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I’m not sure if the contestants in this year’s 2015 MillersTime Baseball Contests are geniuses, fools, frustrated writers, or wannabe comedians (see #s 28, 32, and 43, for example).

You decide.

Judging by previous years in this contest, at least 10 of the predictions below — Question #2 in this year’s contest — will come true.

Which 10, of course, is the question.

If you predict how many actually come true, you will also receive a prize — a t-shirt proclaiming you a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner. Send your guess (the number of predictions that will come true) to me at samesty84@gmail.com or put the number in the Comments section of this post. Multiply winners are possible, but you only get one guess/prediction.

  1. Two perfect games will be recorded, one with two pitchers.
  1. The MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the AL will both come from the Toronto Blue Jays, who will finally win the AL East.
  1. The Padres will not match the hype and will barely finish above .500 and miss the playoffs.
  1. Matt Harvey will win 20 games after missing all of 2014 with Tommy John surgery.
  1. Cubs go from worst to first in NL Central.
  1. A team that has never been to the World Series (Mariners, Nationals) or not appeared there in the last 70 years (Cubs) will make it to the WS.
  1. This season the all time record for most triple plays in a season will be broken, and two will happen on the same night.
  1. The Nationals’ pitching staff will pitch 3 no-hitters in 2015.
  1. A-Rod will use drugs again between today and Sept. 30, 2015.
  1. Masahiro Tanaka will win the Cy Young.
  1. Joe Kelly is Sox best starter at 15-8, 3.80 ERA.
  1. A-Rod will bat over .300 and have 20+ home runs.
  1. The Red Sox will be the comeback team after an abysmal 2014 season (and) will end up going to the playoffs and the ALCS.
  1. Yankees and Red Sox battle for last in the AL east until the final day of the season when the Sox win/lose.
  1. The Rays will have three pitchers with at least 15 wins each.
  1. Peter Rose allowed to attend baseball games and his re-instatement pending.
  1. The Cubs, led by Joe Maddon, and White Sox will both win Wild-Card slots, but neither will advance further.
  1. Last year not one of the 18 MLB players that scored at least 90 runs played for Boston. This year, Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia will combine for at least 180 runs.
  1. I predict that an increasing (an alarming) number of pitchers will undergo Tommy John surgery leading to an in depth report on how children learning to pitch are overused by year round baseball. While not having the far-reaching implications of youth concussions, people will start to think about monitoring the arms of young pitchers. (Note: I have no idea if this has already started and I haven’t been paying attention.)
  1. MLB Commissioner will say no to Pete Rose.
  1. Mookie Betts wins the AL Rookie of the Year.
  1. Nats’ pitchers will throw three no hitters.
  1. Joe Buck will be implicated in a major, embarrassing scandal and be forced to resign.
  1. Prince Fielder will make a comeback, hit around .300, 30+ home runs and have 100+ RBIs.
  1. Bryce Harper will get two home runs in one game.
  1. Xander Bogaerts and Moiokie Betts will combine to score more than 160 runs.
  1. Astonishingly Buchholz does NOT go on the DL at any point and wins his 20th on the last day of the season. (Not part of my prediction, but The Panda and Papi score the walk-off runs on a double steal.)
  1. Bryce Harper will be revealed to be a “juicer”. (I really do wonder what the reaction would be in our Nation’s Capitol when the MLB finally unveils that Bryce has been taking a new, previously untraceable, animal hormone that both rapidly increases physical growth and at the same time lowers mental intelligence – a difficult thing to do given the individual concerned!….When exposed, he’ll be banned for a season, claim his innocence, apologize for being guilty, cry, then retire from baseball completely to join his like on the NASCAR circuit.)
  1. Cueto wins 20 games.
  1. Average length of a game will decline by at least 10 minutes from 3 hours, 2 minutes of 2014.
  1. Four Washington pitchers will win at least 15 games (missed this by one last season).
  1. I will be at Fenway on April 15 to watch the Red Sox beat the Nationals by a score of 9-8 in a game featuring not one but two grand slams, one of which I will catch one-handed without spilling a drop of beer on my 5 year old’s head.
  1. There will be an out recorded during the season via the hidden ball trick. Extra Credit: The last out of the World Series will be made via the hidden ball trick.
  1. The Red Sox will lead the league in ejections for the second year in a row.
  1. A pitcher will bat both right and left handed in the game he is pitching.
  1. Billy Hamilton will steal over 100 bases. Last time it was done was Vince Coleman, 1985.
  1. The Marlins make the Wild Card over the new look Padres, the young talent rich Cubs, defending champ Giants, the sneaky good Brewers, and the up and coming Mets.
  1. A-Rod – 25 hrs, 85 RBIs.
  1. Yankees will again miss the playoffs.
  1. Nats win 100 and lose in the first round of the playoffs again.
  1. MLB does away with the drug rules.
  1. Someone will fall (or jump from) the Green Monster seats.
  1. Mookie Betts will be Rookie of the Year!

Embellishing my answer a bit: he wins in spite of an early season head injury while making an extraordinary effort to catch a fly coming toward the Red (?) Monster. His head crashes into the wall, and he is knocked unconscious, amazingly while still making the out and ending the inning. He is operated on at Mass General, has a miraculously quick recovery and is back in center field with in only two weeks. Mass General neurosurgeons are given season tickets in John Henry’s skybox. Note: My husband Steve is very unhappy with this answer because of Mookie’s terrible head injury, so let me add that although Mookie is knocked unconscious, it is not as serious an injury as it appears, and the surgery is actually very minor because Mookie regains consciousness as he is being wheeled into surgery. In fact, technically, there was no surgery needed, a detail that was overlooked in media coverage in order not to undermine the “heroic surgeon narrative” that had taken hold of Red Sox Nation’s hero-hungry consciousness.

  1. Yu Darvish throws two no-hitters.
  1. Washington Nationals will go 101-61. They will make it to the World Series!
  1. A-Rod will be mostly DH or move to 1B.
  1. Yankees and Red Sox will miss the playoffs..
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