The View From Wisconsin

A few comments on storylines and such from my regular webcomics:

Candi Comics by Starline Hodge

Starline's got the comic on hiatus this week, as she's off to the UK. The storyline focused mostly on Candi's roommate and her date with a celibate UF student. Heh, Tim Tebow must be rubbing off on the populace in Gainesville!

Dork Tower by John Kovalic

Our intrepid heroes have been battling the demon of the faulty internet connection and the CAPTCHA wars while the author has been slackin' a bit. And, unfortunately, Igor has seen 2012 - which means he now is going to go nuts over the world ending. (He needs to talk to Cassie - see below.)

The Dreamland Chronicles by Scott Christian Sava

Alex has finally realized what he's up against - and what he's got ahead of him. I don't know Scott all that well, but I'm suspicious that Nicole might be showing up in Dreamland in the near future.

Evil Inc. by Brad Guigar

Ah, the flashback to when CH was a kid. I think it's obvious that it's only by sheer luck that he didn't end up as an Evil Genius instead of a Superhero. And you have to think that therapists for superheroes would be a growth industry...

Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio

Agatha's finding out what's in the basement of her ancestral home - and it ain't pretty. What's worse is that she's apparently come down with a case of Hogfarb's Resplendent Immolation (note to Agatha: never kiss your patient before you start a procedure, no matter how cute he is). And the cherry on top is, the Castle's AI won't let her kill herself to save them all. So, when's Othar going to show up and really put a wrench in the works?

Girls With Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto

Welp... looks like Angel the Bartender and Hazel's ex-boss Thea have hooked up, but Clarice (the librarian/porn store clerk) is left without anyone of her own - and the girls don't notice. And since Maureen and Jameson got married, no one's seen Candy (though she did wander through the pages of Something Positive for a bit).

Pibgorn at GoComics by Brooke McEldowney

Ah, we appear to be at the end of the "Pibgorn and the Volcano on 77th Street and Park Avenue" storyline - as confusing as it was. While New York was becoming a breeding ground for demons, thanks to Dru, she and Nat Bustard (aka "The Bogey Demon") were overcoming the powers of everybody's least favorite gameshow host, Tom Torquemada! The faithful anticipate a new roller-coaster ride on Monday.

PvPonline.com by The Kurtz

Scott did a little five-piece story ("The Incident") that essentially repeats the old adage of "things are not always what they appear to be." Otherwise... well, PVP is PVP. It bounces from funny to "Huh?" to "Oh, geez" to "OMG!" to "ROTFL!" - and, sometimes it does it within the space of a single comic.

Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques

Jeph's been doing a lot of little mini-arcs as of late - Dora meets up with Marten's dad, who then informs Marten he's getting re-married to his new gay lover. They all go out for a night on the town with Faye, Hanners and company. Then, suddenly, we're talking about Marigold and Hanners going to a "NerdCon" at Smif, Faye having an existential crisis over turning down a date with Angus (lucky Marigold), and a rather interesting t-shirt find in the local thrift shop. (Question: how many thrift shops are there in Northampton? Don't they have like a Macy's or at least a Wal-Mart, for cryin' out loud?) Anyways, Steve shows up, looking for the girl who hit on Marten (and then ran into Dora and her broadsword later that same day) - and ends up visiting Tai for her college yearbook. I'm just wondering who the "new character" is... though if my memory serves (and the archives are right), that's her roommate Brianna.

Real Life Comics - The Online Comic by Greg Dean

A week of "Inside the Comic Studio", essentially an A&E-like documentary (basically to honor the 10th anniversary of the "Strip About Nothing"). Yeah, I went there - this webcomic is essentially the geek version of Seinfeld. Deal with it.

Sequential Art by Phillip M. Jackson

The bug's been slayed, the kids have been saved, and Scarlet's dragging the carcass back to the house. The question, of course, is what they're going to do with it. (Does it taste like chicken?)

Sheldon Comics by Dave Kellett

Seriously: you HAD to love the whole Sheldonsoft Offices story arc. I'd argue that Tuesday's strip was a bit too close to home for those of us in the state service; I have yet to see outpatient surgery in a cubicle at work, though.

As for Drive: the story's starting to progress nicely, and we're actually getting a hint of what's actually going on in the "big picture" of this futuristic setting. Apparently, the baddies don't like it that Earthlings have their space drive system, and they've managed to track one of the ships with "their" drive heading out of a prison planetary system. This one's gonna be neat -and with Dave writing it, you know it'll be awesome.

Shortpacked! by David Willis

No, I don't particularly care for The Office, so I have no idea what Ethan would be. Of course, after the whole "Revisiting the old Joyce & Walky universe" thing with Mike and Amber, the little one-shots are refreshing.

Starslip by Kris Straub

Ohhhhkay... The whole "Quine Saves The Day" storyline was weird (with InfraRedbeard's return!), but to follow it up with... sensitivity training????? (FACEPALM)

Times Like This by Thomas Overbeck

Good, our intrepid time traveler has made the obvious statement - NOTHING HAPPENS on December 21, 2012. Though I have to admit that I never heard of the Roxanne Wars before Matt mentioned it...

Tux and Bunny by Lorna Appleby

What's there to say? One-liners, puns and snarky stuffed animals.

XKCD - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language by Randall Munroe

Mr. Munroe's level of GeekSnark gets raised every day - okay, three times a week, but still.

Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor

I may need to put this one in a separate post altogether. We're coming up on the attempt at fixing the Calendar Machine - and suddenly Monica's feeling like she's going to be killed. Which, of course, might be accurate, since the instructions for Shelly is to secretly stab Monica during their attempts at fixing the machine... but what or why (or if indeed she needs to die) aren't quite certain.

Add to this a visit from Shelly's "Conscience" (all her demons rolled into one and made to look like her when she was a little girl), and Monica's bouts with sanity... when's the New Moon, again?

In a very odd way, I ended up returning to my Internet roots to solve a problem I'd wanted to solve for some time.

A little reveal here: I have had some issues with some websites on this big ol' place we call the Internet. (You can probably guess which ones; I'm not going to go into the details.) Now, for some time I've known that IE and most other browsers and internet apps access a file called "hosts" to map host names to IP addresses. Basically, if you type in some sort of shortcut in a web browser, it takes you to the list in the hosts file first before looking it up on the internet. The main use of this file nowadays is to use it to block websites at the core - basically, keeping you from even getting to the site at all.

I've used Spybot Search & Destroy to populate the Hosts file with blockable websites, and learned quickly to add my own as well. However, there was one thing I could not figure out: how to do it in the Mac OS.

I found out that there is a hosts file in OS X.4, located over in a hidden (from the Finder, at least) folder called /private/etc/. The Mac OS, however, is very very touchy about changing files like this, since anything in the OS's hidden files are password protected, as with most UNIX-type coding.

So I had to figure out how to get to that file and then edit it with a copy of the hosts file that I'd ported over to my Mac via my trusty thumb drive. It wasn't until I found some arcane coding tips that I discovered I could do it using an editor named "nano", which was part of the Mac application called... Terminal.

Terminal. Which was how I developed my first website on Exec-PC, about 16 years ago. And yes, it was back using the old Mac system 8. The app I used with Exec-PC, though, was something called pico... which was the editor that nano is based upon.

After a few starts and stops, I realized that I could use a UNIX code to edit the hosts file:

sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

By using the SUDO code, I could get around the password protection and save the thing, once I edited the file. And, with nano, I could simply copy and paste the hosts file list from my text file version to the hosts file on my Mac.

Nice and easy, right? Heh, WRONG. It wasn't that I couldn't do it - I did - it was that the file was 8,016 lines long. It took a good long chunk of time to get it all pasted; a little more than two hours, since nano could only post about one line per second. Once it was done, though, I saved it and cheered mightily.

Then came the fun of clearing the DNS cache. Took me a couple of stops and starts to do this in Terminal, but I got it done - and the blocking worked.

• If Bucky Badger actually ends up playing in a bowl game this year, I'll be shocked. The Big Ten may be weak as a whole, but losing week in and week out isn't helping this program.
  
• I don't get it. This Predators team should be a lot better than it is. I mentioned my SOMH adventures before; the Preds' power play in SOMH is immensely better than their real-life counterparts. Yes, I know that the Blackhawks are a drastically improved team, but being at the bottom of the power-play rankings in the NHL (while your AHL squad is near the top, by the way) isn't helping.
  
• I have no feel or sense for the NFL season this year. There's just no level of excitement for the Packers or compelling reason for watching any other NFL game - other than just watching that train wreck of a throwback jersey the Broncos are wearing.
  
• If it means no more November baseball, I'm all for monthly doubleheaders for each team to help condense the baseball season. I'm not sure if it's Fox, MLB or what to blame for the late starts to the World Series, but shouldn't the first few games be played during the day on the weekends, during weather that has at least a 50% chance of being decent instead of wet and cold?
  
• I have a bad feeling that, if they actually manage to get game six of the ALCS underway tonight, and if the Yankees beat the Angels, that the Yanks will end up sweeping the Phillies in the World Series.
• Woke up a bit early this AM to discover that the alarm clock was reading an hour early. Immediately realized this must have been the old DST weekend, back in the days when DST was the last Sunday of October. Not sure how many devices in my house will need to be fixed.
  
• Somewhat surprised/saddened to hear that the Bank of Elmwood went under on Friday. I have a classmate of mine from Park who worked there, and I remember my parents doing some banking there. I know it's part of a larger nationwide trend, but still - it's sad that a bank that was around for nearly 50 years couldn't make it to 50 because of the home mortgage crisis.
  
• After all those years of using my Macs for pretty much everything, I think I'd be lost if I had to go back to using the Mac exclusively. I still have too much stuff in my Mac archives to get rid of it completely, but I'd manage to live if I had to do without.
  

I spent the majority of this week that I had off on vacation doing some playing around with my copy of Strat-O-Matic Computer Hockey Version 6. Mostly, it was an effort to try to update the teams so I could do some season simulations; the main problem is that the player sets that I have are from the two seasons before and after the "You-Know-What".

Since SOM doesn't allow you to directly alter player cards by entering player stats, you have to do some "estimating" for those players who either don't have cards (virtual cards, of course) or have cards that were practically non-existent (20 or fewer games played for players who have played much more in the ensuing three seasons). This wasn't easy, considering that about 10-12 players per team were either new or drastically changed over the ensuing seasons.

I followed the following rules of thumb in adding/subtracting players:

• If a player's stats hadn't changed drastically since 2004 or 2006, I pretty much left the player's card/stats alone. A lot of players fell into this category, as I didn't want to make things more difficult that they were going to be.
  
• If a player's stats were drastically more or less than it had been since 2006 - for example, Shea Weber (who spent most of 2005-06 with Milwaukee of the AHL) - I used a "comparison" method to determine a player who did play in 2004 or 2006 (or even some Hall-of-Famers) who was most similar to this player. I used this sparingly, as most players were pretty much established from 2006.
  
• If the player started playing in the NHL after 2006, and played a significant number of games afterward, I used their 2008-09 stats to determine a similar player from 2004 or 2006. I typically had to use this for five or six players per team.
  
• If the player started playing in the NHL this season, but had played hockey elsewhere (AHL, NCAA, Juniors, Europe) between 2006-2009, I used an "estimate" of their performance to determine their stats for similarity estimation. This was easier for some players than others, but for rookies it was a necessity.
  

I made the estimates of similar players using an Excel spreadsheet (of course; you'd expect anything less from me?) and the stats from 2004 and 2006. There were two methods of comparing players:

• For skaters, I used the four basic stats - games, goals, points, and penalty minutes. I used the absolute difference between the player I was comparing and every player in the 04/06 NHL. I had a tolerance level for each of the categories: 10 games, 5 goals, 15 points and 25 PIM's. If a player was beyond that amount of games/goals/whatevers between the player and the comparisons, the match total for that player was set at 1000. For each player, I totaled the sum of the differences between them to determine the player's "Match" score with comparison player. The lowest total was generally the player's card that I used in the game (unless the two players weren't from the same position, like a Defenseman and a Forward).
  
• Here's an example: Chicago RW Patrick Kane's 2009 stats were 80 games, 25 goals, 70 points, and 42 PIM's. His similarity scores matched him to two players from 2004: Shane Doan of Phoenix (79 gp, 27 g, 68 pts, 47 PIM) and Steve Sullivan of Chicago/Nashville (80 gp, 24 g, 73 pts, 48 PIM). His "Match" score for both was 10 points. As delicious as the irony of using Sully as Kane's "match" would be, I opted to use Doan instead. Kane's top five were rounded out by Martin Straka (2006 NYR, 11), Slava Kozlov (2006 ATL, 12) and Mark Recchi (2004 PHI, 13).
  
• For goaltenders, it was a bit more complicated: I used the goalie's games played, minutes played, wins and losses, goals allowed and saves made as the comparison stats. The thresholds were also different: 10 games, 240 minutes, 5 wins, 5 losses, 30 goals and 100 saves.
  
• The example for goalies: Steve Mason, the Calder Trophy winner for the Columbus Blue Jackets, played 3,664 minutes in 61 games, with 33 wins and 20 losses, 140 goals allowed and 1,518 saves. He had only five matches that didn't have one stat that wasn't out of range (something that happened a lot with goalies, by the way): David Aebischer (2004 COL, 109); Dan Cloutier (2004 VAN, 231); Evgeni Nabokov (2004 SJS, 261); Chris Osgood (2004 STL, 272); and Curtis Joseph (2006 PHX, 275).
  

Now, as a Predators fan, there was this nagging question I had about Nashville, and whether or not the Preds would be a different team if a certain player currently playing for Salavat Yulayev Ufa would make a difference with this team. Guess what - it would. The Predators ended up finishing fourth overall in the Western Conference. The two biggest surprises? The Phoenix Coyotes AND the New York Islanders made the playoffs, while the Penguins missed the playoffs.

I'm not sure if I may have had some Mustard-colored glasses on with some of the players on the Predators, but this team just looks like it should be better than it is.

I got some feedback about my previous post on franchise transfers, and after sitting down to do some figuring and remembering of sports history, I came up with some interesting facts:

• In terms of "pure" franchise existence, only 66 teams in the major leagues have not moved or otherwise transferred elsewhere (significantly) during their tenure as a franchise. 17 of those are league founding franchises (Celtics, Red Sox, Bills, White Sox, Reds, Indians, Broncos, Nuggets, Tigers, Edmonton Oilers, Pacers, Canadiens, Knicks, Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, 49ers and the Maple Leafs).
• There are six more franchises that "transferred" from their original locales, but not of a significant enough distance to justify a true franchise transfer (NY Giants to New Jersey; New York Jets to New Jersey; Cavaliers from Richfield to downtown Cleveland; Florida Panthers and Miami Dolphins from downtown Miami to Sunrise; and the Angels from LA to Anaheim). The move of the NY Giants was the shortest of the them all, only 14 miles west from the Bronx. The Angels move was 40 miles SE from downtown LA and the Chavez Ravine area.
  
• The Pittsburgh Steelers merged with two different NFL teams during World War II (the Cardinals and the Eagles); the franchise never stopped playing completely in Pittsburgh during that time.
  
• The Cleveland Browns are an expansion team, but retained a franchise name that was transferred elsewhere.
• The Chicago White Stockings (now Cubs) suspended operations in the National Association for two seasons after the Great Chicago Fire. The White Stockings' owner, William Hulbert, raided the Boston Red Stockings' club for players in 1875 to fill his team's roster in the NL's inaugural season of 1876.
• I had completely forgotten that the Phillies were a "replacement team" for the Worcester Ruby Legs of the NL.
  

An interesting point was brought up on Twitter recently among Predators fans wondering if the team should try to take advantage of the Titans' failings so far this NFL season. The discussion led to a reference of how Bud Adams dragged the team to Nashville from Houston, and how the Predators were the "true" home team in the city.

This led to discussions about whether or not it was "right" to support a team that had been, in essence, "stolen" from another city and their fanbase. This gave me some pause, because of the obvious situation with my beloved Brewers (fka the Seattle Pilots). I wondered to myself how many of the 122 current Major League teams could legitimately say they were beholden to no other city for their franchise - either from expansion or from the inauguration of the league in which they began play?

The good news is, about 60% of the teams in the four major leagues fit this bill. However, there are some names that are not on the list that would surprise you.

Here's the "All Original" list:

• Anaheim Ducks
• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Atlanta Falcons
• Atlanta Thrashers
• Boston Bruins
• Boston Celtics
• Boston Red Sox
• Buffalo Bills
• Buffalo Sabres
• Carolina Panthers
• Charlotte Bobcats
• Chicago Bulls
• Chicago White Sox
• Cincinnati Bengals
• Cincinnati Reds
• Cleveland Cavaliers
• Cleveland Indians
• Colorado Rockies
• Columbus Blue Jackets
• Dallas Cowboys
• Dallas Mavericks
• Denver Broncos
• Denver Nuggets
• Detroit Tigers
• Edmonton Oilers
• Florida Marlins
• Florida Panthers
• Green Bay Packers
• Houston Astros
• Houston Texans
• Indiana Pacers
• Jacksonville Jaguars
• Kansas City Royals
• Los Angeles Kings
• Miami Dolphins
• Miami Heat
• Milwaukee Bucks
• Minnesota Timber Wolves
• Minnesota Vikings
• Minnesota Wild
• Montreal Canadiens
• Nashville Predators
• New Orleans Saints
• New York Giants
• New York Islanders
• New York Jets
• New York Knicks
• New York Mets
• New York Rangers
• Orlando Magic
• Ottawa Senators
• Philadelphia Flyers
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Phoenix Suns
• Pittsburgh Penguins
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• Pittsburgh Steelers
• Portland Trail Blazers
• Saint Louis Blues
• Saint Louis Cardinals
• San Diego Padres
• San Francisco 49ers
• Seattle Mariners
• Seattle Seahawks
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Tampa Bay Lightning
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Toronto Blue Jays
• Toronto Maple Leafs
• Toronto Raptors
• Vancouver Canucks
• Washington Capitals

There are two teams that I was hesitant to include, because of the nature of their current existence: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the San Jose Sharks. The Angels haven't left the Los Angeles metro area since joining the AL in 1961, but it's not like they represented the city of Los Angeles the whole time (despite what Arte Moreno may want us all to believe).

The Sharks are a completely different story, though: yes, they are an NHL expansion team, but for the longest time their initial owners (the Gunds) were part-owners of the Minnesota North Stars. The Gunds purchased the North Stars after their NHL club, the Cleveland Barons, had ceased operations in 1978, and in an agreement with the league they essentially merged operations of the two franchises. A decade later, the Gunds wanted to get out of Minnesota, and to do so the NHL did some wrangling to allow them to have the Sharks as an "expansion" franchise, while a group led by Howard Baldwin (who actually wanted a Bay-area franchise for the NHL) were given the North Stars - and both teams were subject to an expansion draft in 1991 (after, ironically, the Stars had made a run to the Stanley Cup finals against the Penguins).

Back to the list - there are a couple of very interesting omissions. The Chicago Cubs, for example. How could a team that had continued to play in the NL in the same city since 1876 be considered a "beholden" team? William Hulbert, the team's owner and founder of the National League, essentially raided the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association to build his White Stockings team. The real issue, of course, was that Hulbert was tired of the contract jumping of players from team to team, and wanted to have an organization of baseball clubs that respected their fellow members' contracts with players from year to year. Still, Al Spalding essentially brought with him to Chicago most of the roster of the National Association champion Boston Red Stockings when the NL started up in 1876.

The Red Stockings (who, of course, we now know as the Atlanta Braves) managed to recover from this to win eight pennants before the end of the century, but in a somewhat backwards way (as practically everything was back in these nascent days of professional sport in the US) the Cubs as a franchise were essentially beholden to the city of Boston and their baseball club.

I could give reasons for other teams' omission from this list (the Blackhawks, for example, are essentially the Portland Rosebuds of the WCHL, as are the Red Wings really the Victoria Cougars of the same league), but it's pretty transparent that most of the teams not on this list are obviously transients. Yes, that includes the Yankees, who were the Baltimore Orioles for a whole of two seasons in the AL before moving to Manhattan in 1903.

What's scary is considering the teams on this list that were true "founding members" of their sports leagues. There aren't many out there.

• Boston Celtics (BAA original member, joined the NBA)
• Boston Red Sox (AL original member)
• Buffalo Bills (AFL original member, merged into NFL)
• Chicago White Sox (AL original member)
• Cincinnati Reds (AA original member, joined NL)
• Cleveland Indians (AL original member)
• Denver Broncos (AFL original member, merged into NFL)
• Denver Nuggets (ABA original member)
• Detroit Tigers (AL original member)
• Edmonton Oilers (WHA original member; merged into NHL)
• Indiana Pacers (ABA original member)
• Montreal Canadiens (Only remaining NHA franchise)
• New York Jets (AFL original member, merged into NFL)
• New York Knicks (BAA original member, joined NBA)
• Pittsburgh Pirates (AA original member, joined NL)
• Saint Louis Cardinals (AA original member, joined NL)
• San Francisco 49ers (AAFC original member, merged into NFL)
• Toronto Maple Leafs ("expansion" team in NHL's inaugural season)

• Wanted: offense. Please apply at 501 Broadway, Nashville TN. Must know how to skate.
  
• Both of LA's teams and the Yankees have won their series; Phillies and Rockies are tied at one game apiece in their series (with snow in the forecast - move it to Miller Park!).
• Twins should have won at least one of the games in their LDS. That non-call on the fair ball was a series-changer at Yankee Stadium III. Methinks Bud needs to confab about mistaken fair-foul issues being challengeable by replay.
  
• My fantasy football league teams are struggling. I'm 2-2 in all three leagues (NFL.com, Yahoo Public and my NQRFPTFL Yahoo league), and I'm struggling this week in two of the leagues.
  
• I never did get why idiots would want to run out onto the field of play, either after a game or especially during one. It's so much a "look at me, ha ha! I'm dumb!" move that it's an embarrassment. I don't think anyone's going to remember that on the last day of baseball at the Met.
  
• By the way: I do regret never seeing a baseball game at the HHH Metrodome. I think the main reason why I never had a desire to do so is that the Twins were the "enemy" for so many seasons that I really had no desire to enter the opponent's den.
  

Yep, it's that time again: The 2009 MLB Standard Runs and Cy Young Points All-Star Teams.

For those of you unfamiliar: Standard Runs is a Run Estimation metric (somewhat) of my own creation that takes OBP, Total Bases and Net Steals and adjusts them to account for all runs actually scored in a season. I explain it elsewhere in this fine blog, as I also do for Cy Young Points for pitchers.

Here's our lists of the best players in both leagues at their positions:

AMERICAN LEAGUE
C - Joe Mauer, MIN (16.1 OFIB, 131.7 SR*)
1B - Miguel Cabrera, DET (16.0 OFIB, 127.8 SR)
2B - Ben Zobrist, TAM (13.9 OFIB, 108.1 SR)
3B - Michael Young, TEX (11.7 OFIB, 101.7 SR)
SS - Derek Jeter, NYY (12.5 OFIB, 120.4 SR)
LF - Jason Bay, BOS (12.7 OFIB, 107.2 SR)
CF - Denard Span, MIN (9.9 OFIB, 93.0 SR)
RF - Ichiro Suzuki, SEA (17.0 OFIB*, 113.7 SR)
DH - Adam Lind, TOR (13.6 OFIB, 117.4 SR)

C - Victor Martinez, CLE-BOS (12.9 OFIB, 103.4 SR)
1B - Mark Teixeira, NYY (14.2 OFIB, 127.1 SR)
P - Mark Buehrle, CHW (0.15 OFIB, 0.96 SR)

ST - Felix Hernandez, SEA (39.5 CYP*, 1.289 PER)
ST - Zack Greinke, KCR (26.0 CYP, 1.194 PER)
ST - CC Sabathia, NYY (25.3 CYP, 1.616 PER)
ST - Justin Verlander, DET (23.0 CYP, 1.657 PER)
ST - Josh Beckett, BOS (22.3 CYP, 1.781 PER)
RL - Alfred Aceves, NYY (14.5 CYP, 1.566 PER)
RL - Matt Palmer, LAA (13.4 CYP, 1.812 PER)
CL - Andrew Bailey, OAK (18.2 CYP, 1.015 PER)
CL -Mariano Rivera, NYY (15.3 CYP, 1.061 PER)

NATIONAL LEAGUE
C - Brian McCann, ATL (9.6 OFIB, 79.4 SR)
1B - Albert Pujols, STL (21.5 OFIB**, 160.9 SR**)
2B - Chase Utley, PHI (15.8 OFIB, 114.8 SR)
3B - Pablo Sandoval, SFG (18.3 OFIB, 117.5 SR)
SS - Hanley Ramirez, FLA (16.1 OFIB, 126.6 SR)
LF - Ryan Braun, MIL (16.0 OFIB, 131.7 SR)
CF - Matt Kemp, LAD (13.44 OFIB, 104.70 SR)
RF - Andre Ethier, LAD (13.39 OFIB, 104.67 SR)
P - Micah Owings, CIN (0.93 OFIB, 7.77 SR)

1B - Prince Fielder, MIL (17.2 OFIB, 139.7 SR)
1B - Derrek Lee, CHI (16.7 OFIB, 115.9 SR)
LF - Matt Holliday, OAK-STL (14.7 OFIB, 114.3 SR)

ST - Chris Carpenter, STL (40.3 CYP**, 1.159 PER)
ST - Adam Wainwright, STL (29.8 CYP, 1.382 PER)
ST - Tim Lincecum, SFG (23.8 CYP, 1.289 PER)
ST - Josh Johnson, FLA (22.7 CYP, 1.555 PER)
ST - J.A. Happ, PHI (17.2 CYP, 1.481 PER)
RL - Blake Hawksworth, STL (8.7 CYP, 1.050 PER)
RL - Nick Masset, CIN (7.6 CYP, 1.187 PER)
CL - Jonathan Broxton, LAD (19.0 CYP, 1.267 PER)
CL -Heath Bell, SDP (14.5 CYP, 1.411 PER)

THE NO-STAR TEAM
P - Bronson Arroyo, CIN (-2.54 OFIB, 1.08 SR)
C - Dioner Navarro, TAM (-7.0 OFIB**, 30.8 SR; worst OFIB of any regular position player)
1B - Chris Gimenez, CLE (-3.1 OFIB, 6.6 SR)
2B - Aaron Miles, CHC (-4.2 OFIB, 8.5 SR)
3B - Bill Hall, MIL (-3.9 OFIB, 18.6 SR)
SS - Ronny Cedeno, SEA (-5.2 OFIB, 11.2 SR)
LF - Trevor Crowe, CLE (-2.6 OFIB, 17.2 SR)
CF - Willy Taveras, CIN (-3.9 OFIB, 32.9 SR)
RF - Brian Giles, SDP (-3.7 OFIB, 16.3 SR)
DH - Aubrey Huff, DET (-1.8 OFIB, 8.1 SR)

CF - Carlos Gomez, MIN (-2.7 OFIB, 30.3 SR; worst SR of any regular position player)

ST - Aaron Harang, CIN (-8.17 CYP**, 2.116 PER)
ST - Jose Contreras, CHW (-6.41 CYP*, 2.546 PER)
ST - Francisco Liriano, MIN (-5.54 CYP, 2.704 PER)
ST - Justin Masterson, CLE (-5.46 CYP, 2.350 PER)
ST - Jeremy Guthrie, BAL (-5.35 CYP, 2.378 PER)
RL - Felipe Faulino, HOU (-5.10 CYP, 2.921 PER)
RL - Yuseiro Petit, ARI (-4.58 CYP, 2.703 PER)
CL - Brad Lidge, PHI (-0.15 CYP, 3.367 PER)
CL - Matt Capps, PIT (1.9 CYP, 2.725 PER)

* - Led League. ** - Led Majors.

Major League averages (per 486 PA/162 IP):

• 3.7 OFIB
• 58.2 SR
• 3.8 CYP
• 2.083 PER