and we all kind of expect that.  Losing games this way is tougher it seems.  The diamonds weren't released to us for use by the town until Wednesday and then we scrambled to get games in only to find that the lights at Keogh Park were disconnected.  Not turned off....disconnected.

Your elected executive has been working diligently and steadily to get this rectified.  We have put a contingency plan in place for the coming week that will see a number of games moved.  You will hear from your captain in the next day or two with your changes and they will be on the league website in the schedule section sometime over the weekend.  And while we're on the topic, hats off to the captains who have been wonderfully supportive of changes and offering alternatives.  

A number of people have offered suggestions to get over the hump of the backlog of games.  Using C1 at 7pm, using C3 or Keogh on other nights than our traditional nights and playing games on a Saturday to catch up.  Ideas are always welcomed.  

Hopefully, this isn't a drawn out issue and we're back on schedule in short order. 

LEAGUE TID-BITS

Usually this is where I give a run down of any huge nights people had in the week.  This week, the only perfect nights belonged to Art-Lord Stafford, Dennis Pendlebury and (of course) Doug DeLand who were all 3 for 3 in the opener.

So instead, Roman Dasek, our illustrious Umpire In Chief, was kind enough to give me a little tutorial on the strike zone & home plate after the season opener so I could share it with everyone.

The first thing that you'll notice different from previous years is that the mat now covers home plate.  And while I don't have the exact dimensions of the mat available, I can tell you that while it is slightly narrower and slightly longer, it is the same overall coverage as previous years.

• The Batters box length is from the front of the mat to the bottom of the mat and extends approximately three feed from sides of the mat.  
• The batter must keep one foot in the batters box.  So, you could be well in front of the mat with your back foot in the box or well behind the mat with your front foot in the box (for a right handed hitter). 
• If you make contact with the ball with a foot touching the mat (regardless of whether your other foot is in the box or not) you will be called out.  Also, the ball being fair or foul has no relevance, you'll be out either way.    
• If you make contact with the ball and it hits the mat and rolls off it is a LIVE BALL until it is touched by a fielder making it either fair or foul.  (run until someone says "foul ball")
• If you make contact with the ball and it comes to rest on the mat it is a fair ball.  This has nothing to do with lining up with fair / foul lines.  The mat is in play.  (run)
• As a base runner, you must never touch the mat.  You must run behind the mat when scoring a run.  There is no need to be even close to it, so give a wide berth or risk an out.  
• As a fielder, on a play at home, you must have one foot anywhere on the mat while in possession of the ball to record the out. 

 Thanks for the clarification Roman!

TEAM STATS

Its one stop shopping here on the BLOG.  The first thing you'll see are the league standings that we keep on the League's website (www.tottenhamoldtimers.ca).  You'll see from this that the Blues Brothers are off to a blistering start.  It's not going to be easy to catch them.  

Next I provide a look at standings the way they are traditionally done in baseball with Games Behind Leader (GBL).  As teams play a varied number of games week to week, you'll see differences in the two standings.

This is one of my favorite stats, the power rankings.  Not at all scientific, but shockingly accurate.  In the last three years our league playoff champ has been either 1 (Draft Kings) or 2 (Beer Bros. & Grisslies) in this stat.  The Beer Bros., finished 5th in the standings in their championship year, which is of course good, but this showed they were much better than simple games won.  This ranks your team against other teams in four team categories, Points, Runs Scored, Runs Allowed and +/- and then sorts those totals.  While not scientific I think this has merit.  We're an offense oriented league, but the best defense consistently seems to win and this accounts for defense.  

This is somewhat interesting to me.  Its meant to show how explosive each teams offense is.  Its simple math, your hits divided by your runs scored.  Last year the now defunct Dislocated Joints were the best quick strike offense needing only 1.66 hits to score a run over the course of the year.  The 2013 edition of the Grisslies need 3.07 hits to get a single run.  The league average was 2.22 hits per run.  Who cares?  Probably just me.

 INDIVIDUAL

Keep in mind that when the season gets rolling, these will be top 10 or as close as I can to a top 10 depending on the number of people tied in each of these categories. The League website has everyone's average and a top 25 list.  Therefore I only show the top 10.  I've never been on either. Looks like Dennis Pendlebury, Doug DeLand, and super rookie Art Lord-Stafford (quality nickname pending) have their sights set on chasing down 3 time batting champ Scott Barton!

Then we go to Averages in the 1st quarter (Q1) of the season.  Of course, this and the one above are pretty much the same except where at bats come into question.  The league's stats say you need 2 at bats per game to quality.  I say you need 3.  There's some variance, but its small.  22 for 22 Scott?  Good luck beating that start fellas.

Q2 captures your average between your team's 7th and 12th games only, Q3 are the 13th - 18th games and Q4 are games 19 through to 24.  This is kind of the "do over" to a bad start so you see yourself getting on a nice run.  You won't see these again until we hit these quarters.  (way to be leader Al!) 

Now some more fun stuff!  Next is our rookie tracker.  It just occurred to me that I might call Art Lord-Stafford Lou Gehrig. That might be a little offside, let me think about it. Anyway, he's trying to run down some great rookie seasons by the Squirrel and Slipitz.  But we run all the rookie numbers and see who's hot. 

And last years rookies who thought they were out of the firing line.  You're not. We're now watching you as Sophomores. 

The Beechey and The Squirrel have a wager. Good luck.  (I might take Brad or Emeil)

Ohhhhh, this is good!  Hi Doug DeLand!  Kicking ass and taking names already!  And I know Marion is reading this to you while your cooking Saturday scrambled eggs. Easy on the salt.  Lou has the record (limited as they are) in largest year over year improvement with .220 bump in average, DeLand is already at .479!!!  He can take a night off and still be in first. 

The hits leaders do have some people who are also in top in average, but not nearly as many as you'd think and it gets more different (or differenter for Carol-Ann) as the season progresses.  While there are guys like Doucet and Peters who find themselves in both lists, there are also guys who play a lot more than others in the average list and wind up with more hits. 

And the same is true for at bats. Its kind of the time and attendance award and is typically the only list that I can get a sniff of and I'll honest, that's the only reason I track it.  Oh, and because I want my attendance pin.

Tracking runs scored has only gone on in our league for the past 2 years and its been pretty successful.  I see I need to fix 2012 leader part.  Anyway, when Mason, Fry and Gaudet scored 47 I thought that would stand for a while.  One run shy of 2 runs a game over the course of a season is incredible!  Then Doucet gets 61???  Good luck running that one down.  #RogerMaris 

And then we look at runs by Quarter over the year.  Incidentally, you won't see the Q2, Q3 and Q4 stuff until we are actually in those quarters.  Its just here to show you who had awesome quarters in the past. Namely, Fry, Young, McCarron, Lahey, Gaudet, Peters, Gayle, Mason and Doucet.  Poor Scott had the record for runs in a quarter for exactly 1 quarter....then Doucet went nuts. 

And there you have it!

There are others that get thrown in from time to time and a bunch of other stuff come playoffs.  But that's it for now, First Grisslie BLOG Monday!  Finally!!!!