WINNER of First Annual MLB Prediction Contest is....

Back in March I launched a contest to predict the top performing teams and players for the 2012 season, and as I said way back then, now we know who was a PROGNOSTICATOR and who was a FOOL~!  Your winner is......

CHUNTER of Chipp 'n' Dale and Things Done to Cards fame, come on down~!

1. Chunter - 99 points
2. Steve D. - 89 points
3. Play at the Plate - 82 points (PATP won the mid-season prize)
4. Kyle4KC - 81 points
5. The Lost Collector - 76 points
6. Milwaukee Southpaw - 76 points
7. Greg Zakwin - 74 points
8. AdamE - 51 points
9. The Angels in Order - 41 points
10. JoJoBoom - 35 points
(You can click the contest link on the right-hand side of the blog page to see what the predictions were)

What makes Chunter's win even more impressive is that he didn't take advantage of the "change one pick at the All-Star Break" rule, and he still beat the rest of us.

As expected, most of us fared much better trying to predict which teams would win their divisions or the wild card than in trying to pick who would win the stat categories, but that's where Chunter separated himself from the pack.  SEVEN of his 10 player picks finished in the top 10 of their category; only two other players (SteveD and Play at the Plate) got six.  The real clincher was that he nailed both the ERA and Strikeout leader (Kershaw and Verlander), getting the full 10 points for each.

No one managed to get all 5 playoff teams from either league, but The Lost Collector came the closest - in the National League he got two of the division winners (after switching from Philly to Washington at midseason) and nailed both wild cards, but his pick of Milwaukee to win the NL Central was (regrettably) not correct.  In the American League no one got more than 3 of the teams correct.  There were a lot of Boston, Anaheim and Tampa Bay picks, and of course NO ONE took Baltimore.

The stat categories were a very mixed bag.  Surprisingly, only ONE person managed to pick a player that finished in the top 10 for home runs (The Angels in Order, G. Stanton).  Only two people scored points in the Holds category.  On the flipside, 7 out of 10 scored in Strikeouts, and 8 out of 10 got points in Stolen Bases.

So Chunter, it looks like you collect Chipper Jones and the Braves in general.  Lucky for you Chipper is one of the players I keep a small player collection of.  :)  E-mail me and let me know if you have any other collecting interests that I might be able to include in your prize package, and don't forget to give me your address!

Thanks for playing everyone!  Hopefully we can get even more people involved next season~!

MLB Prediction Contest - 2 Days Left to Join the Fun!!

For those who missed the first post, I am holding a contest for the new baseball season.  It's very simple - just pick the playoff teams and who will lead the majors in a handful of statistical categories.  See full details here:

http://thecommoncardman.blogspot.com/2012/03/announcing-first-annual-mlb-prediction.html

There will be 2 prizes - one at the All-Star break and one at the end of the season - and they will both include patch cards and/or autos.  Originally I said the deadline was 11:59pm on Thursday, April 5th but I'm going to extend it through Opening Day, so you have until 11:59pm on Friday the 6th. I think we have 8 people entered so far, but I'd love to get a bunch more.  Sports are always more fun when you have more things to root for, and it's free, so send me your picks!  And if you do like the contest don't forget to spread the word.

Announcing the First Annual MLB Prediction Contest!

So I wanted to do something to make the new baseball season a bit more interesting for all of us here in the card blogging community.  After a little thought I came to the conclusion that the best way would be predicting the top performers in MLB this year - we can follow along all season, and at the end we will find out (to steal a line from Bryan Alvarez at F4Wonline.com) "who was a prognosticator, and who was a FOOL~!"

So here's the deal.  All you have to do is pick the playoff teams in both leagues and also who will lead the league in various statistical categories (details below).  I will compile all the entries into a page on my blog so everyone can view it throughout the year.  There will be TWO prizes - one for the points leader at the All-Star Break, and a grand prize for the leader at the end of the season.  I don't know exactly what the prize will be yet, but rest assured there will be multiple auto, patch, and/or other "hit" cards involved.  I plan on putting up my own predictions to play along, but my score won't count as far as winning the prizes is concerned.

Here are the rules:
1.) Pick the 6 Division Champions and 4 Wild Card winners (remember there are 2 Wild Cards in each league now).  Each correct guess earns 10 points.  If you pick a team to win their Division and they win the Wild Card instead (or vice versa) you receive 5 points.  For purposes of determining the All-Star Break prize winner, we will use which teams would make the playoffs if the season ended that day.

2.) Pick who will lead ALL of MLB (not just the AL or NL) in each of the following categories.  A correct pick earns 10 points.  If the player finishes 2nd-5th in the league you get 5 points.  Finishing 6th-10th earns 2 points.
Hitting Categories:
-Batting Average
-Home Runs
-RBIs
-Runs scored
-Stolen Bases
Pitching Categories:
-Wins
-ERA
-Strikeouts
-Saves
-Holds

For the Batting Average and ERA categories the player has to qualify for the league title to count.

3.) At the All-Star Break, you are allowed to change any ONE pick to a different choice.

That's it!  To enter, either post your choices in the comments section of this post, or else you can email your picks to me.  All entries must be received by 11:59pm on April 3rd.  If you like the contest, please spread the word by posting a link on your blog - the more entries we get, the merrier!

Good Luck and Go Brewers!