Meet the SWOBODA, Baseball’s Newest Prediction Tool

The Juice Blog is excited to unveil the newest baseball prediction tool called the SWOBODA. This revolutionary new system is named after below-average New York Mets’ outfielder, Ron Swoboda, who parlayed one great catch off of the bat of Brooks Robinson during the ‘69 Series, into becoming a minor celebrity. the SWOBODA is an [...]

Guest Writer Series: I Picked the Wrong Off-Season to Quit Drinking

In the continuing series of having top Juiceblog readers offer up baseball pieces, Scott Fendley, better known around here as SMED, offers up his thoughts on the insanity that was this past off-season.
Scott is the Director of Advancement Services at Wabash College, which is a fancy term for managing the back office of the [...]

Lack of Star Power on American Idol

Like half of America, I have been suckered into this year’s American Idol. I was a very infrequent viewer up until last year, but got caught up in the show during 2006, as it had a nice variety of talent. This year I have kept watching the program, despite it having a very poorly constructed [...]

New Fantasy League, NCAA Tourney Thoughts, SNL etc.

Responding to the demand of the first league, I have opened up a second league.  This one is through ESPN, as well.  The draft for this league will take place next Sunday night at 9:45.  Same statistical categories, except to try something new, the league will use quality starts, not wins.  While quality starts is [...]

Fantasy Baseball League

Setting up a fantasy league for readers again.  I have used ESPN this year, as they have went to free leagues, plus Juice Blog alum Will Carroll is connected to the World-wide sports leader, so I thought I would show the love.  It is a sabermetrical type league, with the 4 offensive categories being OBP, SLG, Runs, RBI’s, and the pitching categories [...]

Steel Cage Match: White Sox vs Baseball Prospectus

In my continuing series of potentially alienating people that I like and respect (Baseball Prospectus and most others in the sabermetrical world), I have put together 10 reasons why the White Sox and Baseball Prospectus have been at odds over the past few years. I’m trying to be chronological on these reasons.
1. Kenny Williams [...]

Are the White Sox PECOTA’s Computer Virus?

Well, it’s that time of year where PECOTA predictions come out and doom is the forecast for the upcoming White Sox season. Since the start of Ozzie Guillen’s managing career, PECOTA has predicted win totals of 79 (2004), 80 (2005), and 82 (2006). The actual season-ending win totals have been 83, 99, and [...]

Please Explain: Tim Allen

Tim Allen is the Dave Matthews of comedy. Wait a minute, I take that back, as I’ve actually liked a couple of songs by Matthews. I can’t point to one time that Tim Allen has entertained me. Unless he is the voice of a Pixar character, I just don’t get the appeal [...]

Tourney Observations from the First Round

1. 2007 will go down as the most boring first-round of games since it went to a field of 64.
2. Coach K might have turned in the worst coaching job of the first round. I’m tired of these Bob Knight disciples refusing to go to a zone defense, because they believe in the sanctity [...]

NCAA Tourney Preview Part 2

There are 3 factors that I look at when choosing who will do best during March Madness.
1. Coaching Tourney Success
2. Defensive Pressure
3. Style Match-ups
During years when offensive talented teams rule the Top seeds, it leads to all lot of upset possibilities. With teams like Washington State and Texas A&M overachieving this year, it leads me [...]