The End-of-the-World Series
Sep. 28th, 2008 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfield"Shallow men speak of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future."
- Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du Deffand
Looking back on my 2008 Major League Baseball Predictions, it appears I was right about a few things. Mainly, I was able to sort all of the teams into their correct divisions. Otherwise I got just about everything wrong. I correctly guessed that the Cubs and Dodgers would win their divisions, and I had a feeling that the Rays would be all right. But I was just about as wrong as could be about the Yankees, Indians, Twins, White Sox, Mariners, Marlins, Astros, Cardinals and especially the Tigers, whom I predicted would win the World Series but ended up with the third-worst record in the league. Oops.
In an attempt to compensate for this pathetic prognostication (or perhaps compound the error), I give you my 2008 Major League Baseball Playoff Predictions -- based on the same surprisingly successful method as last year: The teams I pick to advance will be selected on the basis of nothing more than defensive prowess, as subjectively qualified by me.
[For the purpose of this exercise, I am predicting that Minnesota will end up taking the AL Central crown, however that happens.]
NL Divisionals:
Philadelphia over Milwaukee (Neither team is any great shakes with the leather, but the Brewers have been one of the worst teams in the league for the last several years)
Chicago over Los Angeles (Again, neither team is defensively oriented, but the Dodgers have at least three infielders playing out of position -- and their staff throws a lot of sinkers.)
NL Championship:
Chicago over Philadelphia (Going to be a very close series -- the defensive difference will be at first base, where Derrek Lee makes Ryan Howard look like he's made of cement)
AL Divisionals:
Los Angeles over Boston (Calm down, Josh, it's close enough to be a toss-up; I'm giving the Angels the slight edge because they'll have Sean Casey at first instead of Mark Teixeira, which is important with rookie shortstops)
Tampa over Minnesota (Assumes Bartlett will be healthy enough to play regularly at shortstop ... Mauer will neutralize the Tampa running game but Tampa matches up better around the infield ... I'd feel better about Tampa if Crawford were playing left field instead of Eric Hinske)
AL Championship:
Tampa over Los Angeles (Though this matchup could come down to the bullpens, where the Angels have a powerful edge)
World Series:
Tampa over Chicago (Thereby assuring additional decades of curse-related whining)
And for those of you who are curious about the result of this year's fantasy baseball campaign, I am proud to announce that I have taken the championship crown for the second consecutive year, after a torrid second-half and a skin-of-my-teeth final round against my powerhouse divisional rival.
After what could easily be called a horrible, horrible draft (remember?) I struggled through the first two months; after 10 weeks I was 42-48-10. That's bad.
But there were several key points when my season turned around:
- I plucked Justin Duchscherer off the waiver wire in mid-May and watched him spin 13 high-quality starts until I traded him for Ian Kinsler.
- In the span of a week in June, I picked up Jermaine Dye and Pat Burrell off the waiver wire, shoring up my outfield for the rest of the year.
- At the All-Star break I pulled off a major trade, Prince Fielder and Rich Harden for David Wright. Ultimately all three players performed well and I think the trade benefited both teams, but I get the benefit of being able to keep Wright for next year.
- In late July I totally rebuilt my pitching staff, adding Ricky Nolasco, Ted Lilly and Derek Lowe, who combined to go 18-7 with a 2.80 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP and 184 strikeouts in just over 215 innings. That's good.
- And over the course of the last few weeks, I've had uncanny luck at picking spot pitchers, when streaming starters totally changes the game strategy.
Of course, so much of fantasy sports is based on luck that I can't really take credit for much. But winning for two years in a row says something, I think. Or maybe not. But the $125 prize is enough gratification for me.
- Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, Marquise du Deffand
Looking back on my 2008 Major League Baseball Predictions, it appears I was right about a few things. Mainly, I was able to sort all of the teams into their correct divisions. Otherwise I got just about everything wrong. I correctly guessed that the Cubs and Dodgers would win their divisions, and I had a feeling that the Rays would be all right. But I was just about as wrong as could be about the Yankees, Indians, Twins, White Sox, Mariners, Marlins, Astros, Cardinals and especially the Tigers, whom I predicted would win the World Series but ended up with the third-worst record in the league. Oops.
In an attempt to compensate for this pathetic prognostication (or perhaps compound the error), I give you my 2008 Major League Baseball Playoff Predictions -- based on the same surprisingly successful method as last year: The teams I pick to advance will be selected on the basis of nothing more than defensive prowess, as subjectively qualified by me.
[For the purpose of this exercise, I am predicting that Minnesota will end up taking the AL Central crown, however that happens.]
NL Divisionals:
Philadelphia over Milwaukee (Neither team is any great shakes with the leather, but the Brewers have been one of the worst teams in the league for the last several years)
Chicago over Los Angeles (Again, neither team is defensively oriented, but the Dodgers have at least three infielders playing out of position -- and their staff throws a lot of sinkers.)
NL Championship:
Chicago over Philadelphia (Going to be a very close series -- the defensive difference will be at first base, where Derrek Lee makes Ryan Howard look like he's made of cement)
AL Divisionals:
Los Angeles over Boston (Calm down, Josh, it's close enough to be a toss-up; I'm giving the Angels the slight edge because they'll have Sean Casey at first instead of Mark Teixeira, which is important with rookie shortstops)
Tampa over Minnesota (Assumes Bartlett will be healthy enough to play regularly at shortstop ... Mauer will neutralize the Tampa running game but Tampa matches up better around the infield ... I'd feel better about Tampa if Crawford were playing left field instead of Eric Hinske)
AL Championship:
Tampa over Los Angeles (Though this matchup could come down to the bullpens, where the Angels have a powerful edge)
World Series:
Tampa over Chicago (Thereby assuring additional decades of curse-related whining)
And for those of you who are curious about the result of this year's fantasy baseball campaign, I am proud to announce that I have taken the championship crown for the second consecutive year, after a torrid second-half and a skin-of-my-teeth final round against my powerhouse divisional rival.
After what could easily be called a horrible, horrible draft (remember?) I struggled through the first two months; after 10 weeks I was 42-48-10. That's bad.
But there were several key points when my season turned around:
- I plucked Justin Duchscherer off the waiver wire in mid-May and watched him spin 13 high-quality starts until I traded him for Ian Kinsler.
- In the span of a week in June, I picked up Jermaine Dye and Pat Burrell off the waiver wire, shoring up my outfield for the rest of the year.
- At the All-Star break I pulled off a major trade, Prince Fielder and Rich Harden for David Wright. Ultimately all three players performed well and I think the trade benefited both teams, but I get the benefit of being able to keep Wright for next year.
- In late July I totally rebuilt my pitching staff, adding Ricky Nolasco, Ted Lilly and Derek Lowe, who combined to go 18-7 with a 2.80 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP and 184 strikeouts in just over 215 innings. That's good.
- And over the course of the last few weeks, I've had uncanny luck at picking spot pitchers, when streaming starters totally changes the game strategy.
Of course, so much of fantasy sports is based on luck that I can't really take credit for much. But winning for two years in a row says something, I think. Or maybe not. But the $125 prize is enough gratification for me.
