Road Rage #1 - Deceleration Lane

Pictured to the left is an illustration of a typical road with a deceleration lane.

The process of decelerating off a road seems to be quite challenging for many drivers. In many situations, people use deceleration lanes in a manner that results in precarious traffic situations for the drivers around them - braking early, no turn signal, stopping on the road, etc.





How to Use the Deceleration Lane (My ABC Technique):
- please refer to the illustration below for reference points -

A - You are driving and want to exit in 100 feet. Turn on your right turn signal, but keep driving (let off gas slightly if necessary).

DO NOT HIT THE BRAKES

B - You have started exiting onto the deceleration lane. Resist the urge to hit the brakes or the accelerator. Keep the right turn signal on.

C - You are now completely in the deceleration lane. You may start hitting the brakes and decelerate down to an acceptable speed for the exit/ramp.

Note - I understand that this process is not valid for all situations, but most of the time, you should be using my simple ABC technique if you want to be a safe driver that prevents (not creates) accidents.

There are a multitude of details and scenarios that could be presented when discussing deceleration lanes, but I felt the need to keep this fairly simple by focusing on the braking and turn signal aspects. It's comical to me that posts like this are necessary, but hopefully even the good drivers out there can take note from this illustration and see where other drivers are endangering their lives by not using the deceleration lane properly.

- Obeying the rules of the road and using deceleration lanes correctly is one way to reduce accidents, but the use of defensive driving techniques by all drivers would make the roads exponentially safer for drivers and passengers alike. -

Project #1, Part B - Impact of Fielding Errors

Disclaimer: I am not a statistics professional. Statistics and such statements about those statistics that are published on this blog are not to be considered perfect. If you are looking for accurate research statistics based on absolute science, it is unlikely you will find those here. The ultimate goal of these posts is to see where a common person can use simplified data to find basic statistical trends in sports.

Every basketball and football season, sports analysts from major networks continue to preach the age old adage - "defense wins championships"- when discussing which teams can win it all, but in the baseball, the classic thought is that "pitching wins championships." It is rare to hear people discuss "defense" as a deciding factor for whether a team can win the World Series. My assumption would be that this comes from pitching being misconstrued as "defense" in the baseball world. I agree that on some level pitching is a form of defense, but lets take a closer look at fielding numbers (errors) and see if "defense wins championships", or in MLB terms, the World Series.

The Question:
Is defense (fielding errors) a better predictor of postseason success in Major League Baseball than pitching (ERA)?

New File - Errors and ERA with breakdown tab (images below)

Data Tab

Breakdown Tab

Current MLB Playoff Trends from 2005-2008

Definite Trends (occurs most of the time)

1. World Series teams tend to have an average to great defense.
2. Playoff teams tend to have an average to great ERA.
3. World Series teams tend to have an average to great ERA.
   

Common Trends (occurs over 50% of the time)

1. Playoff teams tend to have an average to great defense.
2. World Series teams tend to have a great ERA.
   

Interesting Trend

1. The best defensive teams only represent 6% of all playoff teams, but tend to have a better chance of making the World Series than teams with an average to bad defense.

My Novice Answer

Poor defensive teams have a marginal chance at making the playoffs and will rarely make the World Series. Teams with a high ERA will rarely make the playoffs, let alone the World Series. Based on the data from Part A and B, I would say that pitching (represented by ERA in this project) is a better predictor of playoff qualification and success than fielding (errors). Great defense may not win a World Series, but it is highly unlikely a team will have success in the playoffs without an average to great defense.

Coming soon: Part C - adding offensive statistics (batting average) to the equation...

Shaq and LeTravel on the same team!?!?

First Reaction: The idea of Shaq and LeTravel on the same team should bother me a lot, but I don't see them co-existing on the court very well. They already have a pretty decent post-up player with a good mid-range shot in Iqauskas (FYI - Shaq does not have a mid-range shot). I guess Shaq does provide the Cavs with better matchup against Dwight Howard. So they'll match up better with the Magic, but who else does Shaq help them beat on a nightly basis? The Cavs still lack the quality wing player and 3-point shooter that LeTravel has constantly requested over the past three years.

Second Reaction: This trade is complete garbage: Shaq for a retiring Ben Wallace, Crappy Sasha (only good year was a result of LeTravel's help), and a late first round pick in a weak draft. I understand it's a salary dump, which the Suns needed badly, but shouldn't they get some decent talent back for one of the best centers ever?

Final Reaction: Ultimately, there is nothing technically wrong with this trade from a rules standpoint. I just don't like trades where salary is the main concern and fair/equal value is thrown out the window. The Wizards should hurry and find some more front-court players before Shaq starts to abuse them. Haywood is going to be seeing a lot of Shaq again, and I don't think an extraordinary effort by Haywood (contract year) will be enough to handle Shaq come playoff time.

I had to throw this picture in here for good measure:
(all the credit goes to TruthAboutIt for this image)

LeTravel

Wizards' Move #1

I named this post "Wizards' Move #1" because there has to be another move coming before the start of the season, if not before tomorrow's draft. I see the possibility for another trade soon for another front-court player with Stevenson, DMac, or James as the main piece. There's also a chance that the much improved Vladimir Veremeenko from Europe (PF, 2006 2nd round pick) is going to be signed this year to add more front-court depth.

Current Depth Chart

Starters (loosely projected):

PG - Arenas
SG - Stevenson
SF - Butler
PF - Jamison
C - Haywood

Second Unit (too many guards):

1. Miller (SF)
2. Foye (PG/SG)
3. Young (SG)
4. Blatche (PF)
5. DMac (SG, SF, or PF)
6. McGee (C)
7. Crittenton (PG)
8. Mike James (PG)

Anybody got any other thoughts? This is a good trade in my estimation, but there is still work to be done. Lots of average players on that second unit. I'm hoping to see a tight rotation of 8 players playing 30 minutes each next year (Flip mentioned this in the past).

Simple Concept:

> 40 minutes of court time each game per player (Gil, CB3, AJ especially) = Injuries

***Acknowledging this trend will likely result in less injuries next year.

The Gripe Extract: 6-23-09

The Gripe Extract is a daily listing of high quality links that pertain to sports, stats, and randomness in the greater DC area.

-Hogs Haven- Dan Snyder is alienating die-hard Redskin fans...again

-Redskins Insider- Redskins Position Battles: RT and WR

-ComingSoon.net- 2012: same director as "The Day After Tomorrow"
- Looks to me like another expensive flop about the end of the world.

-BtB- AL East is still the best division in MLB

My Finale at Nationals Park: "Cito Sucks!!"

From Joe Guido: Blue Jays at Nationals

Cito Gaston is a horrible human being that has no respect for baseball or its fans. See 1993 All-Star Game to read the entire account of why all MLB fans, not just O's fans, should give him no respect.

Not only did he not put Mike Mussina into the 1993 All-Star game at Camden Yards, he was never even apologetic for his bonehead actions. He is a disgrace to America's pastime and should receive a lifetime ban from MLB for his unprofessional behavior.

I gave my loudest "Cito Sucks!!" when he was walking back to the dugout, but it was unfortunate that he probably didn't hear me. Somebody should have explained to him the meaning of the phrase "do onto others as you would want done onto you" before 1993 - things might have turned out differently if that had been the case.

The Gripe Extract: 6-22-09

The Gripe Extract is a daily listing of high quality links that pertain to sports, stats, and randomness in the greater DC area.

-Hogs Haven- Hilarious tracker of 400 lb Redskins player losing weight

-Bullets Forever- Rumors of Wizards/Knicks trade and why its stupid

-Hogs Haven- Redskins OL situation is not good

-Baltimore Sun- Simple Baseball Rule

-BtB- Is (base) stealing worth the risk?

A Night at Nationals Park

Laura and I were invited by our good friends Ed & Christina to attend the Blue Jays/Nationals game this past Saturday night. Ed is a huge Blue Jays fan (Christina seems to be adopting the team as well) and he does not get many opportunities to see his team in action. I felt it was my duty to go have a fun time with friends and root against one of the O's rivals (even if it meant rooting for the Nationals).

In terms of action, the game itself was lacking. I think it was 0-0 for the first five innings. A combination of 6 runs were scored by both teams in the 6th, 7th, and 8th to leave the game in a 3-3 tie. The 9th, 10th, and 11th innings went by with no score. We left at that point, considering that neither team was playing good baseball or seemed to care about winning.

Luckily for us, some uncommon things happened Saturday night in the stands...

Action in the Stands #1:

Brent Cecil's Family

The Blue Jays called up Cecil from their AAA team to pitch this game. He pitched quite well, but the Nationals hitting deficiency probably helped in this regard. Anyway, his entire, very excited family was around us plus many other Blue Jays fans (we were seated around the Blue Jays dugout). We eventually found out that Cecil is from SOMD and went to DeMatha, thus the huge fan base. This was entertaining for about 2 innings.

Action in the Stands #2:

The "Other" Umpires
I know you can't see the Umpires very well in this picture, but you can at least see that they are seated in the stands like any other fans, except that they are wearing catcher's masks! When the Blue Jays were pitching, these two guys (dressed in complete umpire's attire) would fake call all of the balls, strikes, and outs. They would even sweep the area in the front of them every time the real umpire dusted off home plate. Fanhouse has a really good picture of them. This was entertaining for most of the game - they also came out to umpire the president's race (they ejected George Washington for arguing).

Action in the Stands #3:

Free T-Shirt
During the 5th, Laura and I decided to go for looking for some frozen lemonade and ice cream. Laura expressed to me that she really wanted one of the free t-shirts that get thrown into the stands - since she never wins any contests. We had already missed out twice, but when the 7th inning stretch came up, the t-shirts started flying into the stands again. I failed on the first chance at the t-shirt. It was a long reach and I got a few fingers on the t-shirt, but it got by me, and some stupid blue Jays fan behind me got it. As I'm starting to get down on myself for missing the opportunity, another t-shirt is flying towards the right of me. I didn't miss it this time - full hand grab. So Laura got her t-shirt, but these Nationals t-shirts are weak (see above). The "Welcome Home" is the only thing on the shirt. The rest of the shirt is plain white - another epic fail by the Washington Nationals.

There was one other thing I had to accomplish before leaving the ballpark Saturday, but I'm going to save that story for later post...

All streaks must come to an end...

O's were 0-34 this year when trailing after 8 innings and went into the 9th inning trailing by one against arguably the best closer in MLB:




Not Clutch

A double, a walk, a favorable call, another walk, and a single by Huff (pictured below) add up to an incredible win by the O's.




Very Clutch

images via a.espncdn.com, a.espncdn.com

Gripes for 6-18-09 (updated):

Orioles beat the Mets, Wieters hits first HR

This is how a $2 baseball turns into a $1,000 baseball:
Unnecessary controversy over Wieters' first HR ball

Wizards - 7 days until the future begins...

Project #1, Part A - Impact of Fielding Errors

One of the things about baseball that does not make any sense to me is runs not being counted as part of a pitcher's Earned Run Average (ERA) that were a result of that pitcher's fielding error. The run is considered unearned even though the pitcher made the error. I wanted to provide some basic statistics that would show the impact that these errors would have on a pitcher's ERA, but unfortunately, I cannot find this data on the web.

As a result of this dead end, I realized that there could possibly be a link between team fielding errors and team ERA. My initial thought was that errors are typically higher on teams where the ERA is high. Or on the other hand, ERA could be higher when fielding errors are a common problem - indirectly through pitcher fatigue by throwing more pitchers and seeing extra batters.

Listed below is the data I have found thus far on the topic (data file). It's hard to say at this point whether errors are the cause or the effect. I see some trends appearing in this data, but I do not see a conclusion or any significant findings yet.

Possible Trends

1. Teams with a high number of errors tend to have a higher ERA.
   
2. Teams with lower ERA's rarely have high number of errors.
3. One team per year tends to defy the odds and have a very low ERA and a high number of errors.

From Guido's Gripes - Research

(click on image to see full size)

Introduction

I've created this blog out of boredom and some jealousy for my lovely wife Laura's very cool looking blog. It is currently looking a lot better than mine. The level of posting will probably be heavily dependent upon the amount of boredom at work.

Less Work = High Boredom = More Posts

I don't really have a set plan for these blog posts, but I would imagine my life, sports, and randomness to be a good part of them. I would expect there to be some griping as well, hence the title produced by Laura.

Now I have to come up with something significant to write about on my first real post...