Baseball fans:
Dan McCloskey wins the 2014 MLB Predictions Pool! Dan is our tenth new winner in ten years. Johnny Cueto was one strikeout short of taking the NL SO category outright, preventing a joint victory by Jeff Gatland and Mark Watzke. Jim Kushner was also in the hunt well into the afternoon…
Here are the season category leaders, with bold indicating players we actually chose:
AL BA: José Altuve
AL R: Mike Trout (16)
NL BA: Justin Morneau
NL HR: Giancarlo Stanton (3)
NL RBI: Adrian Gonzalez (2)
NL R: Anthony Rendon
NL SB: Dee Gordon
AL IP: David Price (1)
AL W: Corey Kluber, Max Scherzer (5), Jered Weaver
AL ERA: Felix Hernández (2)
AL S: Fernando Rodney
NL IP: Johnny Cueto
NL W: Clayton Kershaw (12)
NL ERA: Clayton Kershaw (16)
NL SO: Johnny Cueto, Stephen Strasburg (4)
NL S: Craig Kimbrel (18)
NL HBP: Jon Jay (1)
NL HBP: Charlie Morton (6)
Fun facts:
- Our average score of 3.81 pts is our highest since 2010, and our average HBP of 45.14 is highest since 2009. Twelve entrants predicted at least four categories correctly, compared to seven entrants in 2012 and only two in 2011.
- Michael Orobona and Jeff Gatland own the only unique picks of 2014, choosing Mike Trout (AL RBI) and David Price (AL IP), respectively. Harvey Hawkins was the only entrant to successfully pick a batter that led his league in HBPs (Jon Jay with 20).
We hope this year’s pool was fun for everyone. Way to go, Dan!
-Jud and Dan
