Here are the prediction rankings heading into the final few weeks of the MLB regular season. Baseball scribes should be ashamed to have let a NFL writer into the top ranking. King picked five of six teams (Yankees, Angels, Phillies, Cardinals, and Dodgers) while, like so many others, missing entirely on the Indians in the AL Central.
Elsewhere anyone picking the Cubs, who’ve dropped 9.5 games to the Cardinals since 8/10, probably moved down considerably in the rankings. The complete list after the break. Read more…
After the break are rankings of predictions from 55 sports media personalities at mid-season break of the 2009 MLB season. Predictions were submitted and verified by users on whereIstand.com using third party sources. In all, 19 media outlets are represented. To see which teams each individual or outlet predicted to win its division, click the link. Explanation of scoring is below. Read more…
In response to sagging TV ratings and an All Star game that ended in a tie, in 2003 the MLB implemented a rule designed to give players and managers more incentive to win the midseason classic: whichever league that won would earn their team representative in the World Series home field advantage.
But with the exception of last year – which took place in a large market, at a historic stadium, during its final season – viewership for the game has not recovered from the high in the 2002 game, suggesting that fans either don’t care all that much about the increased competition, or they’re opposed to the idea altogether.
More indicative of the rule’s logic is how unpopular it is with the game’s actual participants, players and managers. Those who have spoken publicly on the issue to a vareity of publications over the years oppose awarding home field advantage at a ratio of 3:1, according to whereIstand.com. Read more…
At Basbeall’s mid-season, The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre and ProJo columnist/ESPN analyst Sean McAdam occupied the top spots in our first edition of the prediction accuracy rankings.
As the regular season draws to a close, we’ve updated our rankings. The division race that most affected prediction scores was the National League West. The Arizona Diamondbacks went from a two-game cushion in July to a four-game deficit to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The swing in games vaulted ESPN’s Keith Law, Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman and Yahoo! Sports’ Gordon Edes to the top of the rankings. On the opposite end, ESPN Radio’s Mike Greenberg, New York Daily News’ Bill Madden and ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark occupied the bottom three spots.
The most accurate were rewarded for picking no more than four division winners: the Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and the Diamondbacks. These teams were popular preseason picks, but not one person in the rankings foresaw the Tampa Bay Rays or Twins/White Sox winning their respective divisions and so perfection was not attained. The least accurate were penalized for picking any combination of teams that finished far out of contention: the Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies and New York Yankees.
After the break, the complete list media personalities and news organizations, ranked 1-50 along with their preseason picks, as well as a statistical method: Read more…
