Over/Under in the Eyes of Sir Nikolai

We get a different opinion on the make up of WSEM today with a countdown of the five most overrated and underrated players in the eyes of Sir Nikolai, Nick Braden, co-captain of the Thunder Duck squad. So, it is a champion's view from the top! I bet you think you already have an idea what his list might look like, but read on; you might be surprised once or twice.

Overs are listed over their respective numbers with the unders under. Get it? Also, player pictures link to their 2011 season stats in case you care to examine Nick's picks further.

	Starting out at number five on my overrated list is the man himself, Mr. Perfect Game, Chris Lewis. The only reason Chris makes this list is because of his tossing of the first ever WSEM perfect game, which put him in a high spot of the free agent market. On the plus side, he is now in a rotation with Dennis Pearson and Dylan Braden that may help him add a pitch or two to make him better, so he will no longer be on this list. If he adds another deadly weapon to his already stacked arsenal, he will throw another perfect game - mark my words.
5
	To start off the countdown of the most underrated players in the league I have to name my fellow Thunder Duck, Josh Roberts. Although people may think he is a complete and total jokester, he is not horrible. He has an absolutely amazing eye at the plate, which leads to a very high on base percentage (OBP) and more runs for the high powered Thunder Ducks offense. Once his fielding gets better he may become an everyday player for us.

	At overrated number four I have another Thunder Duck, Dylan Braden. He may be the second best hitter on the Thunder Ducks and part of the D&D Boys, but when he is bad he is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. For example, in this year's playoffs he hit .106, even though he hit the home run to win the championship. Those are no stats to scoff at. Sorry, Dylan, I had to do it.
4
	At the fourth most underrated spot is Bobby Hoppe. He is a dominant force on the Deloppes in the shadows of Joey Delano, Nick Snow, and Chad Hoppe. He closes for the Deloppes, although, he should be converted into a starter due to him throwing fast and very accurately. Bobby fights at the plate every pitch to make sure he gets on base.

	Next up, Joe Seto of the newly formed Donkeys. Now, don't get me wrong, Seto is a very good player given the stats he put up this year, but he lacks a good game against a good team. Until he is able to put together good performances against the good teams, I will place him on the over-rated side.
3
	Just edging out his brother for the third underrated spot is B.J. Hoppe. B.J. was the only guy to get a hit off of Dennis in the championship, an excellent defender, and you have to remember he gives it his all on every pitch. I can see him being a force to be reckoned with this upcoming season.

	In the two hole is WWA "fireballer," Austin Bischoff. Bischoff, a.k.a. Brennan Boesch with a half a year of stats, had a Brennan Boesch type year. Once every team figures him out WWA is screwed, because their number one will be taken out of their hands and they basically have no number two. For those that think he is better, or just as good as Dennis Pearson, SHUT UP and do the league a favor. The kid can only pitch, not produce with a bat.
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	In the two slot we have Jason Hewlett of the Mattseals. Before getting hurt Hewlett was putting up very good numbers on a very bad team: that is unheard of. [Ed. note: Is it really? Last year in the AL West alone you had Fister with the Mariners and Gonzalez with the A's.] Rumors say he has been practicing at work, wherever he works, which leads to the question where does he work to have the time to practice wiffleball? I would love to work wherever he works. If he can stay healthy this season, he will be a very powerful force. This could make the Mattseals a spoiler.

	To round out the countdown of my overrated players we have Mr. Chad Hoppe. Somehow the number one pitcher on the excellent Deloppes in front the one and only lefty, Cliff Comstock. Chad lacks speed, which makes his pitches easier to hit. He should be dropped to the number four on his team. When it comes to batting, if he does not walk it is an automatic out.
1
	Rounding out the under-rated players in the league I have my teammate Josh Nagorski. Gorski is the founder of the Thunder Ducks. This guy may step into Dylan's spot and become the second best hitter on the team. Good defensive abilities, speed, and his performance in the playoffs will make him a leader in batting average and a lead component for the Thunder Ducks to repeat the championship.

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Nick Braden
Thunder Ducks - 23
KGB

PEBs, the MLB, and You!

		Your Junk my Happy Zone
		by Brandon Corbett

Nick Snow recently started the discussion about "construct(ing) a way to give the hitters an edge;" meaning we use larger barreled bats. Many leagues around the nation do this: Palisades, Golden Stick, and Tampa Bay Wiffleball - whose season should be just about ready to start - are some of the best examples. These leagues all use the larger barrels to give their batters a better chance and even up the play in their leagues. Quite literally performance enhancing bats. These leagues also allow scuffing; each pitcher meticulously carving personalized patterns into their own balls that boost the performance of their pitches. Quid pro quo. Over time hitters would gain an advantage, so rules changed to help pitchers; then pitchers began to dominate, so rules were amended to benefit batters, and so on.

"Performance enhancing bats," or PEBs, are a huge deal in Wiffleball circles. Their use is routinely debated with each side remaining certain that their way is correct. The Wiffler's Digest Magazine featured them as the cover story of their debut issue. Is Ryan Winfield right in his assertions that PEB users shell out hundreds of dollars only to take a game meant for childlike enthusiasm and fill it with scowls, disparaging remarks, and stepping on other players to elevate their own status? Do the replies in the inbox of the Second Edition from D. Morse and R. Ewald (and to a much lesser extent B. Kind) make a good point that yellow bats are useless when trying to hit at the highest level of fast pitch? It is probably important to note at this point that the bottom-tier pitchers in Palisades or GSWL are on par with Dennis Pearson and Austin Bischoff.

One thing any fan or player of Wiffle will, hopefully, agree on is that a lopsided game is a bad game. If pitchers completely dominate, then the game ends up boring. If pitchers cannot get a batter out, the big blasts may be fun for a minute, but soon it becomes old hat and tiresome to watch. So, what constitutes a fairly matched, "good game?" Why not go straight to the top? The MLB.

After talking with Snow and Commissioner Coffee, I was interested to see where exactly the numbers fell for our league. A quick glance showed that in 2011 WSEM had 26 batters, out of the 66 in the league, hit over .300. Looking a little deeper at only "everyday players" (14+ games played), only four hit below .200, while twelve hit above .280. Those numbers seemed to show that our batters were not so dominated by the pitchers after all. Still, that evidence was not concrete enough to make a statement. So, I dug up league averages for the MLB on www.baseball-reference.com and put them alongside ours. How do you think we lined up against the league we all grew up emulating?

Take a look:

On the batters' side, it is a clean sweep for WSEM. We hit better than the big leagues in each stat category! Wait, that is not really the point. Still a fun fact to tell your friends, though. The point is: the MLB is considered to be baseball played at its highest (read: "best") level. If our hitters were at a severe disadvantage that threatened to ruin the quality of the game, then you would expect us to fall far short of the MLB numbers.

Average (AVG) is the most obvious stat to look at, and a +.023 difference shows that as a league we hit very comparably to the MLB. Also, 35 WSEM players (53%) hit above the MLB average of .255, while 31 (47%) hit below that mark. Just about a perfect spread. A marginal difference of +.035 in Slugging percentage (SLG) shows that extra base hits come at a similar rate in WSEM as they do in the MLB, as well. On base percentage (OBP) is slightly inflated due to the greater number of walks in Wiffleball than baseball, but those extra bases mean another plus for our hitters. Looking at the numbers I think it is safe to say that our batters are not playing at an unfair disadvantage - just being challenged at a competitive level.

What about that challenge? How do WSEM pitchers match up against their MLB counterparts?

Remarkably well. WSEM pitchers show the same pattern of closely comparable numbers with the MLB that our batters did. The -0.11 advantage in earned run average (ERA) for our pitchers is so close it is beautiful. It is the aforementioned increase in walks that pushes our WHIP behind The Bigs, in what is the largest margin of difference of the six categories at +.064. The increase in Wiffleball strike-outs, though, brings the strike-out to walk ratio (K/BB) down to another so-close-it-is-beautiful -0.13 difference.

That last sentence is where the perceived "hitter's disadvantage" stems from; specifically, the increase in Wiffleball strike-outs. I get it. I feel you. Striking out does not make you feel good. Maybe it makes you feel silly, or even pissed off. It should not. Everyone strikes out, even Mr. .567, Joey Delano. The key point here is that, even with the Ks, we are still reaching base at the same level seen in the Major Leagues. Remember why the Wiffleball was created: so a twelve year old could throw a curve ball.

In addition to pitching being the reason behind the game, WSEM will already be featuring two new rules on the field next year that will assist the offensive numbers. First, the pitching rotation will limit aces to at most 14 games pitched; unless they only throw two innings, in which case you have three innings to get hits off someone else. Second, runners can now tag up from any base, allowing you more opportunities to maneuver into scoring situations. With those two rules providing a bump to already good offensive numbers I cannot see any reason to tell teams they need to spend hundreds of dollars on equipment for having fun in the backyard or park. In fact, I do not even see a need to take lesser action, such as moving the mound back to 48'. One day WSEM will probably face with the need to balance out the game for our hitters, but we are not there yet.

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Brandon Corbett
Flying Squirrels - 17
Media Director, Research ANALyst

Counterpoint, "Re: The Balls"

by Alex Shore

Thanks for the touching article Michael, i would like to take this time to point out several FLAWS throughout your "touching piece".

Flaw 1:
After the playoff games in which you defeated us, i shook every player on your teams hand and congratulated them. Further more, As far as Kirk's " i wanna whoop your ass, cant handle my emotions" attitude, i apparently caught him on a bad day and he is very ...temperamental. This goes on the record as saying he is a loose cannon and can be mad at anyone at any given time. Lastly, did i mention why he was mad? Well, it was because i was talking fun trash with my teammates. TRASH TALK IS A PART OF BASEBALL! Hell, if the pro's went out on the diamond and complained about the trash talking they heard, they would want you to write them an article. If this league cant handle trash talk, we just change the name to the WWSEM (Similar to WNBA).

Flaw 2:
I am nothing of what you made me out to be in that article. Do you really think Joe Seto of all people would want some "arrogant" "Smarmy" and "immature" player to play for his team? i didn't think so. Not only is this article so poorly written, content wise and grammatically, it would take someone with little to none actual knowledge of the sport to write. You basically just listed two players that you don't like, with your own BS reasons for not liking them, and seized you opportunity to slander them by this article. This not only tears down the integrity of the league but also your integrity as a person. If you want to complain to someone get a therapist, not a blog.

Flaw 3:
I hope your other four articles aren't as sad and pathetic as this one. People want entertainment in an article, not the kind that you would hear at a meeting with an anger management adviser. Seriously, I hope you have the dignity to redeem yourself with at least one of these articles. This flaw touches upon my non-affability. How was I invited to London, voted to an all star team, and voted as a head figure of this league by the national website, if i was all of the interesting characteristics that you make me out to be. This shows how biased you really are and how false the information in this article really is.

With all this being said,

This article may be the worst piece of literature to cross my eyes. As far as this goes, Mike, take all your negative energy back to your nitty gritty softball diamonds.

Best Regards,
Alex Shore

The Balls: 1st Inning

[Mike Constanti takes center stage today debuting his column that is sure to get a reaction and generate some buzz around WSEM this offseason. Here is Mike with The Balls.]

INTRO:

What's up to all the Wiffle ball freaks out there? Mike Constanti here to give you all not only something to read about while taking a ..., but a trip to the underbelly of what is known as the WSEM. I'm gonna put out 5 articles over the offseason on what has been pissing me off, who deserves a reality check, and my annual run down of the bottom 5 teams and why they sucked! Kind of like Ken Burns baseball. Get it? 5 innings, 5 articles. If you get through the entire article pissed off, there will be a bonus article which I'll mention in the end. So, without further ado let's get it on!


Inning 1: Why do players believe their shit smells good?
What's that smell? It's everywhere. All teams got one. I sometimes get caught up in it. It's that odor that can make or break your game. It's that player who believes he's the shit. It smells like dandelions. No one can touch them. Oh, lord, "I am the shit" syndrome. To tell you the truth, nothing pisses me off more than when someone grandstands in front of the opposition (to the dismay of teammates), that he is gods gift to wiffleball, and everyone sucks and can eat a big fat one. Even though the player talking shit isn't that good, his team is getting their asses handed to them, or is in complete denial that you are good and he is just having an off day. In my opinion, I always believe you earn your stripes, get the respect you deserve by playing hard and let the stats speak for themselves. People just cannot come in and declare themselves to be the next Joey DeLano. The best players do not have to be outspoken. It takes a team to win in Wiffleball. As much of a beating the Ass Kickers took, I enjoyed playing with Bully, my brother, and Kirk. We didn't show off or talk shit. We know who we are and we didn't brag about it. I feel that the league is full of guys who need a quick reality check. I'm gonna give it to them. Here are my top three Dandelions of the sport that get on my damn nerves sometimes or all the time:

3.) Chris Lewis - It hurts me to put him on this list, because he is such a great guy. A lot of respect for him. The reason for Chris being here is that he has a mouth to go with that so called "intimidating" riser (not !). Great! He pitched in almost every game for Belgian last season. The part that irks me is that he brags about the amount of K'S he recorded and considers himself to be one of the elite pitchers of our game. Here is the reality check: granted I feel he is a top 10 pitcher. More towards number 10, though. He needs a better secondary pitch to make his riser more effective. It is mostly a go to pitch and everyone anticipates it. Three of my four homers came off that pitch. He may be the number-two man in the rotation for the Ducks, but I think he is the third best pitcher behind Pearson and Dylan Braden.

2.) Me - I am writing this article. Enough said.

1.) Alex Shore - This doesn't hurt me at all. In fact, he is the poster child for being full of shit. Nothing proves that to me more than the way his field looks, the smarmy arrogance, and lack of sportsmanship. I consider him the Rick Flair of our sport. He can wow and dazzle you with his speed and play on the field, but then he comes up to you and gives you a low blow from behind. His character shows when his team doesn't even want to play ball for him. That is sad. Talking shit ain't good when your team is getting their butts kicked. Example: Chris Kirk wanting to tear Alex and the Warriors' heads off after a poor sport attitude from him and his team after they got eliminated by the Ass Kickers in the playoffs. The worst part of all this is that Alex is an extremely talented player. He doesn't need a 65' right field wall or the shit talking. Top 5 player in the league. I don't know if it's immaturity or what. Hate to see what little respect he has go away because of his arrogance. I would take him on my team in a heart beat. That sucks. I hope that next season with the Donkeys he can straighten up and make them a huge contender for the title. He is in good hands with Joe Seto, but is it enough?

To end this topic, I feel that people should understand we play a game that we play growing up in the backyards, sandlots, or even the street you live on. There is no need for being full of shit and ruining this wonderful experience we have with the WSEM. It is for fun. Right?


Teams that sucked last season:
The Jason Mattseals

Great things happen to great people. I have a hard time believing that, because what Jason Matt went through last year is bullshit! His team struggled out the gate and it took them nearly two months to get in the win column. A lot of close games. The offense, aside from Jeff Biegas, was putrid to put it nicely. I think two or three guys were in the bottom five in offensive stats. Jason Hewlett got better as the season went on, but the team lacked a number-two starter. It is sad to see a team of good guys come out and make every game, just to get their butts kicked. They did make believers out of some people when they almost knocked out the champs, Git r' Done, in the playoffs. These guys have improved. They need a couple hitters and another pitcher to get there. Until then, it is batting practice for game days when scheduled to play the Mattseals.

That is it for Inning 1. Hope you guys liked this, but I don't expect you to. If you have any anger you would like to vent out, for our bonus section for the next article, fire away at my email, facebook post on my account or the league's, or give me a call and I will come out to drive Brian's truck on your front lawn. Top three complaints will make the article with a response from yours truly. In a couple weeks will be Inning 2: The art of ... Until next time Constanti out!