I applaud my good friend for throwing down a challenge which he must know he can't win. The Brewers of 2011 are the Mariners of 2010 (except they won't be quite as painful to watch and won't have the Cy Young winner at year's end). I'm hearing lots of hype, but remember that the Brew Crew finished 16 games behind the Reds a year ago. I don't see them making up all that ground in 2011. I'm also not ready to write off the defending champs and their rotation. I'm not sure how the Phillies are going to be two games worse than they were last season, so I have them as the only squad to hit 100 wins. Other than that, our numbers are pretty close, so it should be interesting. Also, think I deserve 100 bonus points if I correctly predict the one-game playoff between Atlanta and Colorado for the NL Wild Card.
Either way, here are the correct answers (2010 final record and division finish in parentheses):
American League
East
1. Boston Red Sox: 97-65 (89-73, 3rd)
2. New York Yankees: 93-69 (95-76, 2nd)
3. Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays: 84-78 (96-66, 1st)
4. Toronto Blue Jays: 79-83 (85-77, 4th)
5. Baltimore Orioles: 70-92 (66-96, 5th)
Central
1. Minnesota Twins: 93-69 (94-68, 1st)
2. Chicago White Sox: 90-72 (88-74, 2nd)
3. Detroit Tigers: 79-83 (81-81, 3rd)
4. Cleveland Indians: 64-98 (69-93, 4th)
5. Kansas City Royals: 58-104 (67-95, 5th)
West
1. Oakland Athletics: 87-75 (81-81, 2nd)
2. Los Angeles (nee Anaheim) Angels: 86-76 (80-82, 3rd)
3. Texas Rangers: 85-77 (90-72, 1st)
4. Seattle Mariners: 71-91 (61-101, 4th)
National League
East
1. Philadelphia Phillies: 101-61 (97-65, 1st)
2. Atlanta Braves: 89-74 (91-71, 2nd)
3. New York Mets: 80-82 (79-83, 4th)
4. Florida Marlins: 76-86 (80-82, 3rd)
5. Washington Nationals: 71-91 (69-93, 5th)
Central
1. Cincinnati Reds: 93-69 (91-71, 1st)
2. Milwaukee Brewers: 84-78 (77-85, 3rd)
3. St. Louis Cardinals: 81-81 (86-76, 2nd)
4. Houston Astros: 73-89 (76-86, 4th)
5. Chicago Cubs: 70-92 (75-87, 5th)
6. Pittsburgh Pirates: 55-107 (57-105, 6th)
West
1. San Francisco Giants: 91-71 (92-70, 1st)
2. Colorado Rockies: 89-73 (83-79, 3rd)
3. San Diego Padres: 84-78 (90-72, 2nd)
4. Los Angeles Dodgers: 76-86 (80-82, 4th)
5. Arizona Diamondbacks: 62-100 (65-97, 5th)
Playoffs
Colorado Rockies over Atlanta Braves in one-game playoff
American League Division Series
Boston Red Sox over Oakland Athletics (3-0)
Minnesota Twins over New York Yankees (3-2)
National League Division Series
Philadelphia Phillies over San Francisco Giants (3-1)
Colorado Rockies over Cincinnati Reds (3-1)
American League Championship Series
Boston Red Sox over Minnesota Twins (4-1)
National League Championship Series
Philadelphia Phillies over Colorado Rockies (4-0)
World Series
Philadelphia Phillies over Boston Red Sox (4-1)
Two things: 1) I don't want to hear any nonsense from Yankee fans that I didn't pick them to win it all. My wedding cake was an interlocking "NY", and 2) I like my steak medium-rare.
Winning, duh.
Probably not too far from relatively reasonable, which for you may be uncharted territory, ha ha. But if the Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves tie for the wild card, the playoff game would be included in the regular season standings, and after it they'd be separated by 1 win and 1 loss. You've got them both with 89 wins, although Colorado has 1 less loss than Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteSure, there's heavy snow forecast for this weekend, but that's no reason to predict that the New York Mets will have fully ten games rained out and not replayed. They need the revenue more than anyone lately. Since you have them in third place behind the Bravos, I assume your prediction is 80-82 instead of 80-72.
Why so pessimistic on the overall major league season? The easiest bet would be to say that there will be an equal number of games won as lost - even the predicted one-game playoff. But you've got a total of 2411 games won against a total of 2450 games lost (all ML games are taken together to account for interleague play). How can there be 39 games with a loser but no winner?
While I think you're making remarkable progress in your basic arithmetic, you may want to hold off a while before describing these predictions as "correct".
Wayne is a great guy. He just happens to be a dirty, dirty sox fan.
ReplyDeleteOh and BTW... check my math Wayne - I was prepared...
ReplyDelete