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Trivia Challenge Playing Time Predicted: the Hot Corner 2011
What? I'm not late. Your face is late.


If you'll recall, we had a contest last year to see who could best predict how the Jays would allocate playing time at third base. The contest was, list everyone who would get a start at third in the 2011 season, with how many starts at third they would get. You get a point for each game you allocated to the right player, with a possible maximum of 162 points.

Here's how the playing time actually broke down:

Brett Lawrie, 43 GS
Edwin Encarnacion, 30 GS
Jose Bautista, 25 GS
John McDonald, 15 GS
Mike McCoy, 5 GS
not-in-the-organization-at-the-time-of-the-contest, 44 GS (Jayson Nix 40 GS, Mark Teahen 3 GS, Chris Woodward 1 GS)

And here's how we all did.

DJR - 98 pts
Magpie - 96 pts
christaylor - 96 pts
Dave B - 96 pts
CeeBee - 91 pts
Jonny German - 82 pts
Wayne H - 81 pts
Super Bluto - 80 pts
DiscoDave - 79 pts
bpoz - 77 pts
Brian - 77 pts
Ron - 73 pts
Matthew E - 64 pts
uglyone - 63 pts
electric carrot - 63 pts
Subversive - 52 pts
Thomas - 45 pts
Oxygen8 - 43 pts
Mike Green - 39 pts

DJR's winning entry had these guesses:

Lawrie 81 GS
Encarnacion 26 GS
Bautista 51 GS
McDonald 4 GS

Really none of us did that great. Jayson Nix threw us all off, and people tended to way overestimate or underestimate how much Lawrie would be playing.

We also did one of these for starting pitchers; I'll try to tally that one up before spring training ends.

Congratulations, DJR!
Posted by Matthew E on Tuesday, March 06 2012 @ 11:08 PM EST.
Playing Time Predicted: the Hot Corner 2011 | 12 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mick Doherty - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 12:48 AM EST (#252517) #

Brett Lawrie, 153 GS
Edwin Encarnacion, 4 GS
Jose Bautista, 5 GS

If Lawrie gets hurt, I am screwed. But then, so are the Jays!

[ Reply to This ]
CeeBee - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 07:41 AM EST (#252518) #
Lawrie 145
Encarnacion 10
Vizquel 5
McCoy 2
[ Reply to This ]
ogator - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 08:02 AM EST (#252519) #
  I would like to cheat and make a partial prediction.  You will never see Jose Bautista starting at 3B ever again or until Rick Santorum sits in the White House.  Either event would cause me to shudder.
[ Reply to This ]
Chuck - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 09:05 AM EST (#252520) #
Bautista and Santorum are most comfortable in right field. Santorum likes to play as far right as he can. Bautista sometimes veers towards center.
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MatO - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 09:10 AM EST (#252521) #
Santorum is so far right in right that he stands in foul territory.
[ Reply to This ]
Shaker - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 09:23 AM EST (#252522) #
Lawrie 121
Escobar 17
McCoy 12
Vizquel 10
Jose B 2

[ Reply to This ]
John Northey - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 09:37 AM EST (#252523) #
Lawrie 115
Vizquel 10
McCoy 5
Others (minors, not here at all) 32

I expect the Jays will find someone in the minors doing well (at a different position quite possibly) who gets called up during Lawrie's time on the DL (I expect 2 trips).

I'd rather predict 140+ games for Lawrie but his style of play suggests a Kirk Gibson / George Brett type career - lots of DL time until he figures out how to stay off of it (ie: not go at 100% every minute of every day on every play). Of course, both of those guys did have full seasons but Brett cracked 150 games 6 times in 20 full time seasons (OK, 19 full seasons if you cut out 1981). Gibson had 17 seasons and just reached 150 twice and 130 2 more times, just 8 times over 100 games. Lets hope Lawrie can be more like Brett than Gibson.
[ Reply to This ]
Matthew E - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 10:22 AM EST (#252525) #
No, you know what? Don't do third base. Third base isn't interesting this year. Lawrie is the regular, period. Sure, he might get hurt or something, but right now there's no decision to be made; it's just Lawrie.

You want a challenge to predict?

Left field.

I was actually going to start a thread about it. Left field is this year's third base. Will Snider or Thames claim the position and run with it? Will Encarnacion and Johnson get any playing time there, as management has suggested? What about Francisco and Davis? Rasmus and Bautista seem like fixtures in CF and RF, but will something happen to make them shift over for a couple of games? Will Gose get any starts there later in the year?

That's the one we should have the contest about this year. Someone want to kick off that thread?

[ Reply to This ]
Chuck - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 10:48 AM EST (#252526) #

Will Encarnacion and Johnson get any playing time there, as management has suggested?

I think the Johnson-to-LF talk was just hooey intended to discourage Johnson from accepting arbitration. You've got to think that he's way, way down the LF depth chart, especially with no one else to step in at second base.

[ Reply to This ]
Lylemcr - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 11:39 AM EST (#252527) #

3rd base -Lawrie 90,Encarnacion 25,Bautista -15,Vizquel 10,Other - 20 (not McCoy)

Left field - Fransicso - 20 games, Snider 40 games, Davis 40 games and Thames 60 games.

Santorum - OMG.  I do think that the "liberal etlite" umpires are an issue in baseball.

[ Reply to This ]
uglyone - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 11:45 AM EST (#252528) #
Heh. how did i get 63pts last year? i was sure i put down lawrie for all 16 games plus 3 playoff rounds. hm, guess i must have put ee down for 20.

This year? Lawrie - 160, vizquel - 2
[ Reply to This ]
92-93 - Wednesday, March 07 2012 @ 04:41 PM EST (#252540) #
Lawrie 136
Encarnacion 16
Vizquel 4
Valbuena 3
McCoy 3
[ Reply to This ]
Playing Time Predicted: the Hot Corner 2011 | 12 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.