02-22-2007

While most of humanity sleeps in a sugar coated dream world. I have seen the reality that is Major League Baseball.

There are 210 protected players in DMB from 30 MLB teams. Of course, Agent Smith… ahem, Clemens, being currently unaffiliated, screws with the mathematical values of this analysis, so for the sake of discussion we will include him with the Houston Astros, his latest team.

Each team in the American League has 15 regular players (8 position players, 1 DH, 5 starters and a closer) Each team in the National League has 14. (same as the American League minus the DH)

Out of the 210 protected players 19 can be considered middle relievers or backups or almost 10% of the data sample. The American League team with the most protected players is, of course, the evil empire. The Yankees have 12 out of fifteen "regulars" protected and 13 players overall. The Royals have only 1 out of 15 regulars protected. David DeJesus stands alone. Unsurprisingly the New York Mets lead the national league with 8 regulars and 10 players overall showing up on protected lists. The Pittsburgh Pirates are last with only 3 regular players protected, however the three protected players are formidable. (Adam LaRoche, Jason Bay and Freddy Sanchez)

Looking at projected lineups is very interesting as well. In the American league out of 14 teams 11 projected 3rd place hitters are protected. In the National League 15 out of 16 projected 3rd place hitters are protected although it will be 16 out of 16 if Barry Bonds hits 3rd in the Giants line-up. The 8th/9th batting positions are the least represented, with 5 out of a possible 28 being protected in the AL and a shocking 0 out of 16 being protected in the NL.

Unfortunately my work for the preservation of humanity prevents me from delving too deeply into the odd statistical differences between performance in real life and in the matrix that is DMB, but look for that and other topics in future editions of the real world.

For now,

Free

Your

Mind

Morpheus is the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar, a hovercraft of the human forces of the last human city, Zion, in a devastated world where most humans are grown by sentient Machines and kept imprisoned in the Matrix, a virtual computer-generated world. Morpheus was once a human living inside the Matrix until he was freed earlier in life. In his spare time, he is a big fan of baseball simulations. Read more of Morpheus' musings.