Moneyball Report

Team Leaders in OBP: Yankees (.357), Angels (.354), Dodgers (.351), Rays/Red Sox(.348)

Bottom Feeders in OBP: Giants (.308), Reds (.310), Royals (.311), Mariners (.317), Padres (.319) ...just for show the A's have the 8th worst at (.323)

The recent Yankees always had great OBP and mashed during the regular season only to lose to the scrappy Angels. Now the Angels mash and have a great team OBP. I call this the curse of the Bobby Abreu. He'll make the lineup better but the team won't accomplish anything. Or at least that's what I hope happens in the playoffs this year. On the other side of OBP, the Reds offense has really fallen. They used to rip it with Dunn and that ball park, now they are one of the worst offenses in the league. They have more pitching talent than ever butDusty Baker has already ruined Edinson Volquez and probably Aaron Harang, and Cueto is a ruined arm in waiting. When Baker is fired next year I'm not sure if he'll ever be a head coach again and that's a good thing.

Team Leaders in UZR: Giants (53.2), Mariners (52.1), Rays (50.6), Pirates (32.8), Tigers (32.6) ...just for show A's are 11th (11.0)

Bottom Feeders in UZR: Royals (-40.5) Mets (-36.4), Twins (-28.6), Orioles (-26.5), Indians (-23.0)

The Royals are a horrible team. They have bad pitching, hitting, and fielding. They've always had bad fielding, but it's gotten a lot worse since two weeks ago. I wonder why? Oh maybe it's because of their new SS Yuniesky Betancourt and his -29.1 UZR/150. What a horrible move.

Team FIP Leaders: Braves (3.69), Giants (3.74), Dodgers (3.88), Rockies (3.94) Cardinals (3.95),

Bottom FIPers: Brewers (4.94), Orioles (4.86), Nationals (4.80) Reds (4.76), Indians (4.69)

The Giants get all the press for their pitching when the Braves is at least as good. The Braves don't have a Tim Lincecum but Vazquez, Jurrjens, Lowe, and Hanson are all very good. The Red Sox have fallen recently and that could be explained by their pitching. Two weeks ago their team FIP was 3.79 and this week it's almost 4. Their heralded pitching depth has almost turned into a weakness recently. Buchholz has been unimpressive, Penny

The Orioles may seem like a typical all hit no pitching team, but just have some patience they will field a great rotation maybe as soon as next year. Brad Bergesen is an above average starter, top prospect pitchers Brian Matusz and Chris Tillman have dominated the minors this year and are showing some success in the majors so far, and Jake Arrieta is coming soon as well. Jeremy Guthrie is also still there for a cheap solid back end guy and Koji Uehara has showed some nice promise when he's been healthy. The upside is having 6 above average starters with two of them being of the ace variety.

People thought that the Rays would be good if they finally got pitching and last year they finally did on their way to the World Series. The Orioles won't go to the World Series or even win half of their games next year, but pitching is on the way and it won't be long until the AL East has 4 teams chasing the penant.

Team Leaders in ExpWin%: Dodgers (.606), Yankees (.592) Red Sox (.573), Rockies (.572) Phillies (.569).

I've been completely wrong on this. The Yankees were playing above their expected record causing me to say they may slip and all they've done is get better. I also kept saying the Rays would make a run and all they've done is slip more. I also thought the division race would be exciting and the Yankees have a chance to essentially lock it up next week. I will make one prediction that I think will be correct using the ExpWin% though. It's not a big one at all but I say the Rockies win the wild card. They "should" have 66 wins and have 64 while the Giants "should" have 62 wins and have 63. Although that still makes the race close, it shouldn't be as close as it is, the Rockies are a better team.

Moneyball Moves: Nothing really exciting recently with trades. Transaction wise the only big thing right now are the Stephen Strasburg negotiations. They have until 12:00 Tuesday (tomorrow) to iron this out. Boras and Strasburg hold all the cards, if they fail to reach an agreement Strasburg can re-enter the draft next year and likely get a similar record breaking amount, not really a horrible thing. If the Nationals fail to sign Strasburg that would make it two yeras in a row where they couldn't sign their top draft pick. That's just pathetic for everyone involved and shows why the Nats are the worst team in the league with no real promise in sight.