Betting Tips for MLB

Please enjoy the following guest post...

With the new MLB season underway, albeit still in its infancy, it is interesting to look at how the pre-season favorites with the bookies are faring now that the action has started. Certainly there is little question that the New York Yankees were considered one of the hot favorites on paper – for both the American League pennant and World Series – before the season started, but they have undoubtedly slipped down the odds rankings since then. They are now rated 7/1 for the American League and 14/1 for the World Series on many sites.

Clearly this hardly makes them a rank outsider bet for either title, but it does show how things can change once the play actually starts, and why futures’ betting is a risky game. The side now at the top of the bookies odds for the World Series are the Detroit Tigers, at 8/1, and given their AL pennant win last season and strong start to the new campaign, they are likely to be a popular bet for any punter who wants to play it reasonably safe. The problem is that betting futures at such an early stage of the season is always very risky, and there is potentially a lot to gain and little to lose from holding fire to see how things progress; especially when there are alternatives like baseball themed slot machines at online casino sites to play while you do.

Probably the best of these baseball slots games is Hot Shot, which offers a lot of the features that have contributed to the popularity of slots, e.g. cheap and easy game play, and a very good chance of securing a payout with an impressive baseball theme at all levels. The backdrop for Hot Shot is a baseball field, while the reel icons are of typical sights like pitchers, hitters, catchers’ gloves and baseball hats. Furthermore when you score a winning reel, this will be accompanied by the sound of a bat hitting a baseball, while reels containing the scatter symbol (the trophy) are sound tracked by roars of approval from the crowd. All in all, Hot Shot is an exciting and atmospheric game, and an ideal way to mix betting and baseball while you wait to place your World Series bets.

2013 World Series Odds

We're right in the middle of the 2012 Hot Stove season, and today, we're going to take a look at a how the World Series odds shake out as of right now.

The sportsbooks have set the co-favorites at +800 are the Los Angeles Angels, Washington Nationals, and Detroit Tigers. That's a hefty price for a World Series favorite at this point, but the truth of the matter is that it is warranted due to the fact that the normally big name clubs, the Boston Red Sox (+4000) and New York Yankees (+1000) have some major issues to tend to in the offseason. Washington made its case even stronger this week by signing Dan Haren to help solidify an already bolstered pitching staff, but the Tigers and Halos still have two of the best teams in the game for sure.

The defending World Series champs, the San Francisco Giants are +1500. Buster Posey, the league's MVP is back once again, and so will the mass majority of the team be returning. Of course, the team hopes for better out of Tim Lincecum this year, who wasn't even in the rotation for most of the MLB playoffs.

Baseball Madness: From the Depths of the Cactus League

Kevin Rehberg is the Owner/Managing Editor of WestSide Culture, a site dedicated to life, beer, business and sports on the West Coast. Check it out at http://westsideculture.com. Or don't. Either way.

Ahh multitasking. Streaming March Madness on my iPhone, watching the D'backs rout the Cubs and sipping a Sierra Nevada. Tough day at the office. In fact let's get another beer and take this efficiency to another level.

Speaking of sweet gigs, how does one go about getting a job like Manny Ramirez? $500k this season to babysit Yoenis Cespedes, and not even for a full season? Just 2/3 of the year and some Spring Ball. Manny's kickin' back, keeping tabs on the little guy (Cespedes at 210 lbs is not little) and downing some women's estrogen pills. Hey, it's good being an Oakland A. Well, except for that whole paying for soda in the clubhouse thing.

If the regular season is anything like the craziness of this Spring, we are in for a special treat. The Oakland A's at 10-3 have the Cactus League's best record (who would've thunk it?). We already knew the Giants could pitch, but now they can hit. (Royals kicking themselves over that Melky Cabrera trade). Troy Tulowitzki is suddenly an actor. (Probably for the better since the Rockies are terrible). C.J. Wilson gets pitching tips from Kate Upton. (I would too). And Yu Darvish is human. (Maybe).

3 things I'm hoping to see before the A's and Mariners head to Japan: #1) Jurickson Profar and or Mike Trout in action. #2) Trevor Bauer win a starting job in Arizona. #3) Andrew "Cash Money" Cashner hit 104 on the radar gun. He's already done 103. What's another 1MPH, Cash? Rear back and fire it in there. Who cares if you drill someone in the ribs? If your GM, Josh Byrnes, has a problem with it, you have him email me.

[WestSide Culture]

Road Trip: Welcome to the Cactus League

Kevin Rehberg is the Owner/Managing Editor of WestSide Culture, a site dedicated to life, beer, business and sports on the West Coast. Check it out at http://westsideculture.com. Or don't. Either way.

I grew up in Arizona a Cubs fan, rooting for Ryne Sandberg while attending Giants Spring Training games. In 1998 I became a D'Backs fan when baseball expanded to the Valley. Now I spend my time in San Diego emailing Josh Byrnes bi-weekly, requesting he hire me as his Assistant GM. I remind him that we have Starbucks and baseball as a common bond, and even that we both lived in AZ at the same time. (He has yet to respond).

Prince Fielder and Scott Boras May Have Overplayed their Hands

Milwaukee Brewers All-Star first baseman Prince Fielder remains unsigned with spring training set to start in less than 2 months and it appears as if he may be forced to return to the Milwaukee Brewers for the 2012 season. While Fielder’s return would make the Brewers one of the favorites in MLB betting lines to win the National League pennant in 2012, the question does remain open as to whether or not he would have sufficient motivation after expecting the Brinks truck to arrive after his best season ever in 2011 in which the Brewers won their first division title since 1982.

Fielder’s agent is known stick up man Scott Boras, who is hated by MLB owners and loved by players for his ability to command top dollar for his clients, even if it is not always accomplished with polish and good manners.

Fielder’s predicament is also part of the worst possible timing. American League teams such as the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, who would figure to love having the poor fielding Prince as their designated hitter, do not have any need or room on their already power packed rosters for yet another high priced slugger. The one team that did have such a need, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, signed Fielder’s main competitor for superstar first baseman status in Albert Pujols, who led the St. Louis Cardinals to a National League Championship Series win over Fielder’s Brewers and on to a World Series championship against the Texas Rangers. Despite Pujols having a slight drop in overall production compared to his past years with the Cardinals, and despite his being 4 years older than Fielder, he was able to command the riches that Fielder had expected for himself.

Dynamics Changing in the American League

Please enjoy this guest post...

With the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim going all in with the ten year, $250 million deal for St. Louis Cardinals superstar first baseman Albert Pujols, the dynamics of the entire American League look to be different as the Angels will join the New York Yankees as preseason favorites in MLB betting odds.

The Angels recently signed a multi-billion dollar deal with Fox for television rights to their games which all of a sudden gave them Yankee-type power and influence that they immediately put to work with the addition of Pujols, who was an instrumental leader in the Cardinals making their near impossible run as World Series champions last fall.

Clayton Kershaw Beats out Roy Halladay for NL Cy Young Award

Please enjoy this guest post...

Kershaw Beats out Halladay for NL Cy Young

The close vote that was expected for the National League Cy Young Award never happened as Los Angeles left-hander Clayton Kershaw easily outdistanced Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay. Kershaw received 27 of the 32 first-place votes while Halladay got only four first-place votes.

Kershaw becomes the first Los Angeles pitcher to win the Cy Young since Orel Hershiser in 1988 and the eighth Dodger in history to win the award. Kershaw received 207 points which was 74 more than Halladay received. The Phillies’ Cliff Lee finished third in the voting followed by Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks. Kershaw led the league in wins with 21, in ERA at 2.28 and in strikeouts with 248. It was a career-best year for Kershaw who started 33 games and pitched 233 1/3 innings. He had three complete games and two shutouts. He was virtually unbeatable in the second half of the season and routinely favored in MLB baseball betting. He went 12-1 with a 1.31 ERA in the second half of the season. Kershaw went up against former NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum four times and the Dodgers beat the Giants in all four of those games.

Triple Crown

Kershaw actually won the Triple Crown of pitching as he had the most wins, lowest ERA and most strikeouts. Never in the history of the Cy Young award has a pitcher not won the Cy Young when he led the league in the Triple Crown categories. Kershaw had a .808 winning percentage this season and since 1956 there have only been six other pitchers who had a winning percentage that high, as low an ERA and as many strikeouts. Kershaw was 21-5 this season and he did that for a Los Angeles team that was basically average as the Dodgers finished 82-79. If you take out Kershaw’s wins the Dodgers would have been awful in MLB baseball betting. And it is not like Kershaw got a lot of help from the Los Angeles offense as the Dodgers scored four runs or less in 11 of his 21 wins.

Historic

Kershaw is off to a historic start to his career. He is just 23 years old and already has 47 wins, a 2.88 ERA and 745 strikeouts. No pitcher in Major League history has ever had that many wins an ERA that low and averaged so many strikeouts at the age of 23.

Bring on the Post Season!

Allow myself to introduce.. myself....

My name is Marea, and Sooze has graciously invited me to contribute to BLB during the post-season. As a fellow babe who loves baseball, I hope to make this little corner of the interwebs proud...

Anyway.

Spring Training With Sarah Spain

We were lucky enough to get a Spring Training recap from the lovely Miss Sarah Spain, who really needs no introduction...

I’m sitting next to a drunk guy who barely knows where he is, not to mention the fact that there’s a baseball game being played a mere 50 feet away from him. He claims to be a Giants fan, but can’t so much as name three players on the squad.

As I try to ignore his inane commentary, I’m reminded of the classic scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in which Principal Ed Rooney catches sight of a Cubs game on TV and asks:

“What’s the score?”
“Nothin’ nothin’.”
“Who’s winning?”
“The Bears.”

By the 3rd or 4th inning I probably could’ve convinced the guy that Eamus Catuli is a lewd sexual act performed by Chicagoans and that Ronnie Woo Woo is the Cubs’ newly acquired Japanese pitcher. Instead, I let him buy me an Old Style and tried to teach him how to say Fukudome without offending nearby children.

The thing is, a clueless hammered guy isn’t exactly easy to avoid at Cubs Spring Training. Packs of rowdy twenty-somethings descend upon the lawn at Hohokam in droves, giving it the feel of a sort of stripper-less bachelor party. While I certainly didn’t want to, as he put it, “grab a hotel room after the game,” I also didn’t mind the lively atmosphere created by his pack of drunken pals—or for that matter, the beer they kept buying me.

One of the best things about Spring Training is that it’s for everyone, from the die-hards to the drink-hards. Whether you’re a true lover of baseball or just want an excuse to start boozin’ before 3pm, for just $6 you can catch a game and get a tan with a couple thousand new friends.

While in Mesa, I went to three Cubs games by myself and each had its fair share of interesting characters. From the expected: a father and son sharing a Spring Break trip; to the unusual: a guy with a calf tattoo of Elvis joined and his friend, who came back from the concession stand with a carton of thai noodles—complete with chopsticks. There were pleasant surprises: a free ticket and some insider knowledge about this year’s team, courtesy of an employee for the AAA Iowa Cubs; and not-so-pleasant surprises: a greasy, pony-tailed admirer who refused to believe that I actually wanted to concentrate on the game, what with me being a “chick” and all.

The players themselves provided highlights and heartbreak, too. Derrek Lee was nice, funny and tirelessly accommodating to his fans, signing autographs at each game I attended. Some of the other players signed more sparingly, but nearly all put in their time either before the game at the crowded seats lining the first base path or after at the fan-packed exit from the locker room.

The most disappointing encounters were with Mark DeRosa and Alfonso Soriano. My boyfriend DeRosa (it’s a loose relationship—he’s allowed to be married, I’m allowed to be eternally single) refused my countless attempts to get an autograph (and perhaps a whiff of his scent). I did, however, see him from across the park another day, signing away. I guess timing is everything—both when it comes to our love and to autographs.

Alfonso Soriano was by far the worst. He ignored any and all requests, whether they be from bright-faced kids or large-breasted adults. It wasn’t until he took the field each day that he suddenly seemed interested in interacting with fans—which may explain the five or six missed catches and bad jumps I witnessed from him in the span of just three games.

After two day’s spent coyly exchanging waves and “hi’s” with the dapper, deliciously-derriered Dominican, I decided to take our relationship to the next level. On the third day, I made it my goal to get ‘Fonsi to throw me one of the balls he and the catchers would toss around in left field between innings. My first approach was simple; I politely requested the ball and smiled as innocently as possible. No dice. The next time around, pressed up against the fence, I yelled “I’m stalking you ‘Fonsi. You’re my favorite. Can I pleeeassse have the ball.” This got a few laughs, even a wave, but no baseball.

By the next inning, my newfound (and well-lubricated) friends on the lawn decided to help me out.

“She wants to have your babies” one yelled.

“Franchise kids—we could have wide receivers. I’m good breeding” I continued.

“She’s really tall! Seriously, throw her the ball. She’s hot.” Another guy added.

At this point Soriano was looking up at me, laughing and smiling, clearly enjoying all the attention. I waved and winked, he looked right at me, ball in hand, then threw it…

...directly to a kid about 20 feet to my left. Chuckles all around, from ‘Fonsi and the crowd. Bastard.

While I didn’t get a ball from ‘Fonsi or the slightest bit of affection from DeRosa, I did get a jersey full of autographs, a belly full of beer, and a camera full of pictures. Not to mention that one guys’ digits, just in case I change my mind about the hotel room…


Sarah Spain
www.sarahspain.net

From the Love of Sports

This weekend's guest author is a fellow tortured soul -- a Chicago Cubs fan -- our buddy Mad Love from the snappy sports site, The Love of Sports. He's another man who needs no introduction, so here we go. Buckle up for this hilarious tale of anguish and disappointment.

From The Love of Sports

So, as baseball fans, I’m just gonna naturally assume you all are looking for shock value, isn’t that right?

That seems to be the case. You’ve all proven it for years.

You wanna know what players are sleeping with Madonna or Alyssa Milano this week.

You need to know who’s gambling on their games.

And you just HAVE to know who’s on the juice!

Well you know what? I say screw it all! I could give a damn about any of it.

All I want from my national pastime is for my Cubs to finally win a freakin’ World Series for once!

Just once! Is that too much to ask? Haven’t I suffered enough for it?

That being said, I honestly don’t care if all 25 players on this year’s roster are on the phone with their bookies while Madonna was rubbing them down with the clear and the cream in the clubhouse before each game. To them, I say “Do what you gotta do, fellas. Just bring us home that ring!”

But I digress.

OK, so I’m obviously not that vain. Sure, I may be a little more lenient with baseball morals than the average fan, but that’s not the point of this story.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Cubs last winning the World Series, and I have to think that story is the biggest one of this, or any other, baseball season.

Imagine, if you will, something you spend your entire lifetime hoping and praying for never happening. You can’t imagine that, because unless you’re also a Cubs fan, not a single one of you has ever, or will ever, experience such heartache.

I mean, I’m in my 30’s and I’m struggling with it badly as it is. But my poor 87-year-old grandmother, who spent every one of her years in Illinois and was an incredible Cubs fan, just passed away a few months ago without ever tasting the thrill of victory.

How wrong is that?!

OK, I apologize to any of you young astronomy students out there who were born after the 1986 Halley’s Comet sighting and who may also miss it once it shows up again in 2061. I grant you the fact that you may possibly experience three-fourths the pain my people have endured these last 100 years. But that’s as close as any of you may come to understanding our plight.

With the team our Cubbies have put together this season, I have as much hope as I’ve had since the tragic 1984 team who dropped three straight to the Padres in the NLCS after going up 2-0 in the five-game series. Or when we had a 5-1 lead in the top of the eighth inning of a potentially clinching Game 6 in 2003. Then Steve Bartman and Alex Gonzalez both happened.

Those were obviously crushing blows. However, if we can’t get through this season without a title, it may be even more damaging.

Winning the ring on the 100th anniversary would be as sweet as it gets. Doing it in year 101, or any year after that?

Talk about non-historic.

So, thanks to Kosuke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly and any number of other guys we paid top dollar for the last few years, we have a legitimate shot at this thing.

You can’t tell me you’re not rooting for it just a little bit, too.

A Cubs championship would re-invigorate baseball. It would make us all forget about the steroids crap. It would turn the casual outside fan into a rabid diehard fan. And, most importantly, it would highlight all that’s right with the game instead of all that’s wrong with it.

And if you’re a true baseball fan like me, isn’t that all you really want?

Other than a Alyssa Milano rubdown, of course.

Come on, Alyssa, do it for the game. Do it for grandma.

[The Love of Sports]

Extra P. Has a Plan

The Extrapolater, one of my personal heroes, really needs no introduction. He has brought us such goodies as Voodoo Sabermetrics -- the breakdown of players by a motley crew of bloggers -- and Smells Like Pujols, which rates rookies against the ridiculous 2001 stats of Prince Albert.

Let's also please not fail to mention the Porn Name All-Stars, which you'll just have to check out for yourself.

He also writes for a million other places, including Chicago Sports Weekly and a kickass college hoops blog entitled Storming the Floor, where he is Associate Editor. So, without further ado, here is this Saturday's guest author: the always sharp Extra P., himself.

A Simple Plan: Bring Ricky Williams Back to Baseball

Ricky, buddy. I have a proposition for you. I’ve been watching the comeback attempts, and they’re clearly not working. Let’s face it, football is too violent and unfeeling for a contemplative soul like yours.

So here’s my thought. Come back to baseball. Think about it… the fresh-cut grass, the leisurely at-bats, trippy mascots, and the extra meditation time in the dugout? If you need added incentive, I’m sure we could talk some minor-league team into an all-hemp uniform – they love wacky shit like that in the minors. Anything to fill the seats.

It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that you’d rather be Muckdog or a Boll Weevil than a Dolphin – any day. And once your torn chest muscle heals, I’m sure you could get your stroke back. Or, well, hopefully improve it a bit, if we’re being honest.

I think the High-A California League would be best for your particular… idiom. It’s a nice little ten-team league, and you’d never be too far from the Ayurveda Institute. You’ll love the team names, too. The Bakersfield Blaze… get it? Or maybe the High Desert Mavericks are more to your liking.

But there’s really only one team for you, Ricky.

You were born to suit up for the Modesto Nuts.

Just think about it. That’s all I ask.

[The Extrapolater]

Modern Day Use of the Bullpen in Baseball

If you'd ask my father, and especially my grandfather, they'd scoff at the idea of a starting pitcher lasting just six or seven good innings. But like everything else in life, baseball has evolved and bullpens have become a major factor in the game.

On that note, please welcome our second guest author, Peter Schiller from Baseball Reflections: a blog where old school baseball meets sabermetrics -- here to talk relief with us during this long and lonely off season.

The use of the modern day bullpen is a sore point with me. In my opinion, this practice is holding baseball back from gaining more widespread popularity. In order to gain more attention, all unnecessary down time needs to be eliminated. It is my opinion that the length of the games prevents people from becoming fans. The game can be just too darn long for the non-fan to cope with. One of these bottlenecks is the unnecessary use of bullpen “specialists” (I use that term loosely). A “specialist” is a pitcher who comes in just to face one batter and then is replaced by another pitcher who happens to throw with the other arm.

If you are a major league pitcher, you should be able to get out major league batters no matter which batter’s box they’re standing in! This is a situation where I throw Sabermetrics out the window. To me this was the idea of a few managers, which worked so well at the time that everyone jumped on the bandwagon to the point where this practice has become the norm for the modern day bullpen.

This development, as best as I can pin point it, started sometime in 1987 with the
Oakland A’s when they converted SP Dennis Eckersley into a closer. He only got 16 saves that year, but it was a turning point in baseball history. I don’t blame Eckersley, I blame the way in which he was used. I blame, right or wrong, Tony LaRussa! I also admit that it was and is a very successful method for getting batters out, but at what price, long-term for baseball? One inning and out granted Eckersley and all other closers who followed him, a “save”. It has gotten to the point where one can gain a save even in a 30-3 game! Before this, closers went at least 2 or 3 innings per save. Guys like Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, Tug McGraw, Hoyt Wilhelm, Sparky Lyle and Dick Radatz, to name a few. They came to the rescue in close game situations and shut down the opposing team and they broke a sweat doing it! Every now and then, you see someone used the way those guys were used; Mariano Rivera, one of the best modern day closers is known for his occasional 2 or 3 inning saves. We even saw young Jonathan Papelbon going multiple innings in 2007 (especially in the post season). I’ll speak on this topic again when I address the problems with the saves rule, but for now, let’s get back to bullpen “specialists”.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Left Handed Specialists: In baseball, a left-handed specialist (also called, somewhat derisively, a LOOGY or Lefty One Out Guy) is a left-handed relief pitcher who specializes in getting left-handed or poor right handed switch batters out. These pitchers will commonly only pitch to a very small number of batters in each outing (often just one), and rarely to straight right-handed batters. Most Major League Baseball teams have a couple of left-handed pitchers in their bullpens, one of whom is probably a left-handed specialist.

Why not just bring in the best pitcher you have, outside of your closer, to pitch to the next few players coming up to bat in order to get out of an inning. I don’t mind if teams bring in a new pitcher to start an inning, but to break up the flow of the game by allowing a pitcher to just face one batter seems silly to me. It always has and it always will. So my conclusion is that teams should do a better job in setting up their bullpens so that they are staffed with pitchers who can get batters of any type out and use closers in a way that most benefits their team, not just in the ninth inning against the other teams 7- 8 and 9 guys. Even a “specialist” can get those guys out!

A word to lefty and righty specialists out there: learn how to pitch to get guys out no matter which batter’s box they stand in and let’s just play ball!

[Baseball Reflections]

Dudes Can Be Babes, Too

Sometimes a change of scenery is a good thing.

Take our buddy Midwest Coast Bias for example. He's awesome and here to tell you a thing or two... about lovin'. (Cue Ladies Man music) He is the first, but certainly not the last, guest author that BLB will have during this long and lonely off season and we are more than proud to have him drop by.

By MCBias, http://mcbias.blogspot.com

Like many of you, I read Moneyball by Michael Lewis and was intrigued by the ways small-market Oakland kept up with wealthier teams in baseball. General Manager Billy Beane used the works of statisticians to understand which characteristics of ball players don’t matter, which statistics were overrated, and which statistics were underrated.

I started wondering in which other fields Moneyball tactics might help to evaluate talent…and immediately thought of love and dating. Thus, “Honeyball” was born. What follows is a Moneyball approach on signing deserving and undervalued females to long-term contracts. Now, please, don’t think MCBias uses a spreadsheet to evaluate every potential date’s OBP (it’s more like an access database, ha), but I thought it was amusing to see what Moneyball would look like in love and dating. Feel free to share your own over-rated/under-rated stats in the comments.

Honey stats that don’t matter:

Pictures and video. Pictures and videos are like relying on the word of unpaid scouts for a general manager; it’s better than nothing, but not by much. How many of you have pursued a girl based on her Myspace or Match.com photo, only to be disappointed? Just me? Um…moving on. On the other hand, many pretty women look less attractive in pictures. If the lady has a crooked nose, cleft chin, or other non-symmetric feature, pictures tend to make it look worse.

Job titles and awards. No manager is trying to sign Pat Hentgen just because he won a Cy Young a decade ago. So what does it matter if she won Miss BBQ Sweetie-Pie at the country fair and was the Homecoming Queen in high school a decade ago? Men put too much emphasis on job titles, too. Science has proven that it is statistically feasible that some attractive girls do not work as models/actresses/waitresses/singers. I know, I know, sounds impossible, but cute engineers and accountants do exist! No comment on whether both turned me down.

What other men think of her looks. A shrewd general manager knows better than to let the opinions of other managers influence his decisions. I definitely want my friends’ opinion on the woman’s personality and character, lest I end up divorced, penniless, or depressed. But as long as her looks float your boat, who cares what your friends think? Don’t love your best friend’s idea of hotness; love your own. No comment as to whether I started singing “love the one you’re with” after typing that line.

Honey stats that are overrated:

“Best available athlete”. Here’s one place where Moneyball’s advice is terrible for Honeyball. She may be the best you can get in terms of hotness, personality, and intelligence…but does she fit the style of your team (you + friends/family) and do you have an opening at her position? Forget how she is “on paper.” Billy Beane might have been able to push Scott Hattenberg into playing first base, but you have no such power over her. And although you may think that her beliefs can be made compatible with yours, you say that before you’ve been asked to hold the neck of the goat being sacrificed.

Genetics and Book Smarts. Personally, I dislike it that so much is made out of a given ballplayer’s dad being a coach or athlete or on how book smart a player is (went to Stanford, etc.). I mean, it’s nice, but so what? Sure, you don’t want the woman to be stupid, unless you dream of a life spent protecting her from herself. But after a certain point, what is intelligence worth? There aren’t many intellectual debates being conducted while the kid’s diaper is getting changed, are there? No comment on whether I would make Newton’s Law “action/reaction” jokes during said diaper-changing.

Height. Moneyball and Honeyball definitely agree here. If the player can hit well, who cares how small/tall they are? I know a lot of attractive tall women (and short men, for that matter) that somehow go dateless year after year. Cut or add 3-4 inches to their height, and they’d be hotly pursued. It makes no sense. No comment about how a certain 5’10” power forward may have changed my bias forever with one post-up.

Honey stats that are underrated:

Athleticism and liking sports. Moneyball glosses over what a problem it was that Billy Beane, the scouts, and Art Howe were so divided in their approach to the game. I personally think a big reason for those Athletics play-off failures was that very division. So when a woman enjoys playing and watching the same sports as I do, it gives us a natural bond to build a relationship on, and gives us shared passion. It’s sports…and women…at the same time! And if she’s a great athlete, maybe she can give birth to millionaire baseball players to take care of us in our old age. Daddy wants a new car!

Street Smarts. Moneyball worships players who can take bad pitches and then swing away when they get ahead in the count. A woman with common sense is priceless; someone needs to stop you when you want to invest the family savings in “Pyramid Marketing, Inc.” Not that anyone would be that stupid…um, by the way…anyone want to come party with me? I’m definitely, absolutely not holding it because I still need to sell five more Tupperware bowls for the month.

Learning, creativity, and personal growth. Billy Beane has proven over and over that he can develop young prospects and turn them into everyday big league players. If the woman you’re interested in is willing to learn and grow, you could have a future with her. Also, if she’s creative, you won’t go through many boring periods in the relationship. After all, it’s very exciting to be stranded in a war-torn Third World country refugee camp because a Hawaii honeymoon sounded boring to her.

All-Star Selections Guest Post

For a sneak peak at my All-Star Selections (which were tweaked into reality, forcing me not to pick the entire Minnesota Twins roster) check out the guest post over at Stiles Points, an entertaining sports blog chock full of guest posts and handy information.

P.S. The stats in this Stiles Points post are two-days dated, as it was written on Wednesday.