I’m also a follower, since Brian Bannister’s on our team, of sabermetric stuff and going into details of stats about what you can control.

Back in early April, members of the Dugout Central staff made predictions for how many wins each team would have in the regular season. Now that the season is over, it’s time to review those predictions and see whose crystal ball was the clearest.

And the winner is … Sky Kalkman, by a nose.

"Mars is in Leo, A-Rod is a Leo. It's a supercharged time for him."

A.J. Burnett, Career: 54.6 average game score, 17.2 standard deviation
Andy Pettitte, Career: 51.4, 17.2

A.J. Burnett, Yankee: 53.3, 17.0
Andy Pettitte, Yankee, 2007-2009: 49.8, 16.3

And, for the hell of it:

C.C. Sabathia, Yankee: 58.1, 17.8

A.J. Burnett has a reputation for being wildly inconsistent, throwing three ugly innings in one start and then spinning a shutout the next. That angle has, naturally, been played up in the postseason, as the Yankees "can't be sure what they'll get" out of one of their more shiny investments from game to game.

The people saying that last bit are correct. The point they're missing, though, is that the same thing could be said for pretty much every other pitcher in baseball. Starters are inconsistent. When so much depends on the weather, the opposing lineup, and the defense, it isn't realistic to expect a guy to go out and have the same game every turn.

Royals fans, what would you like to see on the promotional schedule next year? Giveaways, events etc. Reply with your thoughts! #royals

Starters With Postseason Starting Experience
40 IP-20 ER
4.50 ERA

Regular Season Baseline
1372 IP-536 ER
3.52 ERA

Starters With Postseason Starting Inexperience
32 IP-11 ER
3.09 ERA

Regular Season Baseline
934 IP-315 ER
3.04 ERA

Keep your experience, I'll take the talent.

When will the latest installment of "Saberizing a Mac" come into gear? How are others dealing with it?

Aaron Hill and Chris Carpenter won the AL and NL Comeback Player of the Year awards, respectively. Sometimes there's a gray area in terms of what exactly a player has to come back from in order to qualify for these awards, but this year I think both are good picks and excellent stories -- especially Carpenter, who basically missed two straight seasons due to injuries and returned as one of the five most productive pitchers in the National League this year.

Any other players who deserve mention, even if they aren't more deserving than either of these two guys?

To those who think only writers don't understand: I had to argue with a MLB pitching coach today to convince him Greinke over CC for CY

On Oct. 1, the Chinese government will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. The occasion has inspired all sorts of unlikely tributes -- including poetic offerings from workers at the National Bureau of Statistics.

Mr. Wang, 30 years old, found time to pen "Love the Motherland, Love Statistics," a reflection on his role as an unappreciated civil servant and the personal satisfaction he nonetheless gets from his work:

In life
Some mock me for doing statistics
Some loathe me and statistics
Some don't understand what statistics are
Why is it that statistics
Put a calm smile on my face?
Because of statistics I can solve the deepest mysteries
Because of statistics I will not be lonely again, playing in the data
Because of statistics I can rearrange the stars in the skies above

[...]

Day by day our surveys grow robust
Strategic service, its power we entrust
Stores of data show great changes
The world can see their rising ranges

[...]

The stormy times force me to pay more attention
To the national GDP and CPI announcements...
As the motherland becomes richer and more powerful,
Statistics are emphasized.