33 Things Learned or Verified in 2011

1. Pre-season predictions are fun and impossible to resist but complete bollacks

2. The St. Louis Cardinals are a scourge to the NL Central and the rest of MLB.  Once again they won the World Series with the worst record among postseason qualifiers (see also 2006).

3. The St. Louis Cardinals helped provide one of most exciting Octobers of recent memory, not to mention the stretch September run

4. Tony LaRussa carries magic beans in his pocket instead of sunflower seeds

5. Ron Washington is a fine motivational manager but a dim tactical manager.  If he only trusted his gut half the time, the Rangers would have won 100 games and likely the World Series

6. Miguel Cabrera is good.  Really good.  I’ll drink to that.

7. CC Sabathia is good.  Really good.  I’ll eat a pork sandwich to that.

8. A whole lot about advanced statistics.  Pitcher wins account for very little towards actual performance.  ERA is nearly as inconsequential.  Saves are silly.  And much much more.  Batting average is overvalued, gold gloves are nonsense when they should (and one day could) mean a great deal.  And a whole lot more with a whole lot more to learn.

9. The mainstream media refuses to openly acknowledge these new stats, despite their actually telling a more specific story about every aspect of this game without detracting from the human elements all us baseball fans love.  To paraphrase Poet-Laureate of MLBN Mitch Williams, “shit confuses me, I don’t get it”.  Too many baseball writers/pundits continue to refuse these wonderful stats.

This idea flashes in Harold Reynolds eyes nightly.

10. Grant Brisbee of Baseball Nation and Jonah Keri of Grantland are two of the best informed and entertaining of all baseball writers.  They don’t get to vote for awards.

11. Jon Heyman does get to vote for awards.  An IRS audit could very likely produce some interesting results.

12. The MLB Network is one of the greatest things in all the world.

13. The MLB Network has a lot of jackholes preventing it from being the greatest thing in all the world.

14. Bob Costas is still awesome but needs to ease up on his lip balm application (Tom Verducci should also take note).

15. Jon Miller and Joe Morgan, despite their deficiencies, are sorely missed on Sunday Night Baseball.

Say what you will, these guys sounded like baseball.

16. The Pittsburgh Pirates deserve better.

17. The Baltimore Orioles deserve better.

18. The New York Mets do not deserve better.

19. But New York Mets fans do deserve someone pretty to sing “Soft Kitty” to them at bedtime.
20. The baseball season should probably be shortened back to its pre-1961 154 games
21. The New York Yankees are no longer the most enjoyable team to root against.
22. The Boston Red Sox, with their despicably short-sighted fanbase, are now the most enjoyable team to root against.  May the Fens run red in 2012!
23. Baseball owners and the Commissioner's office are still corrupt.  Would we have it any other way?
24. Money still talks, but baseball is still baseball
25. The Miami Marlins couldn't be more lame.  But we will all be watching anyway.
26. The stolen base is in a serious rut.
27. The sacrifice bunt has too many facebook friends
28. Baseball writers aren't as good as they used to be; but baseball bloggers are better than ever.  A thinning of the herd may be a good thing.
29. Awards voting continues to be a mess.
30. There should probably be at least five players inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.  Probably only two will make it, and one of them probably shouldn't.
31.  Spring Training cannot come soon enough.
32.  The 2012 season will be unlike any other in history.
33. Bill Veeck was right.

"There are but two seasons:

Winter and Baseball."