Dreaming in Excel

I have been using Microsoft Excel for a long time, but before last night, I don't think I ever had visions of sugar plum spreadsheets dancing in my head. I guess there's a first for everything, but what does it mean?

People say you truly understand a foreign language when you start speaking and hearing it in your dreams. So, does this mean I'm fluent in excel now? Has anyone else experienced this?

Well, it turns out, I'm not totally alone. Google has 10 matches for "dream in excel" or "dreaming in excel":

• Teaching Basic Excel to Adults: "I ... dream in Excel models, so there's a downside"
  
• F1 Get the Most out of Excel! The Ultimate Excel Tip Help Guide: "I DREAM in Excel (yeah, I know, I'm a sicko)"
  
• Profitability Data Mart: Using Oracle 9i Windowing Functions in Cost of Funds and Interest Expense Calculation: "[Finance people] dream in Excel. If you ask them what they had for lunch, they quickly open an Excel sheet in their minds, put all the courses with all the ingredients and prices, draw a pivot table, apply a standard deviation and a variance and will give you not only the price per calorie but the trends in the food industry in the next five years."
  
• When the going gets tough...: "[Statistics] is driving me insane... Seriously. Sometimes I dream in excel spreadsheets."
  
• USNEW Rankings & UG Business Programs - Page 4 - College Discussion: "Banking is very very simple and boring .... You will dream in Excel."
  
• Slashdot | Upcoming SuSE 9.0 Professional Reviewed: [no good quote]
  
• Part of OSS Movement Is Seeking "World Domination;" Like All Battle Planners, the Commanders Appear to be Fighting the Last War: [no good quote]
  
• Accounting Manager on Monster: "Do you dream in Excel spreadsheet format, but crave working with fun and creative people?"
  
• {not crazy}: "Sleep deprivation is bad for you. Dreaming in Excel ... [is not healthy]."
  
• My Mind on Kamchatka: "They are doing a good job, I just have to be nit picky. I'll be dreaming in Excel again."
  

I think this must mean I'm one of the 11 biggest Excel nerds in the world. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or concerned. Probably concerned.

Don't Get Ahead of Yourself

Over at 6-4-2, they're celebrating the Angel's division title, and looking ahead to an admittedly bright future. But as a bitter A's fan, I take issue with the idea that Angels fans have seen "a division winner, year after (mostly) year."

The Angels have won the AL West three of the last four years, but before that, they hadn't won their division since 1986. And they won the 2004 division title by only a single measly game over the A's. Flip one game in the 2004 standings and the A's and Angels have split the last four division titles. Even without any revisionist history, the A's and Angels have each won the AL West three times in the last six years. That's hardly "a division winner, year after ... year."

And while the Angels do have an admirable farm system and quality young talent in their organization, success is no gimme. I say we hold off on crowning the Angels as AL West champions through 2015...

Yes, It's Too Late

Over at Baseball Musings, Pinto asks if the A's are Improving Too Late?

In a word: Yes

One of my favorite pages on the "internets" is the playoff odds report from Baseball Prospectus, which (sadly) shows the A's have a 0.732% chance of making the postseason as of 8/22/07. While I would LOVE to see the A's somehow pull it off, it's just not going to happen.

Great Baseball Tale

Brad Ziegler, a minor leaguer in the Oakland A's farm system, has been blogging over on AthleticsNation all season. In his most recent post, he pointed to a post from another minor leaguer: BaseballAmerica.com: Minors: Non-Prospect Diary: Dirk Hayhurst. It's a well-written post about how trivial baseball is and at the same time, how it can mean so much. Definitely worth the read.

I still can't explain why people treat us so special for putting on a baseball uniform. But in those few moments together, it didn't really matter--in those few moments, baseball made perfect sense.

Bronx Zoo

My sister (who's currently blogging her trip through China and Southeast Asia) went to the Bronx Zoo a few years ago when she was in Teach for America training. She had a great time and recommended I make the journey (to the Bronx, not to China). Well, this weekend, I finally trekked up to 180th street in the Bronx to see the zoo. It was quite the time. The Congo Gorilla Forest was the highlight, with baby gorillas wrestling each other and looking just too darn cute.

I neglected to bring my camera, so we'll have to settle for someone else's pictures on Flickr. Here, then, is a slide show of pictures with the tags "Bronx Zoo Gorilla". Enjoy!

Kendall to the Cubbies

From Gregg:

A’s Fan #1: Guess what? We traded Jason Kendall.
A’s Fan #2: Great trade. Who’d we get?

I enjoyed some aspects of the Jason Kendall era: tagging out Michael Young at homeplate to end the game and scoring the winning run from third when K-Rod dropped a throw from the catcher. And to be fair, the pitching staff seemed to do well with him behind the plate.

Kendall's cERA with Oakland (2005-07): 3.81
Total ERA for Oakland (2005-07): 3.90

But, I can't say I enjoyed the 482 AB/HR or the .658 OPS. In fact, Kendall's OPS so far this year is .538, worst amongst all MLB batters that qualify for the batting title (3.1 plate appearances per team game). It didn't help that the A's were paying him $11mm/yr. Anyway, I don't think this trade means the A's are throwing in the towel. I'm still holding out hope...

Things are Looking Grim for the A's

Well, the A's have lost nine straight games and fallen 12 games behind the AL West leading Angels and 11.5 games behind the wild card leading Indians. Oddly, I haven't given up hope. I somehow still believe the A's can put together a run at the playoffs. If Rich Harden, Huston Street and Mike Piazza can get healthy and return to form, I think the A's still have an outside shot at making things interesting.

But things do indeed look bad. Here's a look at 10-game rolling averages for the A's runs scored for and runs scored against:



Basically, you want the blue line to be above the pink line, and that really hasn't been the case since mid-June. Since beating the Cardinals 14-3 on June 15, the A's have averaged 3.8 runs per game, while allowing an average of 5.75 runs. With a run differential like that, you'd expect a team to win only 30% of its games, and sure enough, the A's have gone 7-21, playing .250 baseball. Things aren't looking pretty, and we're quickly approaching the point where we're forced to "Wait Till Next Year."