The season is finally over. Why does it take so long to pick the awards? Personally, I feel the awards should be picked the day the regular season ends. Maybe announce them after the World Series, but votes should be cast before the playoffs. I feel like the playoffs can influence a voters decision (as can impending free agency).
The points work like this: one point for each correct place, then another point for the divisional winners. One point for wild card and division series teams, two points for championship series, and five points for the World Series. Ten points if you picked the champ. After that we have awards, which is five points each. Finally, a ten point bonus for the person who is closest to the Pirates record.
American League:
Josh: 7/15
Ryan: 5/15
Offord: 5/15
National League:
Josh: 3/15
Ryan: 3/15
Offord: 6/15
Offord and I each picked four of the division winners, while Ryan had three.
Points so far…
Josh: 14
Ryan: 11
Offord: 15
Wildcard:
Josh: 0
Ryan: 0
Offord: 2
Division Series:
Josh: 5
Ryan: 3
Offord: 6
Championship Series:
Josh: 3
Ryan: 3
Offord: 1
World Series:
Josh: 0
Ryan: 0
Offord: 0
Awards:
Josh: 5 (AL MVP)
Ryan: 0
Offord: 0
Standings:
Josh: 30
Ryan: 20
Offord: 25
It ended up fairly close between Offord and myself. He did well in the early parts of the playoffs, but then poorly picked who would win. Whereas I did a much better job of guessing who would be in the championship game. In the end though, it would not have mattered because I also picked up the ten point bonus for being the closest to the Pirates record. I said they would go 80-82. Ryan & Offord thought they would have winning records. How did they do? 69-93. It was not a fun second half of the season.
We did better this year than in the past. And seriously, you could put our predictions up with some of the experts and we would be competitive.
Finally, I want to mention that in my final thoughts section, I wrote about this being the season that breaks many of the systems in baseball. I ended by saying that the bad calls from umpires will open the door for robots. Well, it was bad at times and I think there is definitely a chance we see it in the next few years.
As always, thanks to Offord and Ryan for participating in this!
