PudnerSports.com: July 2023

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Verlander's last Met Start? Vs Cueto's 1st Marlins Start

Well, Justin Verlander is so far still a Met and we've waiting long enough for his start. A fun matchup since he will face Johnny Cueto, back as a Marlin in time to fill the sport for Trevor Rogers who has missed 2 months and is still not rehabbing - a threshold for us not using a card.

Update - Verlander 6 shutout innings, and Cueto gave up 3 runs in 5.2 innings. However it was newly traded David Robertson who kept it from getting worse by coming in with bases loaded to get his recent teammate Tommy Pham to ground out as shown in this photo.

And Verlander perhaps a fitting Mets end. After 6 scoreless innings the Mets horrible fielding resulted in a bad news bears 7th inning as 5 runs scored on an error and allowing 3 clutch defense plays to go through for hits. It was almost a disasterous David Robertson win and Verlander loss in what could be his finale, but the Mets did tie it so neither got the decision, before the Marlins scored in the 9th to win 6-5.

Our second game was a 5-1 Marlins Win to cap a 4 games to 2 series. The game was rained out after 4 1-2 innings. Cooper hit a grandslam in the 3rd inning to break a 1-1 tie, the with he tying run at the plate and bases loaded in the top of the 5th, Wendle made a diving catch on a clutch defensive play and doubled off the runner as the last play if the game before the rains halted the game.

Click for the free Statis-Pro Master Baseball Game. Click here for 60 of the all-time great MLB teams, or on teams of many of the all-time great players on teams by nation or state with one sheet for each team. Or click on the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form. You simply print two teams cards and then either print theaster link above and fast action cards in master link or buy the dice to start playing.

If you are playing the current 2023 season, you can use these optional adjustments for 149 players who were playing much better or worse than than their projected 2023 pitchers or 2023 batters in card form.

Average Statis-Pro Runs/Gm 4.59, Actual MLB 4.61 - ERA Leaders Listed

The game log of our current NL Statis-Pro season yields the following stats based on our 184 games played this year - all home-and-home 2-game series. We had not compared in a while, but in an amazing comparison, in actual MLB play 14,437 runs have been scored in 3,144 games for a 4.59 runs per game average. In our Statis-Pro games and average of 4.59 runs per game have been scored in our 184 games.

This is satisfying, because of the time we spent calculating updated stolen base and advancing an extra base on a hit charts to match the percent success rate this year with the bases being closer together and bigger.

In chose to play the Dodgers-Giants series Saturday to see all the Dodgers new talent, while holding off on the Mets-Marlins series to see if Verlander is still on the Mets after the trade deadline. Verlander's card has the 7th best ERA in our Statis-Pro seasons at 1.83 of pitchers with at least 14 innings pitched.

In our games the Dodgers destroyed the Giants 7-0 and 8-1, with Julio Urias starting the first game and going seven shut out innings to lower his ERA to 1.33 - moving up to 4th in the league and four spots ahead of teammate Clayton Kershaw who was 6th at 1.69. All four of the Braves starters are in the top 14 pitchers in our Statis-Pro season, but the bullpen has blown some of our games, so the team has the third best record in Statis-Pro while the best record in actual MLB play.

The "record" we list actually includes games in which the pitcher starts and the team gets credit for a 3 games to 0 sweep with a 5-run or more win, or gets a 2 games to 1 win for a closer win, and vice versa on losses. Spencer Strider has been the biggest victim of bad luck with the 8th best ERA at 1.93 but the Braves have gone only 5-7 in his starts due to scoring only 3.0 runs per game (support) and some of those bullpen collapses occuring in his games.

Here are all starting pitchers in our game in order of ERA, but only those with at least 14 innings pitched ranked.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Even Better Statis-Pro Dodgers Blitz Giants 7-0 and 8-1 (New Kelly and Hernandez Contribute

Two new Dodgers cards from trades made them an even more dominant looking Statis-Pro team. We just wrote in the new cards from the last couple of blogs and Enrique Hernandez singled in his first at bat, and Joe Kelly had a 1-2-3 inning as the Dodgers "swept" the hated Giants rivals with a 7-0 win to improve to 34-14.

Then in the second game (below the Statis-Pro board below) Hernandez homered to key and 8-1 sweep to make a t 6 games to 0 in the standings.

The Giants fell to 13-17, a big disappointment since they had their ace Logan Webb in the 1st game but he was tagged for 5 runs in 5.2 innings.

Friday, July 28, 2023

6 More Big Statis-Pro Card Moves Due to MLB Trades

With the August 1, 6 pm trade deadline approaching for MLB teams (no team will be playing at that moment, the first games on August 1 starts 40 minutes after the deadline), we have six new moves to add to our list of trades and 60 day DLS from yesterday's post.

The big winners today were the Dodgers, who picked up a strong PB 2-8 card for Joe Kelly back from the White Sox, and also grabbed what will be a solid middle reliever in our 4-man rotation league in Lance Lynn. The Dodgers already have the best record in our league (in real MLB play they are 2nd to the Braves, while the Braves are 3rd in Statis-Pro). The Dodgers are looking like our big NL favorite pending moves the next three days.

The Astros gained a nice reliever in Kendall Graveman, also from the White Sox and like Kelly returning to a team. The Marlins also picked up a nice card in reliever David Robertson, who has been even better in the real season. The Marlins have the only downside, as Matt Barnes will not be used in our games because he is not on 60 day DL - and while we keep a player card if they drop to the 40 man roster or short DL, we stop using them if they are on the 60 day DL

The only batter to change was the Rangers getting Kevin Plawecki from the Padres (and Pirates beginning of the year), but he is really just a backup for a loaded Rangers line-up. Click here for yesterday's post on 12 Statis-Pro cards changing status or team. Rules for the game appear below.

Thursday, July 27, 2023

12 Big Statis-Pro Card Moves Via Trade & 60-day DL

Here are 12 key cards whose team or status had changed in our Statis-Pro baseball game as the trade deadline approaches.

Winners include:

Los Angeles Angels with two nice pitching pickups in Lucas Giolito and Jorge Lopez, which of course more importantly goes with announcing they will NOT consider trading Ohtani.

Los Angeles Dodgers with two more nice bats who also play key positions in Amed Rosario and Enrique Hernandez. Already our best Statis-Pro team they get even better.

Miami Marlins who upgrade in our game with a PB2-7 Jorge Lopez coming and a not quite as good PB 4-7 Dylan Florio going to the Twins in return - but more important Johnny Cueto coming off 60-day DL.

Milwaukee Brewers, our second best team in the Statis-Pro NL season also had a nice pick-up in 1st baseman Carlos Santana, though in this case to offset an injury to an even stronger hitter.

Losers include:

Cleveland Guardians with the huge loss of Shane Bieber going to 60-day DL, which disqualifies his card from being used unless he comes back. While they picked up Noah Syndergaard in the Dodgers trade, he is only a PB 2-4 and the two batters they gave up to the Dodgers are good Statis-Pro cards. Guardians are the only huge loser of the last few days.

Minnesota Twins had a slight Statis-Pro downgrade in getting Dylan Florio (see Miami above in winners).

Seattle Mariners losing Marco Gonzales to 60-day DL, not huge as he is a PB 2-5, but he was a starter with an SR of 17 who could give them innings.

Washington Nationals with he speedy Victor Robles, whose card was upgraded for improving dramatically this year to lower opposing pitcher's PB by 1 - to take advantage of his AA speed stealing.

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Hall of Famer Fred McGriff's 1995 Braves Statis-Pro Team Features 3 top 100 Players

Unfortunately Scott Rolen played for the Phillies in between their great 1980 and 2008 teams and we did not pick his St. Louis Cardinals World Series teams among the four Cardinals champs we included in the Statis-Pro 60 All-Time great teams game. However, we do have today's other Hall of Fame inductee Fred McGriff with his 1995 Atlanta Braves.

In the all-time great teams game we do not have individual cards, but sheets for each player, and McGriff's card homers on 28-32 with deep drives that can go out on 33-35. In 1995 the usually did, leaving the park on 11-58. In our game the Braves opened the season with playing in 1924 at the Washington Senators when deep drives only went out on an 11-18 as the dead ball era wrapped up.

The first game was not only the dead ball era, but the ultimate pitcher match-up with Greg Maddux (14th greatest player of all-time on our list) going up against Walter "The Big Train" Johnson (9th greatest player of all-time). As you might expect, it was a 2-1 game in 10 innings with the Braves winning. In the nightcap back in 1995 in Atlanta, the Braves won 7-2 for the sweep.

In our game the Braves have two more top 100 all-time players in #78 Chipper Jones and #93 John Smoltz.

McGriff had the second best OPS on that 1995 championship team at .850 behind slugger Ryan Klesko's incredible 1.004. However, the Braves will love playing in eras with a DH, because Klesko has the worst fielding card in our league with an E-10 error prone card and the worst throwing arm rating of T-2. However, he may have been the best bat in the game for the title run.

I was actually at an exhibition game in my youth between the AAA Richmond Braves playing the parent Atlanta Braves. Klesko was so trying to impress the big club that he fielded a single to left and fired toward home, but about 10 feet over the catcher's head and into the stands, turning around so the big club wouldn't see him yelling at himself.

Congrats to the Crime Dog Fred McGriff as the cleanup hitter for the team of the 1990s as the slugging lefty first baseman.

Monday, July 17, 2023

Statis-Pro Teams Playing Better and Worse Than This Year and Last

We compared our current standings in the AL Statis-Pro season being played in Montana and the NL Statis-Pro season being played in Milwaukee.The table below lists both leagues in alphabetical order - 10 teams in the AL and 11 teams in the NL. Teams in green are playing better in Statis-Pro then their actual record the last two seasons, and teams in red are playing worse in Statis-Pro than the last two season. Most, 12 of 21, are playing almost exactly the same in Statis-Pro as their real standings.

By each team we list what their spot would be in the Statis-Pro playoffs if the season ended today - which looks very close to where the actual MLB playoffs would be today.

All six NL teams that would make the playoffs if our Statis-Pro season ended today and if the real MLB season ended today. However, Atlanta is the best team in baseball but playing a bit below that level as the No. 3 in the NL so would need to host a 3-game series in Statis-Pro but be one of two teams with a bye in the real season.

The only two differences in playoff teams are in the AL, where Baltimore and Texas would make the real season, while in our Statis-Pro season they would be replaced by Seattle and the New York Yankees - who have Aaron Judge in Statis-Pro but not the real season. However, in the AL the best team Tampa Bay is the same in both Statis-Pro and the real season.

Teams should have a slightly worse records in Statis-Pro because they do not get games against the worst/relegated teams. In the AL the five relegated teams do not play any games, and in the NL they play a limited schedule.

One item we find interesting is that as disappointed as the Padres have been this season, so far they are even worst in Statis-Pro.

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Several Statis-Pro Strategies Result in Marlins-Reds Split

Fun split between Cincinnati (5-4 win at home) and Miami (4-3, 10 inning win at home) with plenty of speed on the new charts (bases closer together with more steals and extra bases taken) and other Statis-Pro strategy.

First, the Reds have two PB 2-7 starting pitchers and the rest drop off to PB 2-5. That lead to the key moment below.

Hunter Greene's + for starting the season well above projections took him up to a PB 2-7, while last year's best pitcher Sandy Alcantara's - lowered him to a PB 2-7 for an even match-up on the mound.

That led to this key moment as both teams were back to the top of their line-up in the bottom of the 4th, with Jazz Chisholm of the Marlins already having used his AA to steal a base (see the stolen base and runners taking extra base on a hit chart below) and Elly De La Cruz having already stolen two bases. But this time a PB 8 on the cards was not on Alcantara's card, putting the action on De La Cruz card where the 23 you see was a 2-run double to make it 3-1 Cincinnati en route to the 5-4 win.

The fact that Greene's pitched seven innings was also key. The Reds only have two relievers with better than a PB 2-6 card, so by getting them into the 8th the Reds could use them both including Alexis Diaz getting the save in the 5-4 win.

The Reds were left with a PB 2-5 starter in Ashcraft, but because of Green's long start Ashcraft only had to get through three innings. This was also because of gaining another PB 2-6 in Joel Kuhnel from the Astros earlier to leave six PB 2-6 pitchers to pitch the 4th through the 9th which almost was enough as the Reds led 1-0 until the bottom of the 8th.

Another strategy move that almost worked occurred after Kevin Newman committed his second error in as many games at shortstop. Because he and De La Cruz can play shortstop or third base, we flipped them and it worked initially as De La Cruz CD-4 resulted in a diving stop in the 6th inning that saved a run. However, in the 10th it backfired with Chisholm on 3rd base with the tying run and the Reds leading 3-2.

This time the L5 - line drive to third base - was to Newman who caught it for an out but with a CD3 could not double the runner off. De La Cruz would have doubled him off to end the game and give the Reds a 3-2 win. Instead Jorge Soler and Jesus Sanchez followed with hits and an error by Fraley on the first hit put Soler on third base so he could score on the 2nd single to give the Marlins the split 4-3.

The Marlins slipped one spot to 4th place, one behind the Braves at 20-16, while the Reds remained two games out of 6th place at 21-27. The following is the revised runners advancing chart for the 2023 season.

Click for the sheet that tracks all our league standings and results.

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Big Statis-Pro Card Trades Before Deadline - Chapman to Texas and Escobar to Angels

With the trade deadline 16 days away, it was not fun as an Astros fan to see Aroldis Chapman mowing down the Guardians for his first save as a Texas Ranger, then Eduardo Escobar deliver two hits to help the Angels rally for a wild 13-12 win against the Astros.

In our Statis-Pro game, those are the two biggest pick-ups as we follow major league trades. We all expect a bunch of trades as the August 1 deadline, but here are the five trades that moved a Statis-Pro card from one team to another already. Three are just average relief pitchers, but Chapman and Escobar have great cards.

I took a grandson to a Brewers-Royals game and told him to watch Chapman throw well over 100 mph. He already has a GREAT PB 2-8 card in the game that will help the Rangers a lot, but in real play he has been ever better - facing 17 batters in five games and allowing only two to reach while striking out 7 with no walks, and of the 10 who made contact against him two went for hits and the other eight were out. With no runs allowed in the five games for the Rangers, his season ERA is down to 2.10.

Escobar has a great five home run card (24-28 are homers) and while almost all of the Deep drives of 31-33 were caught in the pitchers heaven where the Mets (only home run on 11-13 and fly out on 14-88) many of those are homers in the Angels park (11-54 homer, 55-88 fly out) as shown on our ballpark home run chart. The average is 11-35 homer. In fact, Escobar was not playing up to this projection with the Mets with only four homers after having a bit of decline each year from his monster 2019 when he led the league with 10 triples and added 35 homers.

Below we listed cards that have either changes teams or that we are not using in our game (we use players on the 40-man roster unless they go on 60-day DL) and players we had out but are now using again because they were on 60-day DL but are no longer. Even if a players has just gone to minor league rehab or moved down to 10-day DL, we start using their card again in the game.

Most injuries occur to pitchers (this a lot of "1" under position) but as you can see the first position player on the list is Boston's Yu Chang would would normally be a shortstop (thus the "6" before the dash) and occasionally 2nd base or 3rd base (thus the 4 and 5 after the dash). We also listed the OPS or ERA of each player card to give an idea on how strong the card in question is, and if they changed teams like the five above, are on the 60-day DL and thus we are not using the card, or "Use Again, Off DL" to note we were not using the card but are now using it again.

We have moved the traded cards on the google doc of the 2023 pitchers and 2023 batters in card form.

Card now	Pos	Player	Change in card	Card Stats	Update
ARI	1	Drey Jameson	60-day	Card ERA: 4.22	8-Jul
ATL	1	Dylan Lee (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 3.65	30-Jun
ATL	1	Max Fried (Pitch: L)	Use Again, off DL	Card ERA: 3.58	5-Jun
ATL	1	Nick Anderson	60-day	Card ERA: 4.41	13-Jul
BAL	1	Mychal Givens	60-day	Card ERA: 4.06	1-Jul
BOS	6/45'	Yu Chang	60-day	Card OPS: 0.701	22-Jun
CIN	1	Joel Kuhnel	Hou via trade	Card ERA: 4.18	17-Jun
CIN	1	Nick Lodolo (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 3.68	3-Jun
COL	1	Antonio Senzatela	60-day DL	Card ERA: 5.39	11-Jun
COL	1	Ryan Feltner	60-day	Card ERA: 5.45	29-May
DET	1	Matthew Boyd (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 4.22	27-Jun
DET	1	Tyler Alexander (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 4.26	4-Jul
DET	8/	Riley Greene (Bat: L)	Use Again, off DL	Card OPS: 0.729	31-May
KCR	1	Josh Staumont	60-day	Card ERA: 4.19	15-Jul
KCR	1	Josh Taylor (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 3.65	4-Jul
KCR	3/	Vinnie Pasquantino (Bat: L)	60-day	Card OPS: 0.826	18-Jun
LAA	1	José Suarez (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 4.42	20-Jun
LAA	5/46'	Eduardo Escobar (Bat: S)	NYM via Trade	Card OPS: 0.709	24-Jun
LAD	1	Dustin May	60-day	Card ERA: 3.65	23-May
LAD	87/9	Trayce Thompson	60-day	Card OPS: 0.741	11-Jun
MIA	1	Trevor Rogers (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 3.78	14-Jun
MIA	/8H	Jonathan Davis	60-day	Card OPS: 0.633	11-Jul
NYM	1	Trevor Gott	Sea via Trade	Card ERA: 3.91	4-Jul
NYY	1	Nestor Cortes (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 3.96	8-Jul
OAK	1	Drew Rucinski	60-day	Card ERA: 4.08	20-Jun
OAK	1	Zach Jackson	60-day	Card ERA: 3.77	21-Jun
PIT	1	Vince Velasquez	60-day	Card ERA: 4.68	23-Jun
SDP	1	Luis García	Use, off DL	Card ERA: 3.35	5-Jun
SDP	/2	Luis Campusano	Use, off DL	Card OPS: 0.673	2-Jun
SEA	1	Penn Murfee	60-day	Card ERA: 3.91	5-Jul
SEA	1	Robbie Ray (Pitch: L)	60-day	Card ERA: 3.77	12-Jun
STL	78/	Tyler O'Neill	Use Again, off DL	Card OPS: 0.779	6-Jul
TB	1	Robert Stephenson	Pit via trade	Card ERA: 4.12	2-Jun
Tex	1	Aroldis Chapman (Pitch: L)	KC via trade	Card ERA: 3.45	30-Jun
TEX	1	Jacob deGrom	60-day	Card ERA: 2.65	5-Jun

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Alphabetical List of the 68 Groups/Singers WIth At Least 4 Incredible "Turn It Up" Songs

We will return to baseball this weekend, but a random side project diverted me from the sports board games I normally use as my break from work. Here are the 68 groups I define as GREAT based on having at least four songs I consider so awesome that I have cranked them with headphones.

As I posted on Facebook a couple of days ago, I walked out of Daily Mass at the Cathedral and a local group called the Foo Foo Dolls was doing an incredibly great job with Cake's "Girl with a Short Skirt and a Long Jacket," which I posted here. After watching them I thought to myself that Cake actually four songs I consider incredible and would turn up and replay anytime - that one as well as Going the Distance, Will Survive and Never There.

Singer/Group	Yrs	My Favorite	2nd "Turn it up!"	3rd "Turn it up!"	4th "Turn it up!"
50 Cent	21st	In Da Club	21 Questions	Outta Control	Window Shopper
AC/DC	80s	You Shook Me All Night Long	It's a Long Way to the Top if you Wanna Rock 'n Roll	Highway to Hell	Back in Black
Aerosmith	70s	Sweet Emotion	Walk this Way (with Run-DMC)	Dream On	Livin' on the Edge
Alanis Morissette	90s	Hand In My Pocket	Ironic	You Oughta Know	You Learn
Allman Brothers Band	60s	Ramblin Man	Whipping Post	One Way Out	Midnight Rider
Aretha Franklin	60s	Respect	(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman	Think (best in Blues Brothers)	Chain of Fools (best with John Travolta Dancing)
Avett Brothers	10s	Murder in the City	I And Love and You	Ain't No Man	Live and Die
B-52's, The	70s	Private Idaho	Rock Lobster	Love Shack	Roam
Beatles, The	60s	I Want to Hold Your Hand	She Loves You	I Want to Hold Your Hand	Let It Be
Beck	21st	Loser	Girl	Where Its At	Lost Cause
Beyoncé	21st	Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)	Irreplaceable	Love on Top	Crazy in Love (Beyonce & Jay-Z)
Billy Joel	70s	You May Be Right	It's Still Rock 'n Roll to Me	Scenes From an Italian Restaurant	Big Shot
Blondie	70s	One Way or Another	Heart of Glass	Call Me	The Tide is High
Bob Seger	70s	Old Time Rock & Roll	Night Moves	Travelin Man	You'll Accompany Me
Bonnie Raitt	70s	Something to Talk About	I Cant Make You Love Me	Runaway	Sweet Home Chicago
Britney Spears	21st	...Baby One More Time	Toxic	Sometimes	Oops! I did it again
Bruce Springsteen	70s	Rosalita	Born to Run	Thunder Road	Born in the USA
Cake	90s	Girl with a Short Skirt	Going the Distance	Will Survive	Never There
Cars, The	70s	Good Times Roll	Just What I Needed	Since You're gone	Shake It Up
Cheap Trick	70s	I Want you to want me	Surrender	Ain't That a Shame	Dream Police
Chuck Berry	50s	Johnny B. Goode	Maybelline	Promised Land	You Can Never Tell
Clash, The	80s	London Calling	Should I Stay or Should I Go Now	Rock the Casbah	I Fought the Law
Creedence Clearwater Revival	60s	Proud Mary	Fortunate Son	Bad Moon Rising	Down on the Corner
David Bowie	70s	Changes	Pressure	Space Oddity	Young Americans
DC Talk	90s	Jesus Freak	Between You and Me	My Friend (So Long)	In the Light
Dolly Parton	70s	Magic Man	9 to 5	Jolene	World on Fire
Doors, The	60s	LA Woman	Light My Fire	Break on Through	People are Strange
Eagles, Don Henley, Joe Walsh	70s	Lifes Been Good	Hotel California	Boys of Summer	Seven Bridges Road
Earth, Wind, and Fire	70s	Serpentine Fire	September	Boogie Wonderland	Let's Groove
Elton John	70s	Rocket Man	Tiny Dancer	Your Song	Bennie and the Jets
Fleetwood Mac & Stevie Nicks	70s	Go Your Own Way	Dreams	Gypsy	Landslide
Garth Brooks	90s	Friends in Low Places	The Beaches of Cheyenne	Workin' for a Livin'	Callin Baton Rouge
Grateful Dead, The	70s	Friend of the Devil	Truckin'	Sugar Magnolia	Casey Jones
Green Day	21st	Basket Case (Do you have the time to listen to me whine!)	Wake Me Up When September Ends	Holiday	Boulevard of Broken Dreams
James Brown	60s	Get Up	Papas Got a Brand New Bag	I Got You (I Feel Good)	Living in America
Janis Joplin	60s	Me and Bobby McGee	Piece of My Heart	Mercedes Benz (because its too funny, and she doesn't need instruments)	Maybe
Jimi Hendrix	60s	Crosstown Traffic	Light My Fire	Foxey Lady	Purple Haze
Joan Jett	80s	I Love Rock 'n Roll	Bad Reputation	Crimson and Clover	Love Hurts
Johnny Cash	50s	Ring of Fire	I Walk the Line	I won't back down (Before Tom Petty did it)	Folsom Prison Blues
Kanye West	00s	Jesus Walks	All of the Lights	Stronger	Gold Digger
Killers, The	00s	Mr. Brightside	Somebody Told Me	When You Were young	Read My Mind
Kinks, The	60s	Paranoia	All Day and All of the Night	You Really Got Me	Lola
Lady Gaga	21st	Poker Face	Bad Romance	Shallow (from Star is Born)	Hold My Hand (Top Gun)
Led Zeppelin	70s	When the Levee Breaks	Whole Lotta Love	Kashmir	Ramble On
Lynyrd Skynyrd	70s	Gimme 3 Steps	Free Bird	Sweet Home Alabama	Travellin' Man
Marvin Gaye	70s	I Heard It Through the Grapevine	Whats Going On	Got To Give It Up	Lets Get It On
Melissa Etheridge	80s	Come to My Window	I'm the only one	I want to come over	Piece of My Heart (Tribute to Janis)
Nirvana	90s	Smells Like Teen Spirit	Come as You Are	Lithium	In Bloom
Pat Benatar	80s	Heartbreaker	Hit Me with Your Best Shot	Love is a Battlefield	I Need a Lover
Police, The	80s	Roxane	Don't Stand So Close to Me	Message in a Bottle	Every Little Thing She Does
Pretenders	70s	Middle of the road	Brass in Pocket	Back on the chain Gang	My City Was Gone
Prince	80s	1999	Purple Rain	Raspberry Beret	Little Red Corvette
Queen	70s	Bohemian Rhapsody	Under Pressure	We Will Rock You	Crazy Little Thing Called Love
R.E.M.	90s	End of the World as We Know It	Losing My Religion	The One I Love	Radio Free Europe
Rage Against the Machine - though they hate political people like me :-)	90s	Killing in the Name	Bulls on Parade	Renegades of Funk	Testify (they attacked both parties LOL)
Ramones	70s	Blitzkrieg Bop	Sheena Is a Punk Rocker	Rock 'n Roll High School	Something to Believe IN
Red Hot Chili Peppers	90s	Under the Bridge	Californication	Can't Stop	Other Side
Rolling Stones, The	60s	Shattered	Start Me Up	Jumpin Jack Flash	(I Cant Get No) Satisfaction
Rush	80s	Tom Sawyer	Limelight	Subdivisions	Fly by Night
Stevie Wonder	70s	Sir Duke	Superstition	Signed, Sealed, Delivered Im Yours	I wish
Supremes, The (Diana Ross)	60s	Stop! In the Name of Love	Im Coming Out	Baby Love	You Can't Hurry Love
Talking Heads	80s	Burning Down the House	Once in a Lifetime	Psycho Killer	Take me to the River
Tina Turner	80s	Proud Mary	Whats Love Got to Do With It	River Deep, Mountain High	The Best
Tom Petty	70s	I won't back down	American Girl	Free Fallin"	Don't Come Around Here No More
U2	21st	Beautiful Day	With or Without You	I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For	Bloody Sunday
Van Halen	80s	You Really Got Me	Jump	Panama	California Girls
Weezer	90s	Beverly Hills	Buddy Holly	Say It Ain't So	Take on Me
Who, The	70s	Real Me	Who Are You	My Generation	Wont Get Fooled Again

I thought, "Wow, there can't be too many bands that have four or more songs I consider that good."

Anyone who knows me knows that thought led to a spreadsheet and dump of all the greatest bands and songs. Well, it turns out there are actually 60 additional bands which I listed below alphabetically along with the decade in which they primarily performed, and my favorite four songs from each band starting with my favorite - but the other three not necessarily in order.

I am more Classic Rock but also Kanye, and a couple of country etc. I listed the bands alphabetically, and did not put "the" in front of words, so the list starts with AC/DC and ends with (The) Who, meaning my favorite band is listed last.

For fun, how many groups would say are responsible for at least four of your favorite songs?

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Braves Olson Glove Saves 4-2 Win; 3-Run HR Keys 10-0 Win vs. Marlins

The best team in real MLB action this year was the first to cool the hottest team in Statis-Pro baseball so far this season, as the Braves won their home-and-home 4-2 and 10-0 in our series.

In the bottom of the 7th Matt Olson stole a hit due to his E1 on a Z-play that could gave become a hit otherwise, and then he singled to start the bottom of the 8th and game home on Ozzie Albies second double of the game for the final 4-2 winner to make a winner of Max Fried. In the second game Olson hit s 3-run homer in the 2nd inning to chase Marlins starter Trevor Rogers with a 5-0 Braves lead en route to the 10-0 victory.

The Marlins came into the game with the best record in our Statis-Pro league, albeit benefitting from consecutive series against relegating teams to help them start 16-8. The Braves meanwhile were disappointing compared to their dominant season in real MLB, playing slightly above .500, before the games propelled them to a 27-21 mark - technically still percentage points behind the Marlins.

The following is the combined box score for both teams, followed by the standings and games remaining to get to 48 games played - with the Braves the only one to hit that mark.

Game 1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Marlins	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	9	0
Braves	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	x	4	8	0

Game 2	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Braves	2	3	0	1	3	0	0	1	0	10	13	0
Marlins	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0

The box score for both games follows with links to all the players.

Atlanta batters	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI		Notes
Ronald Acuna Jr.	rf	9	3	3	0		BB, SB, 3-2Bs
Austin Riley	3b	8	2	1	1		2-BB
Matt Olson (Bat: L)	1b	5	3	3	5		2-BB,SF,2B,HR
Ozzie Albies (Bat: S)	2b	9	0	3	1		2-2b
Travis d'Arnaud	c	9	1	3	0		2b
Sean Murphy	dh	8	0	2	1
Orlando Arcia	ss	7	1	1	0		2-bb
Eddie Rosario (Bat: L)	lf	6	2	2	1		2b, BB, SF
Michael Harris II (Bat: L)	cf	8	2	3	4		2b, HR
Braves 2 game totals		69	14	21	13

Braves Game 1	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes
Max Fried*	8	7	2	2	1	9	Win
A.J. Minter*	1	1	0	0	0	1
Totals	9	8	2	2	1	10

Braves Game 2	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes
Charlie Morton	7	5	0	0	1	8	Win
Collin McHugh	1	1	0	0	0	0
Raisel Iglesias	1	1	0	0	0	1
Totals	9	7	0	0	1	9

Miami batters	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI		Notes
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (Bat: L)	ss	8	0	1	0
Luis Arraez (Bat: L)	2b	8	0	2	0
Jorge Soler	rf	8	0	0	0
Jesús Sánchez (Bat: L)	cf	8	0	2	0
Garrett Cooper	dh	8	1	1	0		2b
Yuli Gurriel	1b	6	0	1	0		bb
Joey Wendle (Bat: L)	3b	7	0	3	0
Nick Fortes	cf	8	0	1	0
Garrett Hampson	lf	4	1	2	0		2-SB
Bryan De La Cruz	lf	4	0	2	0
Marlins 2 game totals		69	2	15	0

Marlins Game 1	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes
Jesús Luzardo*	5	6	3	3	2	5	Loss
Tommy Nance	1	1	0	0	0	0
Huascar Brazoban	1	0	0	0	0	0
A.J. Puk*	1	1	1	1	1	1
Totals	8	8	4	4	3	6

Marlins Game 2	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Notes
Trevor Rogers*	2	5	5	5	2	4	Loss
Dylan Floro	1	2	0	0	0	2
Matt Barnes	1	2	1	1	0	2
JT Chargois	0.3	1	3	3	2	0
Andrew Nardi*	0.7	1	0	0	1	2
Steven Okert*	1	0	0	0	0	1
Tanner Scott*	1	1	0	0	1	0
Edward Cabrera	2	1	1	1	2	1
Totals	9	13	10	10	8	12

And finally, here are our Statis-Pro standings to date.

Getting each team to 8 series (16 games for 48 "games)

1. LA Dodgers 28-14 - play SF

2. Milwaukee 27-15 - play SF

3. Miami 17-13- play Cin, NYM, Phil, SF

4. Atlanta 27-21 - at 48 games

5. San Fran 13-11 - play LA, Mil, Mia, SD

6. Arizona 20-22 - ChC

Playoff Cut off

7. Chicago Cubs 20-22 - Arz

8. NY Mets 20-22 - play Mia

9. Cincinnati 18-24 - play Mia

10. Philadelphia 17-25 - play Col

11. San Diego 16-26 - play SF

Friday, July 7, 2023

Tampa Moves Into 1st in Balanced (except for ChiSox) AL Statis-Pro

Most of our Statis-Pro updates are on our NL season this year since that is the league your writer is playing out. However, my best friend out west has been rotating leagues with me on and off since our youth in the 1980s, and he provides this update on the parallel AL season. We will ultimately meet in the World Series - which if we did with the top team in our respective leagues right now would be the Tampa Bay Rays against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Parity continues to rule in the Statis-Pro American League. Nine of the ten teams still have a legitimate shot at the playoffs. (poor White Sox)

It took a while, but the Rays finally got hot (winners of 8 straight) and now lead the east.

Dominant pitching has been the key for Tampa Bay with the fewest runs allowed in the league. (3.06 rpg)

Toronto led the division most of the first half but a recent four game losing streak opened the door for Tampa Bay.

In the west, no one is taking control. Seattle is the surprise but everyone is waiting for the Astros to eventually move ahead. Houston dropped 3 of the last 4 to slide back again.

The Rangers (2-7) and the Guardians (6-13) have overcome terrible starts to get back in the race.

Individually, Anthony Santander of the Orioles is putting together an MVP caliber season. (leads league in HR’s & RBI’s & Runs Scored)

Teammates Shane Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs of Tampa Bay as well as Nestor Cortes of the Yankees are Cy Young contenders through eight starts.

EmmanuelClase continues to dominate in relief going 12-12 in save opportunities.

AL East

Tampa Bay 20-13

New York 18-15

Toronto 18-15

Baltimore 16-17

Boston 16-17

AL “West”

Seattle 18-15