Bravesworld.com | Atlanta Braves News, braves Scores, Game Recaps & Commentary - <div>Baseball statistician Bill James recently examined 250 major-league teams in the history of Baseball to determine the best among them in terms of roster strength. </div>He devised a method assigning value to position players and pitchers in a points system. The 1957 Braves tied for ninth on his list with the 1979 New York Yankees. James' analysis determined the 1931 Yankees, with six Hall of Famers as regulars, was the best team in his study with a rating of 315. The order of the rest of the teams: 2. 1932 Yankees, 3. 1974 Reds, 4. 1975 Reds, 5. 1972 Reds, 6. 1973 Reds, 7. 1930 Yankees, 8. 1977 Reds and 9. (tie) '57 Braves and '79 Yankees (287 rating). James said he looked at the 1982 Brewers but that team does not rate among the elite. "The Milwaukee Brewers were expansion classmates with the Royals and Padres," James wrote. "I checked out the 1982 Brewers because I thought that, with Ted Simmons, Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Rollie Fingers, Ben Oglivie and Cecil Cooper, they might register as a historic team. "They don't. The starting pitching wasn't good enough. It's a good team, 262 points. But it's not a historic roster." Ticket dilemma Some of the premium seats at new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field have gone unsold in the games following the openers. The cost of the two new homes for the New York Yankees and New York Mets was $2.3 billion. According to The New York Times, the clubs are failing to sell about 5,000 tickets each to their initial games. Many of the tickets are premium locations, from $295 a seat to $2,625 a seat. The price of an average premium ticket to a Yankees game is $510 and to a Mets game $150. "The empty seats are a fresh sign that the teams might have miscalculated how much fans and corporations were willing to spend, particularly during a deep recession," the report said. The clubs are in a bind because they cannot simply lower the prices of the premium seats now, when other customers already have paid the asking price for the same kind of seating. Short rookie list Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls was voted rookie-of-the-year honors on Wednesday. He was the runaway winner in a vote of 120 reporters and broadcasters around the National Basketball Association. Milwaukee rookies don't have much connection to the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy, which has gone to the top rookie since 1953. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the award in 1970, the only Bucks rookie to win the honor. Bob Pettit, who played his first season in the NBA with the Milwaukee Hawks in 1954-'55, also won the rookie award. Kalas on the call Harry Kalas, the Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster who died April 13 at age 73, has at least one connection to local sports fans. Kalas, who was born and raised in Naperville, Ill., and attended the University of Iowa, called some Marquette basketball games on television in the early 1980s. Marquette, Notre Dame, DePaul and Dayton, who were independents, would play one another and the games were packaged for TV syndication. Kalas was hired to call some of those games. During his career, he also handled Southwest Conference, Big Ten and Big Five college basketball. Hey, cover boy Brett Favre was on the cover of the popular EA Sports video game "Madden NFL 09." The company turns its choice for the cover into a promotional moment. EA Sports said the nine finalists for the cover of "Madden NFL 10" are: Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel, Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed. ---------- Call SportsDay at (414) 223-5531 or send e-mail to bwolfley@journalsentinel.com Copyright 2009, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Baseball statistician Bill James recently examined 250 major-league teams in the history of Baseball to determine the best among them in terms of roster strength.

He devised a method assigning value to position players and pitchers in a points system.

The 1957 Braves tied for ninth on his list with the 1979 New York Yankees.

James' analysis determined the 1931 Yankees, with six Hall of Famers as regulars, was the best team in his study with a rating of 315.

The order of the rest of the teams:

2. 1932 Yankees, 3. 1974 Reds, 4. 1975 Reds, 5. 1972 Reds, 6. 1973 Reds, 7. 1930 Yankees, 8. 1977 Reds and 9. (tie) '57 Braves and '79 Yankees (287 rating).

James said he looked at the 1982 Brewers but that team does not rate among the elite.

"The Milwaukee Brewers were expansion classmates with the Royals and Padres," James wrote. "I checked out the 1982 Brewers because I thought that, with Ted Simmons, Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Rollie Fingers, Ben Oglivie and Cecil Cooper, they might register as a historic team.

"They don't. The starting pitching wasn't good enough. It's a good team, 262 points. But it's not a historic roster."

Ticket dilemma

Some of the premium seats at new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field have gone unsold in the games following the openers.

The cost of the two new homes for the New York Yankees and New York Mets was $2.3 billion.

According to The New York Times, the clubs are failing to sell about 5,000 tickets each to their initial games. Many of the tickets are premium locations, from $295 a seat to $2,625 a seat.

The price of an average premium ticket to a Yankees game is $510 and to a Mets game $150.

"The empty seats are a fresh sign that the teams might have miscalculated how much fans and corporations were willing to spend, particularly during a deep recession," the report said.

The clubs are in a bind because they cannot simply lower the prices of the premium seats now, when other customers already have paid the asking price for the same kind of seating.

Short rookie list

Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls was voted rookie-of-the-year honors on Wednesday. He was the runaway winner in a vote of 120 reporters and broadcasters around the National Basketball Association.

Milwaukee rookies don't have much connection to the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy, which has gone to the top rookie since 1953.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the award in 1970, the only Bucks rookie to win the honor.

Bob Pettit, who played his first season in the NBA with the Milwaukee Hawks in 1954-'55, also won the rookie award.

Kalas on the call

Harry Kalas, the Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster who died April 13 at age 73, has at least one connection to local sports fans.

Kalas, who was born and raised in Naperville, Ill., and attended the University of Iowa, called some Marquette basketball games on television in the early 1980s.

Marquette, Notre Dame, DePaul and Dayton, who were independents, would play one another and the games were packaged for TV syndication. Kalas was hired to call some of those games.

During his career, he also handled Southwest Conference, Big Ten and Big Five college basketball.

Hey, cover boy

Brett Favre was on the cover of the popular EA Sports video game "Madden NFL 09."

The company turns its choice for the cover into a promotional moment.

EA Sports said the nine finalists for the cover of "Madden NFL 10" are:

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel, Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed.

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Call SportsDay at (414) 223-5531 or send e-mail to bwolfley@journalsentinel.com