grading the predictiOns
we stopped writing about dumb team about two weeks ago because it became .... not painful but just dumb. dumb orioles losing dumb games by the dozen in september. that should change soon. maybe. if things go as planned.
and if you want to read all the accolades for mike mussina's 20th win make sure you check out all his fanbois over at camdenchat. they've forgiven, forgotten, rationalized and stockholm syndromed their way into complete submission.
anyway now we gotta move fast .... no endless weeks of hype & hiatus between reg. season and playoffs in this sport. we've got some recaps and postmortems and we're preparing year 2 of our uncannily accurate "certainty points-based" playoff predictions for tomorrow hopefully.
but first, it looks like our playoffs are basically set ... with the chisox beating detroit (and officially sending tigers into last place) we've got a play-in game! but we're close enough. let's have a look, division by division, at Wayward O's pre-season picks (see hyperlinks) and grade them:
AL East: Hmmm. Let's see. We said Yankees would be "on outside looking in." Check. We said Red Sox were best team in division. Wrong (but they did make playoffs and might be best team in MLB, the AL East weirdness notwithstanding.) We liked the Jays in second but they came in fourth. We made no specific prediction about Rays except to say they'd be better. We said team would finish last. Grade:B C
AL Central: We said Tigers would come in first. They came in last. We discounted the Twins but they will play a play-in vs. Chisox. We liked the Indians at least to sniff the wild card. We liked the Chisox to contend -- not a sexy pick in pre-season. We accurately foresaw the Royale improving a little Overall this one was a mess but there were a few predictive bright spots. Grade: D+
AL West: We liked the Angels to win (duh). We liked the Mariners to contend a little for the Wild Card but noted they were over-rated. We also predicted issues with Ichiro in CF and sure enough he's back in RF. We foresaw Texas & Oakland in the junk pile. Grade: B+
NL East: We picked the Braves? Hideous. In our defense however we were trying to hit a long-shot, so to speak. And the B's did look good on paper until you remember what a bust Mike Hampton really is. We foresaw the Mets contending and the Phillies contending for Wild Card. Instead Phils won the division. We vastly under-rated the Marlins and pretty much got the Nats right. Grade: D
NL Central: Friends, we picked the order of finish in this six-team division exactly. And you could look it up. Just click the linky there. We also had the Brewers going to the post-season and hinted at the firing of the manager, and though we didn't read the Ned Yost tea leaves exactly, it was still an uncanny predictive display. Grade: A+
NL West: We and everyone had the D'Backs winning. Ehhh! We over-rated the Padres. But we did correctly predict the Colorado fall-off, writing Was 2007 a bit of a fluke? Yeah. Yeah it was. And we did have the Dodgers contending minus Manny. Nice job overall sorta. Grade: B-
Overall Grade: B ... one of the more depressing grades you can get. you kind of half-heartedly tried and in retrospect you'd be happier with a C if only you'd stayed up and partied instead of cramming. anyway .... if chisox beat twins tomorrow and sneak in bump it up to a B+ yeah i know that's a pretty friendly grade.
and if you want to read all the accolades for mike mussina's 20th win make sure you check out all his fanbois over at camdenchat. they've forgiven, forgotten, rationalized and stockholm syndromed their way into complete submission.
anyway now we gotta move fast .... no endless weeks of hype & hiatus between reg. season and playoffs in this sport. we've got some recaps and postmortems and we're preparing year 2 of our uncannily accurate "certainty points-based" playoff predictions for tomorrow hopefully.
but first, it looks like our playoffs are basically set ... with the chisox beating detroit (and officially sending tigers into last place) we've got a play-in game! but we're close enough. let's have a look, division by division, at Wayward O's pre-season picks (see hyperlinks) and grade them:
AL East: Hmmm. Let's see. We said Yankees would be "on outside looking in." Check. We said Red Sox were best team in division. Wrong (but they did make playoffs and might be best team in MLB, the AL East weirdness notwithstanding.) We liked the Jays in second but they came in fourth. We made no specific prediction about Rays except to say they'd be better. We said team would finish last. Grade:
AL Central: We said Tigers would come in first. They came in last. We discounted the Twins but they will play a play-in vs. Chisox. We liked the Indians at least to sniff the wild card. We liked the Chisox to contend -- not a sexy pick in pre-season. We accurately foresaw the Royale improving a little Overall this one was a mess but there were a few predictive bright spots. Grade: D+
AL West: We liked the Angels to win (duh). We liked the Mariners to contend a little for the Wild Card but noted they were over-rated. We also predicted issues with Ichiro in CF and sure enough he's back in RF. We foresaw Texas & Oakland in the junk pile. Grade: B+
NL East: We picked the Braves? Hideous. In our defense however we were trying to hit a long-shot, so to speak. And the B's did look good on paper until you remember what a bust Mike Hampton really is. We foresaw the Mets contending and the Phillies contending for Wild Card. Instead Phils won the division. We vastly under-rated the Marlins and pretty much got the Nats right. Grade: D
NL Central: Friends, we picked the order of finish in this six-team division exactly. And you could look it up. Just click the linky there. We also had the Brewers going to the post-season and hinted at the firing of the manager, and though we didn't read the Ned Yost tea leaves exactly, it was still an uncanny predictive display. Grade: A+
NL West: We and everyone had the D'Backs winning. Ehhh! We over-rated the Padres. But we did correctly predict the Colorado fall-off, writing Was 2007 a bit of a fluke? Yeah. Yeah it was. And we did have the Dodgers contending minus Manny. Nice job overall sorta. Grade: B-
Overall Grade: B ... one of the more depressing grades you can get. you kind of half-heartedly tried and in retrospect you'd be happier with a C if only you'd stayed up and partied instead of cramming. anyway .... if chisox beat twins tomorrow and sneak in bump it up to a B+ yeah i know that's a pretty friendly grade.
Labels: arOund the big leagues
posted by the wayward o at
7:15 PM
5 Comments:
While I think a grade of 'B' for the AL East pick is, um, generous.... I commend Wbm$tr for owning his predictions. Would that political pundits would do the same on occasion.
The Angels are fearsome.
I'm firmly on the Cubs bandwagon but if that doesn't work out then Go Dodgers!
-cW
I'm really interested to see how your system works this year. Last year you had all 4 AL teams better than the NL (and that was correct). I expect the Cubs will change that this year.
cW ... yeah i probably deserve a "C" for the AL East.
spons. ... not to mention CC Sabathia & Crew's offense.
If Dogers and BoSox can pull off miracles and make it to the WS It would be Torre, Manny and Nomar Playing in Fenway For all the marbles. It would be Sooooooo excruciating.......
-brO
jeter's gonna win it all for us
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