I have been wanting to flesh out an idea I have had for years for a children’s book series. Breaking into this realm is really daunting and difficult though. There are millions of children’s books and the industry is pretty closed to outsiders from what I hear.

Then along came the iPad. Ever since I saw the Alice app I have rekindled my desire to work n this project. I know. I know. This is a bit slow. Alice came out a long time ago. Give me a break I have been busy.

I am going to start phase one of this project and blog about the process, in case others are interested in publishing their own work this way.

I finally sat down and read Moneyball. I have no idea why I put it off so long. I love to read, I love baseball, and I love stats. In particular I love obscure stats. Stats that dig deeper and show value to areas we don’t normally look at. This is probably why I love fantasy baseball, however Moneyball showed that those deeper stats have more to do with real baseball than fantasy baseball.

Moneyball explains why money isn’t everything and dead set old school concepts in baseball essentially ruin it in terms of success. I mean why would we root for the Cubs if they actually won games? I think what I liked most of all was the fact that they showed how undervalued players are. We focus so much on the dinger that we ignore the guy who can get on base or force a pitcher to run up their pitch count by a factor of ten in one at bat. Isn’t that super valuable? I think so, always have. I remember back in the day, I think 1989, when the Giants 3B Matt Williams had something like a 15 pitch at bat. I realized, even if this guy fails to get on base, he is wearing the hell out of this pitcher. Value.

It is always the splash that gets the attention so it is understandable why these pieces are undervalued, but thankfully Moneyball came along to explain the almost underground look at teams and people who do look at those things. These days, with the Internet and an obsession on almost everything, that is no longer the case.

If you are a baseball fan and have a brain, I highly suggest this book. It is huge.

Ahhh it is that time again to prep for baseball season. I made my keeper decisions already and here is what CAG will start with this year. I made the playoffs yet again last year but did not go all the way. Work needs to be done!

• Pujols $46 – You can not turn down Pujols no matter how hard I try to justify it.
• Braun $38 – Braun is a stud
• Johnson $29 – I think Josh Johnson is a bit overpriced, but I needed a top notch SP
• Choo $28 – Choo also is a bit high, but he is rock steady and avoided military service
• Cain $26 – I traded my third round pick for Cain and Zobrist, a stellar deal in my opinion. I now have two top notch SP
• Andrus $15 – I do not really like Elvis, but he is a decent bed at $15 at a very slim position.
• Zobrist $14 – A steal growth point at this spot. I traded Kinsler for Deep’s third round pick so I moved UP in the third round and gained in my opinion. Kinsler was way overpriced at $28 considering he can not stay healthy.
• Matusz $2 – A boom or bust cheap young pitcher.
• Jackson $2 – Austin is a speedster growth player. He is worth the cheap gamble
• De La Rosa $2 – This is my main concern. Who knows what I will get here

I desperately tried to get Cahill at $6. He is a great young pitcher that would be a steal at that price.

So I am pretty excited to be working on a new project for soul artist and actress Angela Blair! Angela was in the movie Leap of Faith with Steve Martin, produced the 2009 documentary President Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey and is a very popular soul musical artist. She will be on the Tom Joyner Morning Show this month and our marketing work with her team will coincide with that media event.