2 and strikeouts 261 to 144 a lower BAA

Moore Uses Oracle(R) Retail Applications to Help Improve OperationalEfficiencies and Support Long-Term GrowthSpecialty Retailer Turns to Oracle and OLR for Hosted Oracle RetailMerchandising Solution on Linux PlatformNEW YORK, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ NRF 98th ANNUAL CONVENTION & EXPONews FactsA.C Moore Arts & Craft, Inc. has gone live with Oracle(R) Retailmerchandising applications to help create value and support long-termgrowth across its more than 130 stores.A.C. Moore is leveraging the Oracle Retail applications as part of abroader business transformation that is helping the company increasesell-through of seasonal merchandise, preserve margins and derive morevalue from the business A typical A.C. Mooreselected OLR's hosted and Managed Application Solution (MAS) as thedelivery model. Not only did the delivery model help accelerate theimplementation of the Oracle Retail applications, but it also enabledA.C.

Moore's information technology group to stay focused on otherstrategic initiatives vital to grow the business.OLR's MAS model helped eliminate A.C. The retailer alreadyuses Oracle Database 10g.The Oracle Retail applications provide A.C. Moore with a foundationformaking insight-driven business decisions and the retailer expects thesolutions to help reduce inventory by as much as 20 percent.Theretailer is leveraging core merchandising applications for categorymanagement, allocation, pricing and replenishment.Supporting Quotes"We expect our Oracle Retail implementation to help us deliver morevalue to both customers and shareholders. The insight we gain from thenew systems provides us with a better understanding of customerpreferences and enables us to offer the right inventory at the rightprice," said Dennis Hodgson, Chief Information Officer, A.C. Moore have a proven delivery model foraccepting and leveraging Oracle Retail applications that canprovidethem terrific insight into their business," said Glyn Kirby,Principal, OLR.Supporting ResourcesAbout A.C MooreA.C. Formore information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http:// is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.(Logo: http://)SOURCEOracleKevin Ruane of Oracle, 1-650-506-6610, . For the most part, the 2009? MLB? Awards Season will be a? snoozefest.Sure, there will be some debate over secondary awards like Rookie of the Year, but for the most part, the major hardware is spoken for.Zack? Greinke? appears to have a well-deserved stranglehold on the AL Cy Young.

Joe Mauer is the clear? choice? for AL Most Valuable Player, except to a few fringe Yankee fans and Harold Reynolds. The front-runners, ESPN tells us, are Chris Carpenter, Tim Lincecum, and Adam Wainwright.Wainwright should not be a serious candidate for the award. While he pitched a good season, the only category in which he holds an advantage is Wins. You don’t need Bill James to tell you that Wins are an absurd way to measure a pitcher’s performance (when I was four, I asked my dad why anyone cared about them, he had no answer).That leaves Carpenter and Lincecum.Lincecum supporters can point to a number of statistics to show how great their boy is. He’s got more innings pitched (225.1 to 192.2) and strikeouts (261 to 144), a lower BAA (.206 to .226) and? OPSA? (.561 to .581), and a higher K/9 rate (10.4 to 6.7).That’s all well and good, but Carpenter has the advantage in the most important aspect of a pitcher’s game: preventing runs. With an ERA of 2.24, Carpenter beat Lincecum (2.48) by nearly a quarter-run per game.

And while unearned runs are generally poor indicators of pitching performance, isn’t it somewhat noteworthy that Lincecum allowed seven while Carpenter gave up just oneOn top of that, Carpenter had a lower WHIP (1.02 to 1.04) and a much better BB/9 rate (1.8 to 2.7). They contend that Carpenter’s ERA was deflated by an easier schedule. And they declare that Lincecum’s dominance in other categories proves that he is the better pitcher.All of the above are reasonable arguments, but far from irrefutable. It’s true that Lincecum pitched more, but 192.2 innings is certainly a sufficient sample size. Anyway, the disparity exists not because Carpenter got tired or shut down, but because was hurt for much of the beginning of the season (which, to me, makes his performance that much more impressive).There’s no question that Carpenter faced an easier set of opponents.