Sunday, April 01, 2007

Random Musings on Poisson d'Avril

Four interesting tidbits from the sports page of this morning's Boston Globe:
  1. I'm feeling better about Coco Crisp who went 8-20 (.400) in the seven games after returning from an injured shoulder. Let's hope that's a sign of things to come.
  2. Bill James 2007 baseball handbook projection of 33 combined wins for Schilling, Beckett and Wakefield makes me a little skeptical of his methodology. I predicted the three to win 45 games in a previous post. My guess is that the answer lies somewhere in between.
  3. Would you be concerned if you were a Indianapolis Colts fan and your team just lost five important contributors: running back Dominic Rhodes (Raiders), linebacker Cato June (Buccaneers), cornerback Nick Harper (Titans), defensive lineman Montae Reagor (Eagles), and receiver Brandon Stokley (Broncos) and your team -- drafting last in every round btw -- was looking to fill holes through the draft? Makes be glad to be a Patriots fan.
  4. Why does the Globe continue to put NHL/Bruins highlights first in the paper when hockey is easily the fourth most popular (and arguably maybe fifth after BC football/basketball) up front in the Sunday sports section? I'm guessing it's because they want you to flip through to the good stuff i.e. baseball, basketball and football. A happy medium may be to lead with baseball or football and sandwich hockey in the middle. Do I have too much time on my hands to worry about such things? Probably.
A quick note on the title of this post.... For those of you lucky enough to have avoided taking French in high school, "Poisson d'Avril" is the French equivalent of "April Fool's Day." Translated, it means "fish of April." Look at the Wikipedia entry if you're interested in the back story. Happy April Fools!

2 comments:

Rooster said...

One interesting tidbit about Bill James' projection for Schilling is that he has him down for around 175 innings pitched. That essentially means that James thinks its statistically probable that Schilling is going to miss time with injuries this year -- a healthy No. 1 pitcher should top 200 innings. Toss in Wakefield's back that landed him on the DL as well as Papelbon's rehabbed shoulder, and there are a lot of "ifs" when it comes to the sustained health of this staff. Thankfully we have depth. In that vein, I really hope the brass hangs on to Pineiero. At some point, I think he may end up plugging an important hole for a while.

Aaron_Strout said...

Or maybe Bill James was counting on Schilling laying a bunch of eggs like he did on opening day. Let's see -- 33 starts multiplied by 4 innings projects to 132 innings... ;)