Posts tagged ‘Los Malos Muchachos’
The Boys of Summer League is as competitive as we can remember in a while. The League expansion to 14 teams and early season trade generated some conversation and interest in early April. Here is a run down of where the teams stand, as we enter May – beginning first with the teams in the Major Leagues.
Gil Elvgren, Fast Lass 1965
Major League Baseball Standings
Through April 30th, MLB teams have completed ~14% of their seasons. As we enter May – here is what we know.
The Texas Rangers have balanced hitting and pitching, the Eastern Teams in both the American and National Leagues are playing very competitive ball and the Los Angeles Angles find themselves in a hole early in the season.
The Texas Rangers (17-6) sit a top of the American League and are looking real strong in the West Division.
They own a 9 game lead on the LA Angles (8-15), who finished April in last place in the West Division and who now trail in the Wild Card standings by 6 games.
The streaking Tamp Bay Rays (15-8) finished April strong winning 8 out their last 10 games and own a 1 game lead over the surprising Baltimore Orioles (14-9). The Boston Red Sox (11-11) finished April winning 7 of their last 10, and trail Tampa Bay in the very competitive American League East by only 3.5 games.
The Cleveland Indians (11-9) are leaders in the American League Central Division as the only team playing above .500 ball in April. The Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers both trail the Indians by a single game as they finished April winning 11 of their first 22 games.
The Los Angeles Dodgers (16-7) continue to ride the hot bat of Matt Kemp to lead the National League West by 3.5 games over the San Francisco Giants. The Atlanta Braves (14-9) trail the Washington Nationals (14-8) by a 1/2 games and the St. Louis Cardinals (14-8) lead the Central Division in the national League by 3 games over the Cincinnati Reds.
Who’s Hot: Tampa Bay, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds. Each finished the month of April winning at least 7 of their last 10 games.
Who’s Cold: Miami Marlins and the Minnesota Twins both losers of 8 of their last 10.
Boys of Summer Standings
Gil Elvgren, Just Like Old Times 1945
Through April 30th, the G-Glo and K-Braves continue to open their lead on the League.
G-Glo is riding a combination of hot hitting and solid pitching, and the K-Braves have picked the winners and made the best of “The Trade” of the year so far. The K-Braves own the bragging rights for sure on the Cano trade – so far.
Los Malos Muchachos can’t seem to find any pitching to match their line-up of hitters. The Dallas Dawgs are hanging in there, almost cracking the Top 5 as we end April. In fact 3rd place to 10th place are getting very tight….
Boys of Summer League Standings, May 1st
The Singapore Thai-gers – much like the Los Angeles Angles – are having a tough time getting out of the gate. As a late entry to the field, the Thai-gers have a way to go to move up a single slot.
Who’s Hot: G-Glo, K-Braves, Dallas Dawgs, Cleveland Steamers
Who’s Cold: Los Malos Muchachos, Sounds, Mighty Montrealers
Good Luck to all teams in May!
We wrote here a few weeks ago about the fireworks that started during spring training in the Singapore Grapefruit League. The trade between the Los Malos Muchachos and the K-Braves really upset the psyche of the Cleveland Steamers manager who threatened to trade their star slugger Albert Pujols for “a RP and beer”.
We saw at least one team from Canada show some interest in the beer trade – and offered Bard and two Molsons for Albert. But so far we can’t tell if there is any real interest in the League in the former Cardinal first baseman. We suspect the team which can hold on to their beer and RP the longest may end up before all is said and done getting the better of any deal that involves Albert Pujols.
Firemans #4 Blonde Ale - A Favorite of the Los Malos Muchachos when they visit Austin, Texas.
At this stage, a six-pack of PBR or even a pint of cold Firemans #4 Blonde Ale may be way too much to offer for Albert. Phat Albert is struggling in these early weeks for the Los Angeles Angles and the Cleveland Steamers.
“The Machine” is proving so far to be a little less automatic and a little more human. Albert is finding that adjusting to the off-field distractions in LA (and Cleveland) can be a little more more challenging than those in St. Louis.
Example: Albert carried a .328 career batting average with him when he moved to Los Angeles, and appears to have lost fifty points somewhere along Route 66. He is hitting .276 through Friday, with no home runs and only 4 RBIs. More concerning to us is his drop in on base percentage (OBP) which is currently 100 points below is career average of .420.
We believe that as the news on the pitching staffs of teams out West begins to fade – the injuries/struggles of the San Francisco Giants for example – that we will begin to see the offensive struggles of the Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Steamers exposed and covered more closely.
We are not predicting that the popular late 1970s’ television series “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” be dubbed the “Phat Albert and the Steamer Kids” just yet. But we do are seeing early signs to look for fair and balanced off-the-field comparisons.
As the Angeles cross-town rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers and their inter-divisional rivals Texas Rangers continue to display their offensive dominance – and the Cleveland Steamers search for more cold beer trades – we believe that we will begin to see greater interest in comedic comparisons of the Angles and Steamers than to any comparisons to Marvel comic book super heroes.
Boys of Summer League ’12 – Truly an International Flavor this Season
As much as we hated to see Craig Kimbrel depart for the K-Braves – we are still trying to fill the hole lost in saves – we are happy to see Robinson Cano back on the Los Malos Muchachos roster after a five-year absence.
Robby Cano will find stiff competition over at second base this season on the Toros Rojos roster in the form of Ian Kinsler. And we will continue to find ways to keep the San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic native and future Hall of Famer on the field and batting clean-up for us as he does with the Nueva York Yankees.
We don’t have the same issue that the K-Braves do with players from Nueva York. We believe the K-Braves criticism of Nueva York players has more to do with ball players in the Yankees dugout than a knock against all teams hailing from New York. If we are correct, we find this particularly interesting as it is the New York Mets who compete in the same league with the Atlanta Braves each year.
We suspect the K-Braves absolute refusal to have any Yankee players on his roster has more to do with the outcome of the 1996 and 1999 World Series with the Yankees than anything. The pass K-Braves gives to Mets players may also have more to do with the satisfaction he enjoys living vicariously through Chipper Jones. Chipper has owned the New York Mets and the Mets have offered little competition to the Atlanta Braves in recent years.
Norman Rockwell, Choosing Up 1951
We have a feeling that Norman Rockwell would be inspired by the competitive nature of today's fantasy baseball managers.
The Los Malso Muchachos ball club loves our Nueva York Amigos – especially the Yankees. And we still love our Atlanta Bravos.
Moving away from Atlanta several years ago, we still enjoy following with keen interest all the descriptions, pictures, stories and tweets from the Atlanta Braves fans and writers.
The following links are especially fun to follow: Lauren T over on twitter at @BravesLove; @DaleMurphy3 ; and Dave O’Brian on twitter at @ajcbraves. We are happy to see Dale launch the twitter feed to celebrate and remember the 1982 Atlanta Braves (@1982Braves) who began the season with a record with still stands: 13-0 to start the baseball season. Bravo Dale!
If you are a Braves fan be sure to add these sites to your bookmarks. Our beloved Bravos will always hold a very special place in our heart.
We will gladly open a spots on our roster spot if we can – to Yankees, Braves, Cubs and yea even an Indian. The Toros Rojos Nation is big. If we are overlooking a player you like – let us know. We have enjoyed getting to know new players, and learning from managers on other teams. We find this one of the more compelling aspects of the fantasy play – getting to know players on other big league teams.
Over @UpperDeckViews (on twitter here) the Los Malos Muchachos ball club will continue to scout and evaluate talent on all teams, and we will pursue players who have the ability we think to fit into our overall “Operating Framework” – our playbook or “Guiding Principles” that we sometimes refer internally as “Bola de Guillermo”. As Joe Maddon recently tweeted here, we too find we get an edge on our competition when our club takes steps to build the esprit de corps among the Toros Rojos players.
We find the camaraderie among the 2012 Los Malos Muchachos roster to be especially high this season. The Toros Rojos team is competing as it has for the past several seasons in the very competitive Muchachos del verano Yahoo! Liga de béisbol – the Boys of Summer Yahoo! Baseball League.
The Rojos squad enters this season as a favorite again to complete against the equipos de Canadá (Canadian Teams). Not the favorite guys – but one of the favorites. We are still reeling from the Hockey head to head season and playoffs. Nothing compares to Stanley Cup playoffs, but our League comes very close each year. G-Glo killed us this season, and the UFS R Us and Mighty Montrealers teams came on strong as they always seem to do.
We are happy to get away from the ice without too many bruises and happily take a seat on the Toros Rojos bench.
Good Luck to you Boys - on your Fantasy Baseball season!
We look forward to competing one again in baseball with our Amigos from Canada.
We enjoyed the Molson trade offer from the UFA R Us team, and always enjoy the fierce competition The Mighty Montrealers, Free Newfoundland, Expos4Ever, G-Glo, I Said No Salt and The Kid offer each year.
We especially love the references to the Montreal Expos that reminded us of the Toros Rojos approach to baseball.
Each season, we get a kick out seeing the teams from the Estados Unidos take their swings at the Los Malos Muchachos. The Dallas Dawgs, Day Baseballers, Sounds and K-Braves understand very well what tough competition can do to bring out our best efforts. These are also some of the nicest guys in the League.
Competition among SEC college football teams is special and unique among “amateur” sports teams today. The friendly battles among the Georgia Bulldogs, Auburn Tigers and Tennessee Vols brings an interesting flavor to our Leagues each year. We are still waiting to see what brand of baseball teams from Thailand and Singapore can bring to the League.
We welcome a two new teams this season to the League. The Cleveland Steamers – managed from Singapore – bring a firely brand of ball we like to see and have worked their way up from 14th place to 7th in just three short weeks. The Singapore Thai-gers are new as well to the League this season – and appear to be agreeable to trading places with the Steamers. The Thai-gers are moving down the list from the upper tier and currently sit squarely in 11th place – just 1/2 point ahead of I Said No Salt.
The Los Malos Muchachos will honor Braniff Airlines this season. The team especially liked the Miami connection.
¡Viven de largo los malos muchachos!
Here is the full roster of the Los Malos Muchachos Toros Rojos squad – as they complete in the Boys of Summer Yahoo! League.
Shown below are the Red Bulls line-up as they were penciled in the batting order for games on Saturday, April 21. How many of the players on the Los Malos Muchchos will make the All-Star team in Kansas City this year? We can see four, and perhaps two to three more with an outside chance.
Toros Rojos Batting Order: Ian Kinsler DH, Carlos Beltran LF, Carlos Santana C, Robinson Cano 2B, Paul Konerko 1B, David Freese 3B, Andrew McCutchen CF, Jason Heyward RF and Mike Aviles SS
Bench: Erick Aybar SS, Mike Trout OF, Michael Morse IB/OF
It wil be interesting to see how this line-up stays in place. Carlos Betran will be a critical part of the team. We are sure the other teams overlooked that Carlos would be re-united with another former Astro Lance Berkman – forming two-thirds of the “Killer B’s”. Still, both are running on older legs now, so we will just have to see how they hold up.
Starting Pitchers: Brandon Beachy SP, Derek Holland SP, Johnny Cueto SP, Barry Zito SP. Jeff Samardzija was cut last night in favor of Bartolo Colon
Relief Pitchers: Mariano Rivera, Jordan Walden, Jonny Venters, Juan Cruz and Brad Lidge
We like the Red Bull hitters we have when we broke Spring Training (Yahoo! Dealt all except Cano, Aviles, Trout and Morse) and we feel we can stand in there all season with most teams across all five offensive categories: R, HR, RBI, SB and Avg. We hated to see a few players depart to other teams in the League, but as mentioned – we still have some holes to fill in our pitching staff as you will likely agree.
Drop us a note on any comments you have regarding the Toros Rojos squad. Please continue to critically review and analyze our team’s roster vs. that of the Cleveland Steamers. Leave your comments and opinions here.
We’ve all been guilty of it before – making a boastful statement about something we are passionate about with complete disregard to facts backing up our argument. Politicians tend to do this on a routine basis and hope that we aren’t paying attention. In business, we too can get lulled into to listening to someone’s words and completely forget to check to see if the data on a chart or in an analysis is matching the message of the speaker. The speaker may be saying one thing – but the data is saying another. Huh? When you don’t use actual data to back up your argument or message, you can lose your audience, fool your audience or if your audience is paying attention become the fool!
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the Eternal hope of Spring. How we can get caught up in the change of seasons from Winter to Spring, and become overly hopeful of future events based on feelings. This is especially true for baseball teams and fans and is in fact part of the fun of being a fan. When the new season starts all teams are equal and our team has as good a chance to win as the next. This is not necessarily true however, if we examine baseball teams closely and accurately based on data – either historic or projected. Some teams just have a clear advantage over others.
Keeping you Posted
Gil Elvgren, Keeping Posted 1947
Here is an example which occurred today where the “bullet points don’t match the data”. The Cleveland Steamers in our Yahoo! Boys of Summer fantasy baseball league became a little boastful about their team and their chances for winning the season. Being new to our league I listened to him give me the reasons why he feels so good about his team. He is currently tied for tenth place in our league of fourteen teams and is presently 40 points off the lead by the way.
He walked me through each of his players and rational for how “when this guy starts hitting”, and “when this guy come of the DL” and so on, he would easily do well – well enough to win. I agreed with him that he does have a very good pitching staff – with his San Francisco Giants Matt Cain, and Madison Bumgarner leading the staff with Kyle Lohse, Jeremey Hellickson, Johan Santana, Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello backing them up. Yes, its a long list and probably longer than what he needs and will keep.
He has added Ross Detwiler, Carlos Marmol, Alfredo Aceves, Hector Santiago and Santiago Casilla to the mix as well. I am betting he get’s the H. Santiago and Santaigo S. confused at least a time or two before the season ends! So there you have it. The strength of his team: 12 fine pitchers whom are all on “try outs” as he fine tunes his line-up he mentioned to me.
Part 1: The Boast
The Cleveland Steamers skipper then sent on to say that his batters were clearly better than my team, and that I would easily want to swap by entire team for his. One thing about fantasy baseball skippers, they can get a little narrow-minded, and while they may know a thing or two about their own team, they often don’t have a clue about any of the other teams in the league.
Fantasy skippers are sort of like coaches in the coaches poll for college football. They often make a statement with complete disregard to actual data. They used to call it the UPI Coaches poll, now it may be affiliated with a newspaper or media outlet and their accuracy still has not improved.
And you still see bias in many of the coaches poll results, and in fantasy team managers opinions. No problem – we are all fans and can have some fun. And that’s okay so long as we all understand that we may be leaving out important data from consideration.
Part 2: Early Examination of Data
I have to admit, I had not really looked at the Cleveland Steamers team and line-up closely. I had no idea for example that he had Albert Pujols on his team. For some, just mentioning that you have Albert on your team triggers ooooosss and ahhhsss. “Wow! You must have a great team if you have Pujols on your team” someone might say immediately.
I had a chance to select Albert one year with the first overall pick. I passed and regretted it all year. That was 3-4 years ago before he won a World Series with the Cardinals last year, signed a huge contract in the off-season and moved from the National League to the Anaheim Angles in the American League. Not taking anything away from Albert, but for the Cleveland Steamers he presents just one player on the roster.
I like my team – in particular my hitters. It was easy for me to see my catcher for example is clearly a much more desired catcher than the one on the Cleveland Steamers team. I have Carlos Santana and the Steamers have Chris Iannetta. I like Santana and hope to hear some tunes by Santana as he racks up the home runs this year. But I do have some players who though currently playing well, do have a high risk for injury. Among these as pointed out by the Steamers skipper are Carlos Beltran, Ian Kinsler and Jason Heyward.
Part 3: Closer Examination of Facts
Being curious, I compared my team’s offensive statistics with those from Albert and the Steamers. I compared just the hitters, and I first based my data on projected stats for the total 2012 season. This is where the bullet points of the Cleveland skipper and the data begin to diverge. There is a big disparity in our two teams offensive stats – much larger than I expected.
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday on Dragnet - "Just the Facts Ma'am"
It really is not even that close. The Los Malos Muchachos have better projected offensive stats than the Cleveland Steamers in almost every category except steals. The gap would be larger if Carl Crawford was excluded (we counted him in for a full year).
I mentioned the big disparity of the two teams to the Cleveland skipper – still thinking that he does have a good team. He said – “I don’t count projections”. I asked him if he took into account last year’s data. He said not in particular. “Oh, I see, than do you recognize data from say the past 2-3 years” I asked him. “No – not really” was his reply.
It was an “ah ha” moment for me. Like on of those moments when you are in a meeting and someone’s talking points or bullet points on a chart clearly don’t match the data you are seeing. Or like Sergeant Joe Friday in the television show Dragnet – when Jack Webb would confront a person with facts he had collected on the case.
Like Sr. Joe Friday tried to do, you will likely first seek clarification of the data. “I’m I seeing this correctly? Are you seeing the same thing I am based on the facts and data we have in this analysis?” And once the data is clarified you will get your answer – similar to Dragnet. The other person is either using a “coaches poll” approach, or as Joe Friday might say, they are “pretty high and far out”!
Part 4: Closing Statements – Data Points from our Readers
Please send us your comments on the two teams. Let’s get some comments and feedback from readers on the Cleveland Steamers and the Los Malos Muchachos. Either in a Sr. Joe Friday manner and comments presented with data, or in a Coaches Poll manner and opinions provided without data.
Here are the offensive stats which matter in our 5×5 league: Runs, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, Stolen Bases and Batting Average.
Here are the two teams to compare:
Cleveland Steamers: C Chris Iannetta, 1B Albert Pujols, 2B Neil Walker, 3B David Wright, SS Hanley Ramirez, OF Denard Span, Ichiro Suzuki and Chris Young. Utility is Kevin Youkilis and on the bench is Carl Crawford.
Los Malos Muchchos: C Carlos Santana, 1B Paul Konerko, 2B Robinson Cano, 3B David Freese, SS Erick Aybar, OF Carlos Beltran, Jason Heyward, Andrew McCutchen. Utility is Ian Kinsler and on the bench is Michael Morse.
You can count including and excluding the bench players. Carl is doing better and may return soon. Michael Morse is likely out for an extended period of time.
Sergeant Joe Friday poll (version with data): Present your comments and feedback with actual data – like a comparison of Albert Puljols to Paul Konerko – to be treated in the Sr. Joe Friday poll category. You can use for example either 2012 projected or historical statistics.
Anchorman Ron Burgundy poll (version with opinions only and potential data bias): Previously referred to as the USA Today Coaches poll, to be counted in this category, just provide comments similar to the Cleveland Steamers – just send comments and feedback without any regard to data.
Please drop us an email, or leave us a comment. Who in your opinion has the better offensive team? The Cleveland Steamers or the Los Malos Muchachos?
We will share the results of the poll with you here in a follow-up post – and will keep you posted on the results as they come in.
Upper Deck Views 