Grads And Scrubs Preseason Rankings

The Grads and Scrubs League had its draft last Friday, and now it's time to evaluate each team's chances this year. In order to form a preseason ranking, I had each team owner submit their own rankings. I then compiled the results and entered them into the table below.

In order to keep it simple, the number of votes garnered at each spot is listed in the table. Points are awarded per vote at each spot and then added together to get the total. The lowest total is the #1 ranked team. For example: Team Daugherty received four 1st place votes (4 points), four 2nd place votes (8 points), two 3rd place votes (6 points), and one 5th place vote (5). Those are then added together to get the total of 23.

Click on each owner's name to see their team roster.

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	Total
Daugherty	4	4	2		1								23
Ronnie	1	3	1		2	2	1		1		1		59
Billy	2	1		2	3		3				1		59
Bentley	1	1	2	4			1	1	1	1			59
KJ	1	2		1	2	2			2	1			59
Lath	1		2	1	1	3		2		1	1		71
Mike		1	2	1		1		2	3			2	85
DiMauro	1			1	2			3		1	3	1	94
Mark					1	2	3	2	2		1	1	95
Beaulier			2				3	1	1	3		2	100
Bedrock			1	1		1		1	1	5	2		102
Winker				1			1		1		2	6	104

The results were very interesting, and they support my pre-draft belief that the teams would be very even. As evidenced by the voting, owners had far ranging views of many teams. The biggest differences of opinion involved Mike's team. He received four votes placing him in the top four, but then also received two last place votes. Multiple other teams had a vote range spanning from top three to bottom three. It will be interesting to see which sides end up being correct.

With four teams tied for second place, it should be a fierce battle for the top three spots. Hopefully the owners will realize that in fantasy baseball, leagues are not won or lost on draft day. An active and intelligent owner can overcome almost anything by making smart trades and pickups.

We encourage you to leave your opinions of the teams in the comment sections.

Breakout Predictions For 2011

As the days count down to baseball season, the time has come to start making predictions for the upcoming season. The first entry will focus on Ronnie and me each choosing a breakout player. For our purposes, breakout will be defined as a player making the jump into stardom.

John's Pick

Jay Bruce - OF 

Cincinnati Reds

Long heralded as a top prospect, Jay Bruce has been a bit of a mystery since being called up in 2008. Now, keep in mind that Bruce was only 21 when he made his big league debut, and he will turn 24 in a couple of weeks. When you take his age into account, the past three years haven't been disappointing at all, but he is capable of much more. Prior to his call-up, Bruce had drawn rave reviews since being drafted 12th overall in 2005, and Baseball America even ranked him as their top overall prospect. 

Bruce had a strong rookie season, but he ran into the dreaded sophomore slump the next year. Not only did he struggle at the plate, but he also suffered a fractured wrist which caused him to miss the end of the season. After struggling to begin the year, Bruce exploded onto the scene in the second half of 2010. In 210 second-half plate appearances, Bruce amassed a .306/.376/.575 line (AVG/OBP/SLG). 

One of the key steps in the development process for a left-handed hitter is to learn to hit left-handed pitching. Hitters that struggle in that department often struggle to find consistency in the big leagues because opposing managers will continuously throw lefty relievers at them in the final innings of games. For the first time in his career, Bruce was very productive against left-handed pitching. From 2008-2009, Bruce hit .200/.288/.297 against lefties, but in 2010 he saw those numbers jump to .277/.352/.547. 

Along with the improvement against lefties, Bruce also notched a 7.1% increase in his line drive rate from 2009 to 2010 (13% to 20.1%) and continued to improve his walk rate. These are all tell-tale signs of a coming breakout campaign. 

The final piece of evidence is the natural progression of Bruce's recovery from his wrist injury. It is common knowledge among the sports medicine community that most hitters take a full 12 months to recover from serious wrist injuries. If you take a look at the date of injury and add the 12 necessary months, Bruce's explosion in August and September makes perfect sense. It coincided almost exactly with him reaching that 12 month recovery period. For a more in depth look, this FanGraphs article compares the distance of Bruce's fly balls pre-surgery, during the 12 month recovery period, and post-recovery. 

As you can see, all the signs point to Jay Bruce having a massive breakout year in 2011. I would not be surprised if he posted a .280/.360/.550 line to go along with 40 homeruns. The crazy thing is that 40 homeruns may not even be his ceiling. Cincinnati fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming years.

Ronnie's Pick

Carlos Santana - C 

Cleveland Indians

Catcher is a deep position this year with an abundance of current, future, and wannabe stars, but Carlos Santana leads the pack. To put his skills into perspective we should keep in mind that Santana was a better prospect than both Matt Wieters and Buster Posey at one point and was ranked higher by the all-knowing Keith Law in his 2010 prospect list. [Editor's Note: The Dodgers brilliantly traded Santana to the Cleveland Indians for Casey Blake solely because the Indians were willing to pick up Blake's salary. One of baseball's most unbalanced trades in the past decade.] 

What sets Santana apart from all other catchers, not named Joe Mauer, is the tremendous plate discipline that he has demonstrated in his brief time in the majors. In 150 plate appearances, Santana compiled 37 BB to just 29 K's for a .406 OBP.

In fact, Santana reached base via walk in 20 percent of his plate appearances. Factor in the ability to hit for power and a decent average and you have a top five catcher with a lot of potential for more. My projection for Santana sits at .285-23-70 with a .387 OBP and a .500 SLG percentage. When all is said and done, Santana is not a player you want to miss out on.

A New Basketball Rankings System On The Block

With RPI proving itself to be outdated and almost useless, there has been a mass exodus and a new focus on other NCAA basketball rankings systems. My former Economics professor (Scott Beaulier) has teamed up with one of his colleagues to create the "Dominetrics" rankings system. Before the analysis even begins, it's safe to say that this system rules the roost when it comes to awesome names.

Check out the rankings below (The website for the rankings is here for future reference), and I will make sure to do a post-tournament breakdown of how accurate they were throughout the tournament. Make sure and leave any opinions in the comment section. These things always create a healthy debate.

An in-depth explanation of the formulas can be found here.

Rank	Team	Dominetric	Conference	Recommended Seed	NCAA Seed
1	Kansas	337	Big 12 Champions	1	1
2	Florida	332	SEC 1	1	2
3	BYU	323	Mountain West 1	1	3
4	North Carolina	322	ACC 1	1	2
5	San Diego St.	321	Mountain West Champions	2	2
6	Connecticut	316	Big East Champions	2	3
7	Georgetown	315	Big East 2	2	6
8	Ohio State	315	Big 10 1	2	1
9	Texas	315	Big 12 2	3	4
10	Duke	313	ACC Champions	3	1
11	Kentucky	310	SEC Champions	3	4
12	Pittsburgh	302	Big East 3	3	1
13	Notre Dame	301	Big East 4	4	2
14	UNLV	299	Mountain West 3	4	8
15	Syracuse	296	Big East 5	4	3
16	St. John's (NY)	287	Big East 6	4	6
17	Vanderbilt	287	SEC 3	5	5
18	Purdue	286	Big 10 2	5	3
19	Old Dominion	277	Colonial Champions	5	9
20	West Virginia	273	Big East 7	5	5
21	Texas A&M	272	Big 12 3	6	7
22	Tennessee	268	SEC 4	6	9
23	Louisville	267	Big East 8	6	4
24	Kansas State	266	Big 12 4	6	5
25	Xavier	262	Atlantic 10 1	7	6
26	Arizona	252	Pac 10 1	7	5
27	Memphis	251	Conference USA Champions	7	12
28	Villanova	251	Big East 9	7	9
29	Wisconsin	248	Big 10 3	8	4
30	Georgia	247	SEC 5	8	10
31	Washington	245	Pac 10 Champions	8	7
32	Butler	240	Horizon Champions	8	8
33	Colorado State	239	Mountain West 4	9
34	George Mason	238	Colonial 2	9	8
35	Penn State	238	Big 10 4	9	10
36	UAB	236	Conference USA 2	9	12
37	Michigan	232	Big 10 5	10	8
38	Boston College	231	ACC 3	10
39	Utah State	225	Western Athletic Champions	10	12
40	Wichita State	223	Missouri Valley 1	10
41	VCU	221	Colonial 3	11	11
42	Cincinnati	220	Big East 10	11	6
43	St. Mary's (CA)	214	West Coast 1	11
44	Temple	214	Atlantic 10 2	11	7
45	California	211	Pac 10 3	12
46	Gonzaga	211	West Coast Champions	12	11
47	Marshall	210	Conference USA 3	12
48	Michigan State	209	Big 10 6	12	10
49	Virginia Tech	208	ACC 4	13
50	UCLA	205			7
51	UCF	203
52	Cleveland St.	202
53	Florida St.	202			10
54	Miami (FL)	201
55	Marquette	199			11
56	Dayton	196
57	Oakland	196	Summit Champions	13	13
58	Richmond	194	Atlantic 10 Champions	13	12
59	Minnesota	192
60	Southern California	191			11
61	Tulsa	187
62	Missouri	186			11
63	Oklahoma St.	184
64	Illinois	183			9
65	Iona	178
66	Valparaiso	177
67	Missouri St.	175
68	Harvard	173
69	Washington St.	173
70	East Carolina	169
71	Indiana St.	169	Missouri Valley Champions	13	14
72	Clemson	168			12
73	New Mexico	166
74	UTEP	163
75	Mississippi	162
76	Colorado	157
77	Kent St.	153
78	Seton Hall	151
79	Milwaukee	150
80	Hofstra	147
81	Long Beach St.	143
82	Col. of Charleston	140
83	James Madison	140
84	Northwestern	138
85	Drexel	128
86	Princeton	127	Ivy Champions	14	13
87	St. Peter's	127	Metro Atlantic Champions	14	14
88	Utah	124
89	Wofford	124	Southern Champions	14	14
90	Miami (OH)	123
91	Morehead St.	120	Ohio Valley Champions	14	13
92	Rhode Island	120
93	Maryland	118
94	East Tenn. St.	111
95	Mississippi St.	109
96	Air Force	108
97	Baylor	108
98	IUPUI	105
99	Oregon	105
100	UNI	100
101	Duquesne	99
102	Rutgers	98
103	North Carolina St.	97
104	San Francisco	96
105	New Mexico St.	94
106	Rider	91
107	Robert Morris	88
108	Boise St.	87
109	Massachusetts	85
110	Alabama	84
111	Bucknell	82	Patriot Champions	15	14
112	Portland	82
113	South Fla.	81
114	Vermont	80
115	Akron	77	Mid-American Champions	15	15
116	George Washington	77
117	St. Bonaventure	75
118	Delaware	69
119	Ohio	69
120	Austin Peay	68
121	Fla. Atlantic	68
122	La Salle	68
123	Oklahoma	67
124	Oral Roberts	67
125	South Carolina	61
126	Nebraska	57
127	San Jose St.	57
128	Idaho	56
129	Murray St.	56
130	Northern Colorado	56	Big Sky Champions	15	15
131	Virginia	56
132	Arizona St.	55
133	St. Louis	54
134	Iowa St.	53
135	North Florida	52
136	Northeastern	52
137	St. Joseph's	52
138	Long Island	50	Northeast Champions	15	15
139	Wright St.	48
140	Fairfield	46
141	Rice	44
142	UNC Asheville	43	Big South Champions	16	16
143	Belmont	42	Atlantic Sun Champions	16	13
144	Furman	35
145	Georgia Tech	34
146	Montana	34
147	Detroit	33
148	Southern Miss.	31
149	Sam Houston St.	29
150	Iowa	27
151	Wagner	25
152	UC Santa Barbara	24	Big West Champions	16	15
153	Arkansas	23
154	Creighton	23
155	Evansville	23
156	Boston U.	22	America East Champions	16	16
157	Santa Clara	22
158	Nevada	18
159	Coastal Caro.	17
160	Lipscomb	16
161	Texas Tech	11
162	Southern U.	10
163	Stanford	10
164	Yale	10
165	Weber St.	8
166	Green Bay	4
167	North Texas	-1
168	UALR	-5	Sun Belt Champions	16	16
169	Loyola (IL)	-6
170	Loyola Maryland	-7
171	American	-8
172	TCU	-8
173	Penn	-11
174	Quinnipiac	-15
175	Western Ky.	-15
176	Pacific	-19
177	Siena	-19
178	DePaul	-20
179	South Dakota St.	-21
180	Cornell	-22
181	William & Mary	-23
182	Canisius	-24
183	Hawaii	-25
184	LSU	-27
185	Tennessee Tech	-27
186	Appalachian St.	-33
187	Jacksonville	-33
188	Hampton	-35	Mid-Eastern Champions	16	16
189	Indiana	-35
190	Chattanooga	-37
191	Providence	-38
192	Davidson	-43
193	Presbyterian	-43
194	Arkansas St.	-44
195	Ball St.	-44
196	Liberty	-46
197	Western Mich.	-46
198	Bradley	-47
199	Charlotte	-48
200	Lafayette	-48
201	Central Conn. St.	-49
202	Columbia	-50
203	Western Caro.	-50
204	Buffalo	-52
205	IPFW	-52
206	McNeese St.	-54
207	Georgia St.	-55
208	Winthrop	-58
209	Fordham	-61
210	Mercer	-62
211	Oregon St.	-63
212	Maine	-67
213	Pepperdine	-70
214	VMI	-71
215	Northern Ariz.	-72
216	Bethune-Cookman	-73
217	SMU	-77
218	Fresno St.	-79
219	Texas St.	-79
220	Towson	-79
221	Bryant	-81
222	Mt. St. Mary's	-81
223	Wake Forest	-86
224	UTSA	-87	Southland Champions	16	16
225	Middle Tenn.	-88
226	Troy	-88
227	Drake	-94
228	Albany (NY)	-95
229	Texas Southern	-96
230	Lehigh	-97
231	Cal Poly	-100
232	UNC Wilmington	-103
233	Southern Utah	-104
234	Loyola Marymount	-105
235	Tulane	-107
236	UMKC	-107
237	Auburn	-110
238	Wyoming	-110
239	A&M-Corpus Christi	-111
240	Houston	-113
241	UNC Greensboro	-113
242	Manhattan	-116
243	Stony Brook	-116
244	Morgan St.	-117
245	St. Francis (PA)	-118
246	Ill.-Chicago	-121
247	Marist	-121
248	Southeastern La.	-122
249	Louisiana Tech	-123
250	Monmouth	-124
251	N.C. A&T	-124
252	Brown	-125
253	La.-Lafayette	-134
254	North Dakota St.	-134
255	UC Riverside	-135
256	Charleston So.	-136
257	Tennessee St.	-136
258	Citadel	-140
259	Cal St. Northridge	-141
260	Nicholls St.	-142
261	St. Francis (NY)	-143
262	Army	-145
263	Youngstown St.	-145
264	Denver	-146
265	Bowling Green	-147
266	Gardner-Webb	-150
267	Stephen F. Austin	-150
268	High Point	-151
269	Binghamton	-152
270	Holy Cross	-154
271	Eastern Wash.	-156
272	Idaho St.	-156
273	Illinois St.	-156
274	Norfolk St.	-156
275	Savannah St.	-156
276	Elon	-157
277	FIU	-159
278	Utah Valley	-161
279	Northwestern St.	-162
280	Mississippi Val.	-163
281	San Diego	-163
282	Montana St.	-165
283	Samford	-167
284	Eastern Ky.	-169
285	Fla. Gulf Coast	-169
286	Jackson St.	-170
287	North Dakota	-170
288	Niagara	-171
289	S.C. Upstate	-171
290	Campbell	-172
291	UT Martin	-175
292	Dartmouth	-176
293	Alabama St.	-177	Southwestern Champions	16	16
294	Coppin St.	-179
295	Hartford	-180
296	UC Davis	-184
297	Sacred Heart	-185
298	Stetson	-187
299	UMBC	-189
300	Navy	-194
301	South Ala.	-197
302	Texas-Arlington	-201
303	N.C. Central	-204
304	New Hampshire	-204
305	Colgate	-205
306	Lamar	-209
307	Southeast Mo. St.	-209
308	Portland St.	-211
309	Eastern Ill.	-214
310	South Dakota	-214
311	SIU Edwardsville	-216
312	Radford	-219
313	Grambling	-222
314	Seattle	-222
315	Kennesaw St.	-228
316	Southern Ill.	-231
317	NJIT	-232
318	Delaware St.	-236
319	Toledo	-236
320	UC Irvine	-238
321	Cal St. Fullerton	-239
322	Fairleigh Dickinson	-240
323	Alabama A&M	-245
324	Central Mich.	-245
325	La.-Monroe	-245
326	Md.-East. Shore	-246
327	Cal St. Bakersfield	-247
328	Central Ark.	-250
329	Longwood	-250
330	Eastern Mich.	-252
331	Howard	-254
332	Centenary (LA)	-262
333	Northern Ill.	-266
334	Florida A&M	-268
335	Sacramento St.	-272
336	Ark.-Pine Bluff	-275
337	Prairie View	-280
338	Ga. Southern	-282
339	Jacksonville St.	-284
340	Western Ill.	-285
341	South Carolina St.	-302
342	Alcorn St.	-306
343	Chicago St.	-307
344	Tex.-Pan American	-316
345	Houston Baptist	-331