Expected Win-Loss Record (X W-L)

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Major League Baseball now posts (since mid-2006) a new stat:

X W-L – Expected won-loss record based on runs scored (RS) and runs allowed (RA), using this formula: RS^1.82/((RS^1.82)+(RA^1.82))

… what does this tell us?

Seemingly this stat can tell you how teams win, if the X W-L ratio greater than the actual W-L ratio the team loses close games but wins big, or if less than the team is winning close but losing big.

—–

for the real math behind it, check out this 1999 article form Baseball Prospectus

In practical terms, the implications are fairly small. For most off-the-cuff calculations of runs and runs allowed into wins, the 1.5% gain in accuracy isn’t worth the trouble of finding a new exponent for every team; just use 1.85 or thereabouts, and get on with your life.

It really makes a difference, though, to the small group of people who try to assess the value of a player’s performance as precisely as possible.

The most noticeable impact is going to be on the value of good pitchers in extremely pitching-friendly environments. A pitcher-friendly environment brings down the exponent; a good pitcher, by his own efforts, decreases the run environment and the Pythagorean exponent even further.

continue on for a good Bob Gibson example

Honestly, I don’t see how this helps anyone understand anything.

[tags]MLB, baseball, stats, X W-L[/tags]

The Icelandic Thunder

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Jim Dandy’s in Clarks Summit, PA serves some mighty fine wines, liqueurs, daiquiris, and beer.

My favorite of all is the Icelandic Thunder.

It’s something like this:

It’s far from a masculine drink, but they sure can f’ you up.

Unfortunately I don’t have the exact recipe… but here are the ingredients:

rum, Southern Comfort, apricot brandy, blue curacao, pineapple juice, sour mix and sprite

If anybody can get me a copy of the recipe, I would much appreciate it.

Scranton Gangster – Revisited

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It has come to my attention that the original Scranton Gangster (sometimes known as “Scranton Anthem” or “Steamtown”) is no longer available at its original site…

So I have decided to host it honor of the original by MO7s, who were made up by Mike Beberich, Kevin O’Boyle, with John Siddons.

[audio:https://www.chrisflannery.com/music/scranton%20anthem.mp3]
The Scranton Anthem (mp3)

Lyrics as transcribed by me:

Ya’ll listen up to my man Mike Beberich… comin’ live atchoo! Holla at me son!
Once upon a time there was a ravin’ and rantin’
Boy form the itty-bitty shitty City of Scranton
Who had a tendency for leavin’ emcees pantin’
With the quickness, witness the reckless abandon
Nobody ever knows what the fuck I’m sayin’
And my flows…
{incoherent}
Hey Kevin, yo
Lay the synth line down
Because hate it or love it, man, this is my hometown
From up the Eynon to down by the U
The place where good times are far between and few
But we do what we can with a bowl in our hand [inhaling]
God damn – feels good to be back, man
In a city of empty minds and trains that just don’t run
But oh what fun
Just driving past all these dead buildings
Drinkin’, smokin’, brain cell killin’, just chillin’
Even though there ain’t no hot spot
No-one’s got money
Our city was the bomb back in 1920
Now the heroin and pot rules[?] are exquisite
Scranton: you wouldn’t want to live here or visit

But I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a gun, but I’ll still shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van
Yeah, I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a knife, but I’ll still try to shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van

I’m back and I’m rappin’ like my ass is on crack
Can escape to New York City but they keep holding me back
And while I’m here I might as well write my city an anthem
It’s not pronounced Scran-TON, bitch, this is Scrant-UN
The motherfuckin’ place that made me
Memories of gettin’ fucked up on Parade Day
{?} I’ll flow about it until my brains is empty
The first two initials of my name is M.C.
The envy of absolutely no one
It’s no fun chillin’ in Pine Brook with single moms
And chillin’ in the hills making a swag weed purchase
Drug…{?} Minooka…
Where there’s twice as many bars as there are churches
To Green Ridge, where you any got no business if you ain’t rich
Down to Lackawanna Avenue, pick up a bitch [hey baby]
90% of our citizens are 90 years or older
We got a nine month wind that keeps getting colder
So much to say, nothing to do at all except for chillin’ our 15 year old new mall
[?]So that’s all I gotta say Fuck L.A. and BeanTown, this here is my dream town Bitch, Welcome to Steamtown!

But I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a gun, but I’ll still shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van
Yeah, I’m a Scranton gangsta
I can’t afford a knife, but I’ll still try to shank ya’
My words will fuck you up much quicker than the {?} can
24’s spinnin’ on a busted-ass mini-van

yo… G.R.P.(Green Ridge Pizza)…T.B.N.T.

word up at Tink’s, Cafe Del Sol… and all the other places that got shut down, or burned down… we love you.

[tags]scranton, anthem, Minooka, Green Ridge, Tink’s, Steamtown[/tags]

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Teenage Spaceship

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Flying around
The houses at night
Flying aloneA teenage spaceship
I was a teenage spaceship
Landing at night

I was beautiful with all my lights
Loomed so large on the horizon
So large, people thought my windows
Were stars
So large on the horizon
People thought my windows
Were stars

A teenage spaceship
A teenage spaceship

And I swore Id never lay like a log
Bark like a dog

I was a teenage smog
Sewn to the sky

DIY: coloring books for liberal parents

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Here is nice website for liberal parents to break the shackles of oppressive conservative coloring book corporations:

Ed Begley, Jr. – Actor & Environmentalist

 


James Baldwin: writer, civil rights activist, gay, expatriate

 


Bono: irish singer, humanitarian, all-around douchebag

 


Boutros Boutros-Ghali: former secretarty general of the UN, under his watch the UN allowed the Rwanadan Genocide

picmees.com

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I opened an account at picemees.com today. It’s pretty interesting concept in which artists can upload their work for fame, glory and cash prizes. You should check them out, and look at my submittals.

Picmees.com? Who are we?
(Don’t tell anybody but we are a diabolical secret society dedicated to overthrowing the various fiat currency regimes around the globe. The art site known as picmees.com is just a clever capitalist front to disguise our true intentions. Click here for further details)
Just kidding! LOL! The diabolical society bit gets ’em every time.

Actually, at picmees.com, we believe in the following principles:

1. We love our nation but believe that our culture does not do enough to support artists.
2. Potential artists are everywhere.
3. One of the hardest – and noblest – decisions anyone can ever make is the decision to make art. To become an artist. It is a decision fraught with loneliness and peril and once a brave person steps up and says “yes i am an artist!!!!!!……”
4. ………there should be a reasonable way for that person to make some money.
5. We at picmees.com want to help artists generate some income so they have more time to make their art.

[tags]art, contests, prizes, spartacus[/tags]

I had a dream…

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… last night that I killed you. I told you a funny joke while you were drinking hot coffee.
You inhaled 12 oz of Dunkin’ Donuts and burned your lungs. You eventually suffocated.
I’m sorry being so insensitive.

Sallie, you were truly one of a kind.

affluenza

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affluenza, n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.