Skimming along the internet

David Pinto has put up his adjusted Probabilistic Model of Range for 2006 (team defensive rankings... he did one earlier in the week but he's tinkered with it some since then). You'll see the Pirates at the bottom of the ranking there. Pinto's model calculates how many balls in play should be turned into outs (based on a computer program) vs. how many the team actually turns into outs. Thus the Pirates finishing last doesn't mean they had the lowest defensive efficiency rating (DER) in the league, it means they had the biggest negative discrepancy between projected DER and actual DER. Remember when I did the season in review and talked about the high BABIP for pretty much all of our starters? This is why. It's pretty much insane to bulid a team around ground ball pitchers with a team behind them that can't field.

Beyond the Boxscore does a profile on Seth Smith, a
...a good, low risk prospect who is flying below the radar, here's your man. Seth Smith is a big, 24 year old, lefty-hitting corner outfielder who has done little other than hit since he was taken in the second round in 2004.
He's hit a ton of doubles in the minors (91 in the past two years) though not many homers (10 in the same timespan). Doubles often turn into homers with time. I don't know much about him, just passing names that I find interesting along. Here's his Baseball Cube page.

Charlie reiterates what should be the rallying cry of the Pirate blogosphere this winter, TRADE THE RELIEVERS. Cory has a post with a similar theme. Kind of like Heroes and their "Save the Cheeleader. Save the World.", we can have, "Trade the Relievers. Build a Team." It's not that easy, of course, but it would be a step in the right direction.

Brad Eldred has his average in the AFL up to .230. Pirates.com says I should be excited about this. Maybe I should since he was hitting .170 a while back. Anyways, Eldred and the other Buccos along with the rest of the Grand Canyon Rafters are playing in the AFL finals today. You can see the Rafters' full team stats here, though they won't tell you much you like unless you're a Jesse Chavez fan (OK, Walker has started hitting some, too).

That's all the links I have for today. Enjoy College Football this afternoon. Anyone know if there's any big games on today?

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