I don't have this damn channel, but I also cater to the hoi when I can.  So here you go.  While I'm here,  I don't suppose any of you can have Brent Musberger permanently silenced can you?  No?  Damnit.

AL Central Teams

AL East Teams

AL West Teams

The divisions are ordered by completeness.  All have at least a starting 9, but some have bench and pitchers filled in too.  They should all be the CHONE numbers.  I propose that BTB head folks c/p and get volunteers to fill in the rest and then get a link in the sidebar to the google docs for reference.

Also, the CHONE pitcher projections supposedly account for team defense (see the Tango thread about the CHONE projections being available), so I believe I'm actually double counting atm.  That's no good, obviously, so that should be changed.  I'd also like to figure out the best way to do the bullpen.  I think a good start would be looking at both total opportunities and per pitcher leverage stats, not to mention a team quality proxy.  Bullpen replacement level is a lot lower for the worst teams.  That is, if you expect a lot of low-leverage situations, the quality of the pitcher matters less.  If you're already losing by a lot in the 6th, you don't sacrifice much tossing out some RHP with an 85 mph fastball.

According to my infallible instincts, it's time for another edition of the WMT.  In this week's installment, I promise to try not to crap all over this thread.  In any case, questions regarding both the best of 2008 and the best we were introduced to in 2008 have been addressed, so we might as well wrap up and move on to 2009.  Are there any releases you're looking forward to this year?  Heard any good leaks yet?  Any directions you been thinkin bout explorin? 

The three that come to mind to me are AC Newman, Andrew Bird and Neko Case, all of which are supposed to come out in the first quarter of 2009.  Neko's is the only of the trio who's album I've yet to come across a leak of.  Get Guilty, the new ACN, isn't the departure that The Slow Wonder was, especially squished between Electric Version and Twin Cinema.  It sounds to me like Carl is still exploring the structures and sounds from Challengers, but I pretty much love everything he does no matter what and this is no exception.   As for the Bird album, I find myself thinking he peaked on Mysterious Production.  Or at least I wish he had pushed that direction to the one he picked for Armchair and is following on Noble Beast.  Still, I haven't given this one enough time yet.

I do also want to make one more plug for albums of the year in 2008.  Paul Westerberg released an album (download only afaik) called 49:00 that just comes in one giant file with no means to skip tracks.  It's a little frustrating because it means you have to really commit to listening to the album and it's the bigggest reason why I haven't given it as much time as it deserves.  But I love the Replacements and Westerberg is just so damn good at his rock/punk/pop fusion that I can't help but be drawn in.  Especially when he makes the first fifteen minutes so catchy.

Behold!

On first glance: Carlos is being viewed skeptically, which makes sense.  If he does it again, there's no worries.  And hes Q! so are there worries to begin with?  No.  No there are not.  I haven't digested much else.  They look somewhat pessimistic, I guess?

Also, I don't know if they have been park-adjusted or not.  Per Tango it's still in beta and not everything's rolled out yet, for example, Sox pitchers aren't up.  Chone's reputation is as good as PECOTA's and Nate Silver in this arena, so the massive grain of salt necessary for James and Marcel need not apply, but I'm not sure what league average is yet and other such pertinent details.

Excuse for shiny new front page post.  Will add more as more are found.  Also, I always say I'll put links dumped in the comments on the front page post, but I often neglect to do so.  So there's that.

• BBWAA finds out internet exists! - They finally added some writers that use the interwebs as an outlet.  They are Will Carroll, Christina Kahrl, Rob Neyer and Keith Law.  After ten (?) years of doing this, BP has finally acquired enough cred to get into the club.  So I guess Cheat can expect his invite in 2015. 
  
• Tango takes on all comers - Fangraphs has gone plaid since the end of the season and is by far the best aggregation of the best baseball stats anywhere publicly available.  But that also means explaining some of this stuff to the unwashed masses.  Tango obliges in a Q/A post and he's encouraging commenters to come to him with their questions.  If there's any guy out there doing better non-proprietory work out there, I'm not aware of it.  Plus he's usually very good at clarifying his numerical gymnastics.  Go forth and acquire knowledge.
• Tango on Positional Adjustments - This is actually also in the fangraphs comments, but the position adjustment is pretty new and I do a bad job of explaining their necessity.
• Fangraphs on Kerry Wood - Mostly reiterates the quick and dirty comments I made yesterday.  His conclusion is probably overblown, but the general idea that closers aren't the best way to spend money seems spot on to me.  Though they aren't as bad as JC Bradbury would make it seem.  He neglects the role of leverage in amplifying a top reliever's win contributions, which is a pretty critical gaffe.  K-Rod isn't responsible for the Mets failing to maximize his utility.
• Yaz vs. Manny (Offense) - John Walsh starts off on a two part mission of discovery.  The end game: who was the 2nd best Red Sox left fielder of all time. (h/t: wiz)
  

I also made this table on Excel.  Basically, if you use the positional adjustments and hold constant everything else, you can figure out what a league average defender needs to hit (in wOBA over 600 PA) at a position to be league average overall.  And once that's done, you can add defense back in and make this chart.  As is evident, 10 points of wOBA over 600 PA is worth half a win.  I think it's pretty cool, anyway.

• Arb News from MLB trade rumors - Nothing really big, but a good recap of what's goin' on.
• Gil gets his wins accounted - Nice to see this, since I can use it for...
• This! which I've already linked to, but hey that's cool right?  It's my win accounting google doc, plus a bunch of other stuff, most of which is worth checking in on if you haven't in a while.
• John Walsh looks at the extent to which pitchers actually have pinpoint control.  It's a pretty interesting idea and application of pitch f/x stuff.  I would also bet that the metric he uses there would line up pretty well with my balls called/strikes called command metric. 
  
• Cripple Fight! - Just wanted you guys to know that 2008 Michigan probably wasn't as bad as 2007 Notre Dame.  Charlie sets the bar, and we clear it baby.  
• Rob Neyer also links  to Seidman's win accounting and provides a little context. 
  

WMT's curators prefer not to apply strict scrutiny to the traditional definition of "a week".  As such, the third round of these is going up now.  This week, it can be iTunes Most Played Lists?  The previous computer contained a slightly embarrassing mix of Neutral Milk Hotel, American Football, Death Cab For Cutie and The Shins, a total significantly run up during an obviously lonely freshman year.  C'est la vie.  The new one, however, looks thus:

1)Animal Collective - Fireworks (18 plays)

2)Bon Iver - Skinny Love (15 plays)

3)Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey (11 plays)

4)Mazzy Star - Fade Into You (11 plays)

5)The Shins - The Past and Pending (11 plays)

6)Chris Knox - Not Given Lightly (9 plays)

7)The Kinks - Picture Book (9 plays)

8)Everybody's Down - No Age (9 plays)

9)Of Monteal - Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse (9 plays)

10)Of Montreal - Gronlandic Edit (9 plays)

11)Slowdive - Alison (9 plays)

12)Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone (8 plays)

13)Galaxie 500 - Blue Thunder (8 plays)

14)Magnetic Fields - Sweet Lovin' Man (8 plays)

15)Of Montreal - Cato As A Pun (8 plays)

16)Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (8 plays)

17)Black Rebel Motorcycle Gang - Fault Line (7 plays)

18)The Kinks - Do You Remember Walter (7 plays)

19)m83 - Kim and Jessie (7 plays)

20)Magnetic Fields - Nothing Matters When We're Dancing (7 plays)

21)Michael Jackson - Thriller (7 plays)

22)Michael Jackson - Beat It (7 plays)

23)Of Montreal - Suffer For Fashion (7 plays)

24)T. Rex - Jeepster (7 plays)

25)Yo La Tengo - Little Eyes (7 plays)

I'm not sure what this says about me, other than I'm in college and white.  I already knew that, I think...Anyone else care to offer themselves up for slaughter?  And of course, feel free to throw out stuff in general that's caught your ears lately, either in list form or even some files/links. And I know it's mostly an exercise in futility, but links to good music writing is always welcome.  Obviously, the usual bitching, moaning, of Kevin Barnes fun making and assorted assholery is encouraged.  Also: it turns out that Chris Getz doesn't really give that much thought to his entrance music.  I told him it was up to him to raise the standard, though.  So here's hoping.

WU demands content, but I really don't know what to tell you guys that won't be in the transcript.  It wasn't really a Q&A.  More like a conversation than anything.  Went for about an hour and I thought it went pretty well, but I've never done this before so who knows.  But unless I missed something, Chris wasn't at all guarded, so I really didn't have to work to find stuff out. He was really cool and down to earth, both thoughtful and respectful.  The transcript has yet to begin and I'm not sure what it's worth talking about here, but I really do think the old man is going to freak out if this isn't up when he sits down to his corn flakes and prune juice.