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Remember when I asked you to predict how every team in the bigs would perform this year? Let's see how people are doing.


Methodology: My method to project teams' final records is pretty simple: I just assume they'll play at their current pythagorean winning percentage for the rest of the season, and add that to their current record. So, for example, the Jays are currently 22-12, with 204 runs scored and 154 allowed. This gives a pythag win % of .637, so if the Jays play at that clip for the rest of the year, they'll go 82-46. Add that to their current record, and the system says the good guys will go 104-58. Anyway, in this particular case it doesn't seem too realistic, but it's a decent predictor, moreso as the season progresses.

Surprises: well, we all know about the Jays' hot start - they're projected to win more games than anyone else in the AL, and nobody's particularly close - Kansas City is next with a projected total of 96 wins. Only the Dodgers (109) are projected to win more than the Jays.

The AL Central is pretty much opposite to what analysts predicted at the beginning of the season: Minnesota and Cleveland were the favourites in the early-going, and they're projected to win 71 and 66 games, respectively. On the flip side, Kansas City (96) and Detroit (90) are leading the way.

With a rash of injuries befalling the Angels, and slow starts from the big name additions to the A's roster, Texas has taken advantage of a wide open division and are currently projected to win 88 games.

In case you're interested, here are the win projections for every team in the bigs, completely unedited and unformatted:

EAST   
Toronto    103.54
Boston    93.19
NY Yankees    72.99
Tampa Bay    85.48
Baltimore    67.72
CENTRAL   
Detroit    89.93
Kansas City    96.11
Minnesota    70.99
Chicago Sox    72.09
Cleveland    66.00
WEST   
Texas    88.35
LA Angels    81.11
Seattle    72.68
Oakland    72.23
   
EAST   
NY Mets    94.31
Florida    79.40
Philadelphia    84.82
Atlanta    79.04
Washington    64.13
CENTRAL   
St. Louis    95.99
Milwaukee    91.28
Cincinnati    79.59
Chicago Cubs    82.94
Houston    72.47
Pittsburgh    73.12
WEST   
LA Dodgers    109.37
San Francisco    75.13
San Diego    60.79
Arizona    67.16
Colorado    79.37

And here are the standings of our little contest. The number indicates your average win deviation - i.e. if the Jays are projected to win 104 games, and you predicted 85, that would be a deviation of 19. Standings are listed by each contestant's average deviation across all teams.

Standings

1      Mudie    8.45
2      mathesond    8.46
3      92-93    8.47
4      John Northey    8.49
5      VBF    8.60
6      nathanelias    8.70
7      seeyou    8.78
8      AWeb    8.93
9      Mike Green  8.98
10    ANationalAcrobat    9.05
11    Brian    9.15
12    Nick Holmes    9.20
13    Dave Rutt    9.31
14    brent    9.33
15    parrot11    9.61
16    esteBENloaiza    10.09
17    PECOTA    10.11
18    electric carrot    10.15
19    Ron    11.61

Good to see most Bauxites out-performing PECOTA! But, once again, it's meaninglessly early, and these standings will change pretty much daily for the next little while.
Record Prediction Contest Update: It's Meaninglessly Early | 10 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Mylegacy - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 02:54 PM EDT (#199780) #
Dave it is idiotic, stupid, immature and outrageously too early for this nonsense - sounds like fun to me too!

I predict the Jays go 92 wins the rest losses. That will be good enough to finish second to Boston - BUT we win the Wild Card and become the AL team in the WS where we beat whatever sacrificial lamb the NL sends to our altar. Amen.

Ron - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 03:20 PM EDT (#199784) #
I would like to see the 2009 Prediction thread (how many wins each team would have and the award winners) to see how right and wrong we are so far.
Dave Rutt - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 04:50 PM EDT (#199793) #
Oops, haha, I didn't mean for this to go live - I started writing it about a week ago and didn't get around to finishing it. But since there are already a couple of replies, I'll fix it up momentarily...
Nick Holmes - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 07:32 PM EDT (#199796) #
Hey Ron I think this is the link
http://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20090312122534270
My browser doesn't seem to like the html so much, so you'll have to cut & paste.
Nick Holmes - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 07:35 PM EDT (#199797) #
Oh yeah, and there's a link at the top of the article. That's what I get for multitasking. Ha ha.
Mudie - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 10:43 PM EDT (#199802) #

What? NO, it's not too early! In fact call the season now; not much is gonna happen from here on out, I promise.

 Also, more senseless and premature reviews of Batters Box contests please.

electric carrot - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 10:46 PM EDT (#199803) #
Great, now I know what it feels like to be Cleveland Indians!

but seriously thanks for the update.



AWeb - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 11:28 PM EDT (#199804) #
Toronto, KC, and Texas (and Cleveland, yeesh) are the "bracket busters" early on. I'm glad there are updates this year though...some of these 'contests' never seemed to get tallied at all in past years. Not many I would make huge changes to, even with 20% of the schedule done.
John Northey - Monday, May 11 2009 @ 11:52 PM EDT (#199805) #
 My Jays 93 wins and AL Central a near universal tie at 81 wins (plus KC at 77) is looking better by the day but I need those slackers in Cleveland to get back to 500 for it to work :)

Giving the Rays a sub 500 record, I called the early AL East pretty well (Jays/Boston/NYY just over 500 vs actual just under/Rays just under/Orioles suck).
Ron - Tuesday, May 12 2009 @ 12:54 AM EDT (#199806) #
And I thought the Indians would be one of the best teams in baseball....... By the end of the season, if not now, we are all going to look pretty foolish.
Record Prediction Contest Update: It's Meaninglessly Early | 10 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.