The Workermonkey

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

finally, baseball 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 3/13/2007 01:51:00 PM

Ok so I’ve promised a series of baseball related articles for some time now. Well here’s the first, a recap of how I did last year with my predictions. Let’s start in the al east;

Predicted order of finish:

Yankees
Red sox
Blue jays
Orioles
Devil rays

Actual order of finish;

Yankees
Blue jays
Red sox
Orioles
Devil rays.

Not much here, the blue jays took second in the final week of the season due to the red sox having a rash of late season injuries and just giving up. The blue jays had a good season and should be just as good this year making the east a three team battle instead of a two team derby. I predicted a total collapse from mike mussena and that didn’t happen but i was right about randy Johnson sucking and pavano and Wright being hurt most of the year. I mentioned schilling should be ok and he was and that mike Lowell will suck, which he didn’t. Those fly balls that used to be long outs are now doubles off the monster. I nailed the orioles and the devil rays. I mentioned the rays were trying to get rid of Aubrey Huff, Julio Lugo and Joey Gathright. Well they did. Lugo went to LA and gaithright to “somewhere to rot” and huff to Houston. They didn’t do very good in what they received for these players but it could have been worse.

Al central;

Predicted order of finish:

Chicago white sox
Twins
Indians
Tigers
Royals

Actual order of finish;

Twins
Tigers
White sox
Indians
Royals

Well I got the royals right. The twins took first on the last day of the season and the tigers had an amazing season. The white sox pitching just got older and the Indians had a bullpen that destroyed their whole season. I mentioned the white sox will be in trouble if they start to use their bullpen and that was true, plus Brian Andersen in center never worked out for them. The twins got an amazing performance from Francisco liriano (who I was right about) but he went down at the end of the season with elbow surgery. That killed them in the playoffs. I was totally wrong about the tigers. Pudge, Ordonez, bonderman and Rodgers all had great years and they actually went to the World Series. The royals still suck.

AL West;

Predicted order of finish:

Oakland A’s
Angels
Rangers
Mariners

Actual Finish;

A’s
Angels
Rangers
Mariners

Nailed it. The whole thing. Each team. Sometimes I amaze even myself. Called frank Thomas getting hurt during the season, the A’s great pitching and Crosby getting hurt. Called the angels getting rid of tim salmon and having great young kids playing (jared weaver and howey kendricks). I called the rangers getting nothing from pitching and the mariners just generally sucking. The mariners made more stupid moves this year in the same vein but that’s for later. Hit this whole division on the head.

NL East;

Predicted order of finish:

Braves
Mets
Phillies
Nationals
Marlins

Actual Order;

Mets
Phillies
Braves
Marlins
Nationals

Well the braves got killed with no pitching and the mets did better then expected as well as the marlins. The mets weren’t as old as I thought. This whole division was very close at the end of last year. The marlins were actually only a few games out of the wildcard. The nationals had a bigger collapse then expected and the marlins kids did great. Much better then expected. I was way too high on the braves and thought they’d actually get some good work out of tim Hudson and mike Hampton. They didn’t have any rookies step up either and the kids who did good the year before didn’t last year. Oh well. The nationals finally got sold but still made some bad moves. They should have traded soriano instead of letting him walk in free agency, instead they traded livan Hernandez. Great. Now they have even less pitching and no great draw to the ball park. Nick Johnson once again got hurt ( that was an easy call). I didn’t think the marlins were going to be anything let alone uggla a rookie of the year candidate. Dontrell took my advice and took it easy for most of the year but I think that has to do with the World Baseball Classic more then them sucking. They got a ton of great performances real quick from the young guys.

NL Central;

Predicted order of finish:

Cardinals
Astros
Brewers
Cubs
Reds
Pirates

Actual Order of Finish;

Cardinals
Astros
Reds
Brewers
Pirates
Cubs

I was right on with the cardinals and the astros. I was a little high on the brewers and expected them to come along a little faster. They missed ben sheets a lot because he was hurt and he’s their ace. No one expected the cubs to collapse like that but I wasn’t very high on them anyway. I didn’t see the reds doing much of anything but arroyo did great and they hit as usual. They made a ton of moves around the deadline for relievers but they really didn’t get much out of it. A lot of disappointments in the trades they made. Can’t blame them though, they had a good chance to win the division but they just kept falling apart and no matter what they tried it just didn’t work. And the pirates still suck, the cubs just happened to suck more last year.

NL West:

Well I didn’t do the NL west. Oops. Either way I remember saying it would be a crap shoot and in the end it wouldn’t matter because no matter what team won it, they’d lose in the first round of the playoffs. And that did happen. The dodgers actually made the wildcard but they lost as well in the first round. I expected some of the central teams to put up more of a fight but the astros were just too far behind when Clemens came back and the reds just couldn’t stop the bleeding late in the season.

Over all I did pretty good. The Al east was good and the red sox just kind of gave up once they weren’t going to make the postseason with injuries and the jays snuck in. the tigers had a season for the ages and I didn’t see that happening in a million years. I nailed the west. In the NL I expected the mets to be older and the braves to be wiser, neither was true. The central was pretty good but the cubs just blew up and the reds really fought it out. I missed the west but the wild card ended up come from there so I should have been a little higher in the dodgers and padres. The giants, d’backs and rockies all basically tied for last.

2 comments

i'll bet you can nail the royals again this year. and no worries about the nl west, i'm pretty sure no one out there even matters (no, not even bonds. if he breaks the record, huge huge HUUUUUUGE asterisk).

By  josh, at Tuesday, March 13, 2007 2:24:00 PM  

Im only going to say this once...
BASEBALL IS FOR FAGGOTS
suck on that bitches

By  murphy, at Wednesday, March 14, 2007 7:09:00 PM  

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