2011 College Football Picks, Week 5

I've had two straight weeks over .500.  For the season I'm 23-26-1.

Rutgers +1.5 Syracuse (win)
Navy -3.5 Air Force(loss)
TTech -6.5 Kansas(win)
Ohio U -16.5 Kent(loss)
Idaho +16.5 Virginia(win)
Kansas St. +3.5 Baylor(win)
Ark St. v. WKy Under 53(win)
La Tech -4.5 Hawaii(loss)
LaTech v. Hawaii Under 61(loss)
Utah -9.5 Wash(loss)
FIU -3.5 Duke(loss)
NMex St. -1 NMex(win)
Wisconsin -10 Nebraska(win)
NDame -11.5 Purdue(win)
Fresno St. -3.5 Miss(loss)

8-7
31-33-1

Wrapping it Up - the 2011 San Francisco Giants

The Giants season has ended.  So, now its time to incorporate the results into the historical record.

Welcome to history - the 2011 San Francisco Giants!

I've ranked every SF Giants team in history by pythagorean record here.  The 2011 Giants went 80-82, making it the 35th best San Francisco team ever, right between the other two 80-82 teams, 1997 and 1983.

I've compiled a list of every SF Giants season by WARP(now using Clay Davenport version, which should correspond more accurately with the previous work) and WAR (Baseball reference).  You can get to all of that here.

Here's the 2011 team

C Posey 1.6/1.3
1B Huff 1/-.6
2B Sanchez .5/.7
SS Fontenot .6/.3
3B Sandoval 5.9/5.9
LF Ross 1.7/-.1
CF Torres .5/.7
RF Schierholtz 1.3/.8
OF Beltran 2.1/1
P Lincecum 5.6/3.6
   Cain 4.8/3.6
   Bumgarner 4/2.3
   Vogelsong 4.8/3.4
Cl Wilson 2/.5
    Casilla 1.5/1.3
    Romo 1.8/1.8
    Lopez 1.6/1.1

If you add the numbers together and divide by two, that's a pretty good snapshot of for how many wins above a readily available replacementeach player is responsible.  Sandoval was easily the Giants best position player in '11 - in fact, he was the best third baseman in baseball in 2011.  The Giants top 4 starters all had good seasons; they were the next 4 most valuable Giants after Sandoval in 2011.

Sandoval's season was the best for a Giants third baseman since Matt Williams in 1993.

I'd like to say Huff's season, giving us virtually nothing was historically bad - but it's not.  Since Will Clark left after the 1993 season, the Giants have gotten nothing from first base in the following years:

1994 - Benzinger
1996 - Carreon
1998 - Snow
2001 - Snow
2002 - Snow
2005 - Snow (JT Snow was not a good baseball player.)
2006 - Hillenbrand
2007 - Klesko
2008 - Bowker
2009 - Ishikawa

Huff lost all of his value from a year ago, when he had the best season for a Giants first baseman since '89.

Except for third base and right field, we got a production decline at every position in 2011.

Cain and Lincecum both continue to climb up the All Time San Francisco Giants list - which you can find here. Cain is the 14th and Lincecum the 15th most valuable San Francisco Giant ever, they are the 4th and 5th most valuable SFG pitchers ever.  Cain has one more year and Lincecum two more years remaining on their deals, I think.  My longstanding assumption is we're able to keep one of them.

I Pick Every NFL Game in 2011 - Week 4

My season record thusfar is 29-17-2 against the spread; 34-14 straight up.  I haven't gone back in to make any changes after my initial posts thusfar; but going forward my schedule requires that I make these picks Wednesdays - so it might be that I reconsider a couple of games Fridays. Edit - I did.

Dallas -1 Detroit(loss/loss)
NO -7 Jax(win/win)
Wash over StL(win/win)
Tenn +1 Cle(win/win)
Bills -3.5 Bengals(loss/loss)
KC +1.5 Minn(win/win)
Chi -6.5 Carol(loss/win)
Pit +4 Hou (Houston wins game)(loss/win)
Sea +4.5 Atl(Falcons win game)(win/win)
Ariz +1.5 NYG(loss/loss)
Philly -6.5 Niners(loss/loss)
SD -7 Mia(win/win)
Den +13 GB (GB wins game, that's my suicide winner)(loss/win)
Oak +4.5 NE (Patriots win game)(loss/win)
NYJ +3.5 Balt (Ravens win game)(loss/win)
Indy +10 TB (Tampa wins game)(win/win)

ATS: 7-9, 36-26-2
SU: 12-4, 46-18

The Top 5 MLB Players at Each Position, end of 2011 ed.

Before the season, I offered a view as to the 10 best baseball players at each position.

The season's now over.  Here were the top five players at each position through a combination of WARP(Clay Davenport version) and WAR (Baseball-reference version).

Catchers
1. Alex Avila
2. Miguel Montero
3. Mike Napoli
4. Yadier Molina
5. Matt Wieters

First Basemen
1. Adrian Gonzalez
2. Joey Votto
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Albert Pujols
5. Prince Fielder

Second Basemen
1. Ian Kinsler
2. Dustin Pedroia
3. Ben Zobrist
4. Robinson Cano
5. Brandon Phillips

Shortstops
1. Troy Tulowitzki
2. Jose Reyes (come to San Francisco, Jose Reyes)
3. Jhonny Peralta
4. Erick Aybar
5. JJ Hardy

Third Basemen
1. Pablo Sandoval
2. Evan Longoria
3. Adrian Beltre
4. Alberto Callaspo
5. Aramis Ramirez

Left Field
1. Ryan Braun
2. Alex Gordon
3. Matt Holliday
4. Josh Hamilton
5. Gerardo Parra

Center Field
1. Matt Kemp
2. Jacoby Ellsbury
3. Andrew McCutcheon
4. Curtis Granderson
5. Shane Victorino

Right Field
1. Jose Bautista
2. Mike Stanton
3. Justin Upton
4. Hunter Pence
5. Carlos Beltran (if Reyes comes, my guess is Beltran stays)

Starting Pitchers
1. Justin Verlander
2. Clayton Kershaw
3. Roy Halladay
4. Cliff Lee
5. CC Sabathia

Relievers
1. David Robertson
2. Jonny Venters
3. Eric O'Flaherty
4. Mariano Rivera
5. Tyler Clippard

2011 MLB Award Ballot

Still to come, my top 10 players at each position for 2011, and my 2011 post season predictions.

I'll also update my all time San Francisco Giants posts to reflect the 2011 season, and I've got a rework of my 200 greatest major league baseball players of all time to begin rolling out.  Offseason doesn't end baseball talk here at Basically Gherkins.

NL MVP: 1. Matt Kemp
                2. Ryan Braun
                3. Roy Halladay

NL Cy Young: 1. Roy Halladay
                       2. Clayton Kershaw
                       3. Cliff Lee

AL MVP: 1. Jose Bautista
                2. Justin Verlander
                3. Jacoby Ellsbury

AL Cy Young: 1. Justin Verlander
                       2. Jared Weaver
                       3. CC Sabathia