Vegas Watch

About a month ago I got an e-mail from one of the editors over at Covers, asking if I wanted to do some freelance work for them. After thinking it over, I decided to do a four-week trial, writing one article per week. That went well, so I'm going to continue- the articles are posted every Monday. From now on I'll be linking to them. This week's is about pitchers who aren't nearly as good as their impressive records/ERAs in the early going.

Other than the links, nothing will change here.

Two things. First, I have made it so I don't have to approve your comments before they show up- they will appear immediately from now on. I'll still get an e-mail every time a comment is posted. If I hate this, I'll switch it back, but I think it will be easier for everyone.

Also, there have been numerous comments recently beginning with, "I don't know where to put this, but...". From now on, just post any comments like that in this thread. I have put a permanent link to this post at the bottom of the "Daily Reading" tab on the left sidebar.

SITE NEWS: I think there will be a live-blog on Thursday. I see no reason not to. The first games tip at noon ET. Stay tuned.

Only one table for this one; you can find the full Pomeroy odds here. This tournament starts on Thursday; Joe Sheehan claims that the first round matchups (Iowa-Michigan, Penn St.-Illinois, Minnesota-Northwestern) "may end basketball as a pastime on Earth." That would be quite unfortunate, but I do sympathize with this position.

This comes down to whether you believe in the Badgers or not. Pomeroy has them as #4 in the country. They did finish 16-2 in the conference, and easily had the best scoring margin. They are not slated to face Purdue until the finals, but Pomeroy only has Purdue getting that far 37% of the time. Wisconsin +200 is almost definitely a good wager, but I really don't know what the fair line would be.

I finally purchased the new domain name that we voted on like two months ago. As you may have noticed, you are automatically redirected to vegaswatch.net when you type in the old URL. All the Blogspot stuff (bookmarks, RSS) should still work; please let me know if they don't.

Shyster with a hilarious post looking at his 1973 Topps set. He goes over about 70 of the cartoons on the backs of the cards. A few favorites:

"Steve does volunteer dentistry work." You can just do that?
"Dennis enjoys attending sporting events." Given his job, I would hope so.
"Ron loves New York for its fine knishes." First draft: "Ron is a Jew."
"Gary is a freeswing batter." In 1973 Maddox was a Vietnam vet and was already a supernatural centerfielder, yet Topps decided to comment on his .293 rookie on-base percentage. Nice.

Tracy Ringolsby:

"The biggest debates for me were Tim Raines, who obviously was overshadowed by Rickey Henderson, but also if you take Vince Coleman's five top years, I would say he outperformed Raines, too, and I don't see Coleman as a Hall of Famer."

In the comments, Tangotiger helpfully points out that Raines' five worst years were better than Coleman's five best.

The top 40 sports figures of 2007.

After a brief hiatus, one of my favorite college basketball blogs, Rush the Court, is back.

Looks like Gossage is going to be voted into the HoF this year.

Yes, I am going to link to Carl on a weekly basis. This week, his locks of the century. The analysis of the UGA-Hawaii game is absolutely stellar.

Posnanski relays an excellent Belichick story.

An interesting look at SLG% on different pitches in different locations.

I figured Pedroia would win, but I had no idea he'd get almost 3/4 of the vote. Although it's a complete waste of time, the AL MVP poll is up now.

Now that there are no more actual games, here is the schedule of when the actual awards are announced:

November 12: AL & NL Rookie of the Year
November 13: AL Cy Young
November 14: AL & NL Manager of the Year
November 15: NL Cy Young
November 19: AL MVP
November 20: NL MVP

So I'll be writing about all that as it happens, as well as free agency and such. I've got a few random things in mind for this week, while the MSM obsesses over Colts-Pats and A-Rod. And I need to get back up to speed on college basketball, which will be a main focus here between now and Opening Day 2008.

Vegas Watch is a blog which looks at the sports world from a statistical and analytical perspective. It was started in April, 2007. The founder, writer, and editor of the site is Jacob Wheatley-Schaller (that'd be me). I just finished my junior year at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and plan on graduating next May with majors in both business and economics. I also write a weekly article for Covers, an example of which can be found here.

Vegas Watch has been referenced on many larger sites, including ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports, SI.com, Baseball Prospectus, and Deadspin. In 2008 Vegas Watch has averaged 68,000 page views per month. If you are interested in advertising, or have any other questions, please contact me at vegaswatch@gmail.com.