That was a pretty good World Series, especially if you’re not a Metropolitans’ fan. But even they did surprisingly well this season. The Royals clearly were not to be denied and deserved the win. There’s something different about watching baseball when you don’t have a ‘dog in the fight.’
On to the winners of the 2015 MillersTime Baseball Contests.
Contest # 1. Pick your Favorite MLB team and predict what their regular season record will be in 2015. Tie-Breaker: Will they make the playoffs, and how far will they go.
Better than most predictions but not close enough:
Larry Longenecker – Cubs 90-72, make playoffs, lose in first round. (In fact, 97-72 made playoffs and lost in round 2, NLCS.)
Ben Senturia – Cards 88-74 and lose in NLCS. (In fact, 100-62 and lost in NLCS.)
Matt Galati – Pirates 90-72 and lose in WS. (In fact, 98-64 and lost in WC.)
David Price – Yankees 94-64 and win 28th WS. (In fact, 87-75 and lost in WC.) (Note: However, Mr. P did correctly say the Nats were hugely overrated and would not even make the playoffs, one of the very few contestants who had that ‘insight’.)
Steve Scarlett – Giants 79-83 and no playoffs. (In fact, 84-78 and no playoffs.)
Tiffany Lopez (repeat winner from the past) – KC 90-72, but she failed to answer the tie-breaker questions. (In fact, KC 95-67 and won the WS.)
Nicholas Dart – Dodger 95-67 and win the WS. (In fact, 92-70 and lost in NLDS.)
Jim Kerrigan – Yankees 81-81 and no playoffs. (In fact, 87-75 and lost WC game.)
Tim Malieckal – Mets 87-75 and no playoffs. (In fact, Mets 90-72 and lost in WS).
Runners-Up:
Kevin Curtin – Yankees 89-73, not make playoffs. (In fact, 87-75 and lost in first round.)
Mike Mayer – Mets 89-73 and lose in NLCS. (In fact, 90-72 and lost in WS.)
Romana Campos – Dodgers 90-72 and lose in WS. (In fact, 92-70 and lost in NLCS.)
Andrew Cate – Sox 81-81 and not make playoffs. (In fact, 78-84 and not in playoffs.)
Winner:
Justin Barasso – Yankees 88-74, make playoffs, lose in first round. (In fact, 87-75, made the playoffs, and did lose in the first round WC game.) Justin wins two great seats to a Nats’ game in 2016 and a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner T-shirt. (Please contact me to schedule the game you’d like to see and send me your T-shirt size.)
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(Contest #2: Make a prediction about something that will happen during the 2015 MLB season.
The winner cannot be decided until the 2015 MVPs, Rookies of the Year, etc. are declared. Check back mid-November.
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Contest # 3A. – Will the combined batting averages of the three top MLB hitters in 2015 be above or below 1.000? (Last year it was 1.003).
In fact: The combined averages of Cabrera – .338, Gordon – .333, and Harper – .330 was 1.001.
Runners’ Up:
Jeff Friedman, Rob Higdon, Ed Scholl, Chris Eacho, Matt Wax-Krell, David Price, and Steve Veltri all correctly predicted it would be over 1.000, and all identified one of the three highest BA as Cabrera’s. No one had more than one of the three. Brandt Tilis answered below 1.003, not technically the question but in fact an accurate prediction. He also identified Cabrera.
Winner:
By authority granted to me by me, I declare Jeff Friedman the winner because he submitted the earliest prediction (Mar. 1 at 9:50 AM, beating out Runner Up Rob Higdon by two hours and three minutes.
Jeff Friedman wins a ticket to his choice of one ticket to an ALCS or NLCS game in 2016 and a MillersTime Winner T-Shirt. (Please send me you T-shirt size and remind me of your victory at the beginning of the 2016 post season.)
Contest # 3B – Will the combined wins of the top three MLB pitchers in 2015 be above or below last year’s total of 61?
In fact: The combined wins of Arrieta – 22, Keuchel – 20, and Cole/Greinke/McHugh – 19 each was 61, identical to 2014.
Runners’ Up:
Jere Smith, my mentor as a baseball blogger, and David Price, both picked Greinke as one of the three top pitchers, but they both said the combined wins would be above 61.
Winners:
Jon Frank correctly predicted a Push and is declared the winner, getting one ticket to his choice of an ALCS or NLCS game in 2016 and a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner T-Shirt. (Please send me you T-shirt size and remind me of your victory at the beginning of the 2016 post season.)
Jere Smith also wisely (?) asked why Parts A & B weren’t similar in asking the above/below question as above/below the 2014 results, an ‘obscure’ but accurate question. And because he won one of the first MillersTime Baseball Contests but never claimed his prize, he is awarded a MillersTime Baseball Winner T-Shirt. (Please send me your T-shirt size.)
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Contest #4: Choose two teams who combined won/loss record will be closest to .500
Close But Quite Not Close Enough:
Chris Eacho – O’s (81-81) & Sox (78-84) = 159-165 or 49.07%.
Daniel Fischberg – Dodgers (92-70) & Rockies (68-94) = 158-164 or 48.77%.
Nick Nyhart – Sox (78-84) & Rays (80-82) = 158-166 or 48.77%.
Tiffany Lopez – Brewers (68-94) & Mets (90-72) = 158-166 or 48.77%.
Meg Gage – Mets (90-72) & Rockies (68-94) = 158-166 or 48.77%.
David Stephenson – Brewers (68-94) & Yankees (87-75) = 155-169 or 47.84%.
Brent Schultz – Brewers (68-94) & Yankees (87-75) = 155-169 or 47.84%.
Tracy Capullo – Yankees (87-75) & A’s (68-94) = 155-169 or 47.84%.
Runners-Up:
Justin Stoyer – Pirates (98-64) & Braves (67-95) = 165-159 or 50.93%.
Peter Shimm – Yankees (87-75) & Sox (78-84) = 165-159 or 50.93 %.
Steve Begleiter – Sox (78-84) & Yankees (87-75) = 165-159 or 50.93%.
**David Price – Sox (78-84) & Astros (86-76) = 164-160 or 50.62 % – Submitted 4/1 at 10:16 AM.
**Nick Fels – Mets (90-72) & Padres (74-88) = 164-160 or 50.62% – Submitted 3/22 at 5:21 PM.
Winner:
**Cory Kessler – Nats (83-79) & O’s (81-81) = 164-160 or 50.62% – Submitted 3/17 at 10:24 AM. Cory Kessler declared winner because of his earliest submission date. He wins his choice of one of these The 20 Best Books Ever Written and a Winner, MillersTime Baseball T-Shirt.
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Contest # 5: Predict who will lead the AL and who will lead the NL in getting the most All Star votes in 2015. Which of the two will receive more votes?
Final All Star balloting – 2015
American League:
1. Josh Donaldson – 14,090,188
2. Mike Trout – 14,013,021
3. Miguel Cabrera – 13,834,271
4. Salvador Perez – 13,747,294
National League:
1. Bryce Harper – 13,864,950
2. Buster Posey – 9,864,950
3. Todd Frazier – 9,233,686
4. Paul Goldschmidt – 9,119,375
No one got this contest exactly right.
Many of you thought Mike Trout would get the most votes in the American League (he lost out to Josh Donaldson by just 77,167 votes out of more that 28 million votes between them). Trout did lead off the All Star game, however, with a home run, off Zack Greinke, and scored twice to win the MVP award for the game.
In the National League, many of you had Andrew McCutchen, who did not even come in the top four. Bryce Harper, with more than 13 million votes, easily won over Buster Posey, Todd Frazier, and Paul Goldschmidt. Harper went 0-3 and struck out twice. Frazier won the home run derby.
Winner:
One contestant, Justin Stoyer, however, came close. He had Bryce Harper in the NL right (Justin was the only contestant to choose Harper), and he had Mike Trout (no one had Josh Donaldson) in the AL. So Justin easily wins this contest and will get two tickets to a Nats’ regular season game in 2016 and a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner T-Shirt as his prize.
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Contest # 6 – Predict the 10 teams who will be in the 2015 playoffs. Which two will be in the WS or who will win it all?
Not many fans did well on this one.
Only 15 out of the 50 of you were even able to predict four of the 10 teams that made it to the playoffs – Blue Jays, Yankees, Royals, Rangers, Astros, Mets, Cards, Pirates, Cubs, and Dodgers.
Two of you got five of them – Greg Johnson and Tiffany Lopez.
Only two of you had even one of the two teams correct who made it to the WS – Tiffany Lopez and Tim Malieckal (both had the Royals but no one had the Mets, including Tim who is a Mets fan!).
Tiffany Lopez is the winner of this Contest as she had five of the teams in the playoffs, one of the teams in the WS, and she correctly identified the Royals as the eventual WS Winner. (Tiffany wins one ticket to a World Series game in 2016 and a MillersTime Baseball Contest Winner T-Shirt. Be sure to remind me of your win next year and in the meantime, send me your T-shirt size.
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PS – I’m looking for help in designing the T-Shirt — Winner – MillersTime Baseball Contest. If you’re good at design or know someone who is and might be willing to help, please let me know.
Chris Boutourline said:
Richard, thank you for all the work, and calculations, you’ve done to make the Miller’s Time 2015 baseball contest so much fun. My predictions this year were lacking but I’m thankful that I was distracted from the first 4 months of the Red Sox’s season. As for the T-shirt, my wife has connected with some design people through the website “fiverr” and had good results. I was a bit suspicious when she told me that people would do a task for $5 (I wanted to test it by seeing if I could have my house painted) but it seems to work (tips are common).
Tiffany Lee said:
YESSSS!!!! This is the motivation I needed to start paying more attention to baseball again! I mean, the Royals winning is pretty sweet for all us Kansas folks, but for me, it’s all about Millerstime.net and the baseball contests. I’d like to thank Tim for not beating me out by thinking the Mets would make an appearance, and millerstimeblogger for reminding me down to the wire to get my predictions out, and samesty84 for the wonderful news! Without all three of you, I’d just be listed in the “close, but not close enough” category for all of these. Oh, I’d also like to thank my math teachers for teaching me how to do simple math as a means to get to some awesome baseball games!
Justin Barrasso said:
Wow! Never thought I’d actually win! Thanks for having these contests and thanks for reminding me to play!
Cory Kessler said:
Wonderful news that I am a Millerstime winner. I will read the boys of Summer and of course wear my Millers time T-Shirt contest winner proudly. X-large for me, please.
Cory