This an exercise we went through last spring. This is last year's Predictions Thread! Not this Year's
Anyway, how did we do?
You don't really want to know.
(Here is the Original Invitation. Second thoughts and snide comments appear in italics.)
Don't be shy. Step up to the plate, Bauxites!
In the immortal words of Cyrano de Bergerac
Je vous ordonne de vous taire!
Et j'adresse un défi collectif au parterre!
And, like Inspector Clouseau, who among us can resist the chal-lenge? So:
1) give us the order of finish in the six divisions.
2) who are the two wild card teams
3) who are the two league champions
4) who is the World Series champion
5) who are the two MVPs
6) who are the two Cy Young winners
7) who are the two Rookies of the Year
8) Special tie-breaker - how many innings will Josh Towers pitch in 2007?
I have devised a Scoring System since originally posting, as follows:
Place of finish - 2 pts each (60)
Wild Cards - 3 pts each (66)
League Champs - 4 pts each (74)
MVP, Cy Young winners - 3 pts each (86)
Rookies of the Year - 2 pts each (90)
World Series winner 10 pts (100)
(This system proves to be a demanding, narrow and hard to master.)
This thread will be pulled as the first pitch of 2007 is thrown, only to be trotted out again after the World Series. At which point you can all make fun of me.
Although I'll almost certainly do a Status Report after the regular season ends, and we'll discover which Bauxites still have a Fighting Chance as we head into the post-season. (Hmmm. I didn't do that, did I?)
Second thoughts are permitted, until Opening Day. Should Albert Pujols suddenly decides to give up baseball and devote his life to fighting evil, we are allowed to revise our NL Central prediction. Even if he doesn't...
LOOKING BACK ON ALL OF THIS:
No one was able to score even 50% (I said this was a demanding scoring system), but we do have a winner. Everyone give it up for...
electric carrot
He scored 45 points. He had the World Series champs, which was 10 points right there. He also completely nailed the AL Central ( a perfect 10), and added 8 of 12 from the NL Central and 6 of 10 from the AL East.
A big and hearty round of applause and a No-Prize!
He edged out TheyCallMeMorty (43 points) and Michael (40 points). The top Roster rep, by the way, was Alex Obal whose 38 points landed him in a tie for fourth with Brian, a mere one point ahead of Thomas
And I, you ask?
You had to ask. Well, I seem to have finished in a four way tie for 30th place. With... uh... 17 points.
As it happens, seventeen is a lucky number for me - it's my birthday and all, it was my baseball number in Pony League back in the day.... but still.. Let's talk about something more interesting.
Did anyone pick the AL East correctly? Yes. The division was nailed by TheyCallMeMorty and Thomas.
The NL East was called correctly by williams_5. So he's got more to hang his hat on than... well, me.
No fewer than five participants accurately forecast how the AL Central would shake out. Kudos to electric carrot, Dave Rutt, Afterglow, tr0mbone, and Ron.
And two participants called the NL Central correctly - SNB and Brian.
But only AlexObal saw what was coming in the NL West.
And no one got the AL West. Hey, there's only four teams, how did that happen? (Hint - Oakland!)
As for the Bonus Points, the World Series winner was the big one. Banking on Boston were each of our top three finishers (electric carrot, TheyCallMeMorty, and Michael) along with AlexObal, ArmsLongfellow, and timpinder.
While Alex Rodriguez and Jake Peavy helped several participants score MVP and Cy Young bonus points (Sabathia and Rollins, not so much) - absolutely no one foresaw the coming of Ryan Braun and Dustin Pedroia.
Can I salvage anything from this... uh, debacle? Of course. I at least beat out Rob, my fellow 2005 Box rookie. I mock you, Mr Pettapiece, wherever you are! (Well, I know where you are, it's a rhetorical device, OK?) I point out that you actually scored fewer points than mylegacy, who didn't even bother to fill out a full ballot.
We take our comfort where we find it.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20070324045021532