Category Archives: Predictions

Aside

2014 AL West Team

To be quite honest, creating a “Preseason All AL West Team” is a futile exercise.  If you are looking for an MLB season preview, full of sound analysis and predictions, this isn’t it.  But I’m a visual learner, and there is some value in seeing where the power is in the division, position by position.  Of course this isn’t an exact science, no predictions are, and only 2 players are selected per position, so you have a guy like Kyle Seager, the M’s second best position player, not making this list thanks to Beltre and Donaldson.   So ya, take this for what it is.  A quick snapshot of the division headed into 2014.  Although I should point out, by forecasting who has the most 1st and 2nd teamers, I correctly guessed the order of finish in the division last year!

My selection process looks at last year’s performance as well as projections for the upcoming season, and anticipated playing time. Some of the picks are obvious and others are less obvious, so of course I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

2014 AL West Team

Taking the visualization one step further, here’s a super scientific bar graph intended to show the separation between teams, by awarding 2 points for a 1st team selection, and 1 point for a 2nd team selection.

2014 AL West Graph

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by | March 15, 2014 · 9:05 pm
by | August 28, 2013 · 7:17 pm

Pac 12 Picks – Week 1

FOOTBALL IS HERE!

Well, almost.  At this time tomorrow one Pac-12 game will be wrapping up, another about to begin, and a whole weekend of football will be staring us directly in the eye.  Thank goodness.  It’s been a tough last month without football in the sports world but the dry spell is over! 

This week the Pac-12 has a few games where they could make a statement.  Cal, WSU, and UW all have a chance to prove themselves.  UCLA, Colorado and Utah play teams that are okay.  The rest of the teams need to avoid being embarrassed.  The conference should be in good shape through week one and keep their national perception high. 

As always on the Good Guys, we’ll do Pac-12 picks mid-week and the Husky predictions the day before the game.  We’d love to have you in on the predictions.  If you’re interested, put your predictions in the comments and then I’ll add you to the weekly posts (along with your name in the standings).  On to the predictions!

Utah State at Utah – Thursday 5 P.M.
Joe, Dan – Utah State
Andrew, Matthew – Utah

USC at Hawaii – Thursday 8 P.M.
The Good Guys – USC

Northern Arizona at Arizona – Friday 7 P.M.
The Good Guys – Arizona

Nicholls State at Oregon – Saturday 1 P.M.
The Good Guys – Oregon

Eastern Washington at Oregon State – Saturday 3 P.M.
The Good Guys – Oregon State

Washington State at Auburn – Saturday 4 P.M.
The Good Guys – Auburn

Northwestern at California – Saturday 7:30 P.M.
The Good Guys – Northwestern

Colorado vs. Colorado State – Sunday 3 P.M.
Dan, Andrew – Colorado
Matthew, Joe – Colorado State

Football!! 

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by | March 1, 2013 · 12:45 am

2013 AL West Team

Unlike some college sports, pro sports don’t come out with pre-season 1st and 2nd teams, but if the AL West had its pre-season team, this is how I think it would shake out. Clearly this is not a perfect method to predicting the AL West in 2013, and by season’s end the 1st and 2nd team selections will look different. But, it does provide a snapshot of how the division stacks up. My selection process looks at last year’s performance as well as potential this upcoming year, and projected impact/playing time. Some of the picks are obvious and others are less obvious, so of course I’d love to hear your thoughts too.

2013 AL West

A couple bullets:

  • It is hard to find much separation at the top between Oakland, Texas, and LAA. All 3 have playoff potential, but from this breakdown I would also suggest the Mariners are closer to the good teams in the division, rather than the bad (Houston).
  • Say what you want about Oakland’s 2012 season being an anomolye, but it’s hard to criticize the roster Billy Beane has been assembled this year. The A’s don’t have a lot of star power but they are solid at every position, and have a ton of depth, which will surely be an asset at some point.
  • The positions that were hardest to find a clear cut 1st and 2nd team selection were Catcher, DH, and the 2nd team OFs and Starting Ps. At catcher, Montero projects to have the most playing time and potential, so I gave him the honors. You could make a case for Jaso and Pierzynski too. The same is true between Kendrys Morales, Berkman, and Trumbo, but the numbers suggest Morales (when healthy) is the best option in the group. David Murphy is a nice player, as is Coco Crisp, Franklin Gutierrez, and Chris Young. Take your pick, I went with Murhpy. Starting pitching was a bit of a toss up to when you start picking the 8th-10th best in the AL West. I tried hard to justify an Astro but simply could not. Iwakuma was my 10th selection, but it could have easily gone to Derek Holland, Jason Vargas, or really any Oakland starter.
  • In order to visually quantify the separation between teams based on these picks, I’ve awarded 2 points for a 1st team selection, and 1 point for a 2nd team selection. Here’s how it shakes out on a fancy bar graph.

    graph

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by | November 23, 2012 · 12:34 pm

Pac-12 Picks – Week 13

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!  I’m a bit late on this so here are the picks.

Utah vs. Colorado
The Good Guys:  Utah

Arizona vs. Arizona State
Dan, Joe, Andrew: Arizona
Matthew:  Arizona State

Oregon vs. Oregon State
Andrew, Dan:  Oregon
Matthew, Joe:  Oregon State

Stanford vs. UCLA
The Good Guys:  Stanford

Notre Dame vs. USC
The Good Guys:  Notre Dame

I’ll recap the picks soon!  Go Dawgs!

Andrew

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by | November 17, 2012 · 12:54 am

Pac-12 Picks – Week 12 (And a little something extra!)

Never fear, the picks are here!  After the jump, I have an abbreviated version of the mascot rankings that I’ve come to know and love.  Hold your applause for the comments.  Before the jump, I’ll give you the picks and the Good Guys’ records for this Pac-12 season, that is all of a sudden winding down.

Arizona at Utah
Dan, Matthew, Joe:  Arizona
Andrew:  Utah

WSU at ASU
The Good Guys: ASU

Stanford at Oregon
The Good Guys:  Oregon 😦

California at Oregon State
The Good Guys:  Oregon State

USC at UCLA
Andrew, Joe, Matthew:  USC
Dan:  UCLA

The Record:
Dan (64-14, and he’s also correctly picked 18 games in a row from what I can tell..)
Joe (61-17)
Andrew (60-18)
Matthew (60-18)

Not to toot our own horns too much but the Good Guys have gone a combined 44-4 in the last 2 weeks.  Yeah, not too bad!

Follow the jump for some fun!  As always, the Husky picks will be up soon!
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by | November 3, 2012 · 12:38 am

Pac-12 Picks – Week 9

Matthew is getting credit for this post, but this is really Andrew.  I’m on Matthew’s laptop and am too lazy to log him off.  That was something you didn’t need to know.

The Huskies got a road win tonight!  It was one of the ugliest football games I’ve ever watched but they won.  We might have more of a recap in the next few days but for now, here’s the picks!

Arizona at UCLA
Joe, Dan:  UCLA
Andrew, Matthew:  Arizona

Arizona State at Oregon State
The Good Guys:  Oregon State

Colorado vs. Stanford
The Good Guys:  Stanford

Oregon at USC
The Good Guys:  Oregon 😦

Utah vs. WSU
The Good Guys:  Utah

As you can see, there won’t be much separation made this week.  Here are the standings on the year, including tonight’s UW-Cal game.

Standings:
1.  Dan (53-14)
2.  Joe (51-16)
3.  Andrew (50-17)
3.  Matthew (50-17)

There we go!  Have a good weekend.

Andrew

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by | October 25, 2012 · 8:32 pm

Pac-12 Predictions – Week 9

Once again, all of the Good Guys had the same record last week.  That will keep us all muddled in the standings with Dan and Joe having a one game lead in the standings.  A number of marquee games in the conference this week and they’re all on Saturday.  Here’s the picks!
Arizona vs. USC
Andrew, Dan:  Arizona
Matthew, Joe:  USC

Arizona State vs. UCLA

The Good Guys:  ASU

Cal vs. Utah
The Good Guys:  Utah

Colorado vs. Oregon
The Good Guys:  Oregon 😦

Stanford vs. WSU
The Good Guys:  Stanford

Standings:
Dan 47-13
Joe 47-13
Andrew 46-14
Matthew 46-14

The Husky picks are coming tomorrow!  In the words of the most famous bunny of them all, that’s all folks.

Andrew

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by | October 18, 2012 · 4:16 pm

Pac-12 Picks Week 8

Sorry there hasn’t been any content here this week.  I’ll probably have an Around the Pac-12 and mascot melee post up tomorrow but I’ve been too busy to get to it before then.  For now, you just get the picks.  The picks, just the picks.

We had another decent week as far as the picks went last week, and, not to brag, but the Good Guys are out-picking most of the experts.  Since the games start in about an hour, we’ll get right to the picks.

Thursday:

Oregon at Arizona State

The Good Guys:  Oregon 😦

Saturday:

Colorado at USC

The Good Guys:  USC

Stanford at California

Andrew, Joe, Matthew:  Stanford
Dan:  Cal

Utah at Oregon State

The Good Guys:  Oregon State

As you can see, there won’t be much separation this week and there isn’t much separation in the standings as they are.  As I’ve been saying, these could come down to the bowl picks!  Here are the standings:

Standings:
Dan 43-12
Joe 43-12
Matthew 42-13
Andrew 42-13

We should start picking different teams I guess.  Great minds think alike.  The UW-Arizona predictions will be up tomorrow and hopefully a few more posts as well.  For now, here’s this.

Andrew

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