Around the horn (briefly): Lists

Lists, I It wasn't apparently scientifically determined, but SI's Baseball's Most Feared Sluggers list included a few hitters that I listed yesterday in my slightly more scientific "best players in baseball right now" list:

1. Pujols
2. Giambi
3. Ortiz
4. Thome
5. M. Ramirez
6. Guerrero
7. A. Rodriguez
8. D. Lee
9. Delgado
10. Bonds

SI obviously picked the sexier names in baseball, but the end result is the same: Pujols is the best, and Bonds is far from it. Speaking of Bonds, ESPN has a fantastic article that adjusts his home-run totals for his steroid use. So not only does Bonds really need to top 715, he apparently should only have 616 to begin with. Facing Mo' Who has the upper hand when a pitcher faces his longtime former team? It stands to reason that the pitcher would, since he has spent four of every five days observing the hitters from the bench, his former catcher being the lone exception. I'm not aware of any studies to back me up on that, however, so I could be wrong (as I am wont to be). At any rate, here are the current Cardinals who've faced Matty Mo:

Player	AB	HR	BI	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Spiezio	3	1	1	0	0	1.000	1.000	2.333	3.333
Encarnación	16	1	2	2	6	.250	.333	.438	.771
Eckstein	4	0	0	0	0	.250	.250	.500	.750
Rolen	7	0	1	2	1	.143	.300	.143	.443
Bennett	2	0	0	1	0	.000	.333	.000	.333

We'll see how well YaMo does tonight. Lists, II Curt Flood biographer Alex Belth names TLR in his "top five managers in the major leagues today." Ozzie Smith could not be reached for comment. Paging Jeff Nelson... Oh, sorry. He's apparently out of his office, getting ready to pitch for the defending world champs, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Formula for winning in the playoffs? Following up on the discussion from the meeting last night, I found an older but good article that reviews Bill James's even older World Series Prediction System. The upshot is this: "The most important single factor, speaking statistically, is frontline pitching." This would argue against the need for a "big stick" such as Cabrera and for someone like Cabrera's Marlin teammate, Dontrelle Willis, whom the Cardinals are apparently scouting (Willis has been getting roughed up lately, but at least not by his own teammates). James's system also favors good baserunning, something for which Cabrera is notably not known (which, I must say, I observed at the meeting). SABR, as others see it The Hartford Courant's Matt Eagan sits in on another SABR chapter's meeting, that of the Boston regional.