Will the Patriots Make the Playoffs?

They’re 3-2, playing very inconsistent football, and Buffalo seems to be a factor in the division. But after five games it’s time to get off the fence and make your prediction.

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Last Red Sox-Yankees Showdown in Yankee Stadium

With the Yankees set to open a new stadium next year, the Red Sox played their last series at Yankee Stadium this week…and they won 2 of 3 The Yankees look pathetic as the regular season winds down (will likely miss playoffs for first time in 14 years), but the Red Sox seem to be kicking it up a notch at just the right time (won 8 of last 11). Anyway, in honor of the last series – the end of an era - here are a couple fun statistical nuggets from the games this week:

●  8/26: A-ROD’S NIGHT TO FORGET
Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and two double-play ground outs in the Yankees’ loss on Tuesday. It was the first time in A-Rod’s career that he had multiple strikeouts and GDPs in the same game. His total of nine DP ground outs in August already matches the highest total by any player in any month this season, and it’s his highest total in any month of his career. (Update: A-Rod now has 11 double-play ground outs in August – ouch!)

●  8/27: PEDROIA’s SLAM – WILL IT BE THE LAST AT YANKEE STADIUM?
Could it be, with only 14 regular-season games remaining to be played in the current Yankee Stadium, that its final grand-slam homer will belong to Dustin Pedroia, whose eighth-inning blast capped the scoring in Boston’s 11-3 win in the Bronx on Wednesday night? Pedroia’s was the 17th Yankee Stadium grand-slam hit by a Red Sox player (the most by any visiting team), with Ted Williams, who hit three grand-slams in the Bronx, being the only Boston player with more than one. But only once before had a Red Sox second baseman homered with the bases full in the House That Ruth Built; that was Bill Regan, who did it in 1928.

●  8/28: LESTER TAKES A TOUGH NO-DECISION
Jon Lester struck out eight batters and did not issue a walk in 6 2/3 innings on Thursday. Since 2000, only one other Red Sox pitcher registered at least eight strikeouts against the Yankees, while not walking a batter: Pedro Martinez, who whiffed 11 without a base on balls in the Bronx on July 7, 2003.

Source – The Elias Sports Bureau

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Manny Being Tardy

This is comical. Baseball’s idiot savant strikes again - Dodgers v. Phillies on Monday:

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Assorted Articles from this Week (that you might enjoy)

In Science:

Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill

What great news! I fully embrace any and all evidence that justifies my predisposition towards being a sarcastic ass

In Real Estate & Construction:

Ailing Builders Getting Back Into Land Game

Interesting article on the current market’s effect on land value and current activity by construction firms to stockpile land (at low prices) in anticipation of renewed residential construction activity. Builders are slashing prices to clear the glut of inventory left in the wake of the housing bubble, and at the same time, slowly “re-coiling the spring” of new land development by taking advantage of the pass-through effect of low prices on the cost of raw land. 

In Sports:

The World’s Greatest Athlete

A panel of sports experts sifts through a mountain of data and pick the fastest, strongest, most agile athlete on Earth. Oh please don’t let it be A-Rod…

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Vote Red Sox on the 2008 All-Star Ballot

Voting is under way for MLB’s 2008 All-Star Game. Be sure to vote for all your favorite Sox players. You can vote up to 25 times. Thanks to Boston Dirt Dogs for pointing out that if you want to vote for Jacoby Ellsbury (and why wouldn’t you?), you need to write his name in because he’s not on the actual ballot. Click to vote.

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Freakonomics – Hoop Data Dreams

Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, who wrote Freakonomics and have a blog by the same name, have written a column about the Celtics’ attempt to use the kind of rigorous statistical analysis that Bill James has made popular throughout baseball while working for the Boston Red Sox

The Boston Celtics, owned by several men with venture-capital backgrounds, have for the past few years been one of the most data-driven teams in the N.B.A. They have also just completed the biggest single-season turnaround in history, entering the playoffs two weeks ago with a league-best 66 victories after winning just 24 games last year.

Coincidence? Probably, for the Celtics obtained two monstrously accomplished players in the off-season, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. It didn’t take a statistician to tell you that the Celtics would be a lot better this year than last.

But the team also employs what the general manager, Danny Ainge, calls his “secret weapon,” a 32-year-old named Mike Zarren, who seems to know every data point about every N.B.A. player, past and present. Garnett calls him Numbers…

Read the entire column here.

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