Now that you have the benefit of both Chas’ National League preview and Smitty’s American League preview, it’s time to send us your picks for the inaugural Pickin’ Splinters Baseball Challenge. Remember that bragging rights on the bench are at stake, and maybe there will a prize for the winner as well.
So without further adieu, here’s what we’ll need from each entrant (with point values for a correct pick in parentheses):
* All six division winners and two wild cards (15 points for each correct playoff team; value reduced to 10 if you pick a team to win the division, but they win the wild card instead, or vice-versa)
* National and American League Champions (25 points each)
* World Series Champion (40 points)
* MVPs in each league (25 points each)
* Cy Young winners in each league (25 points each)
Please post your completed entry as a comment to this thread by midnight Wednesday, April 15. Obviously, the winners won’t be determined until the MVP and Cy Young Award winners are revealed in November.
Good luck to all!!!
Here goes:
AL East – TB NL East – NYM
AL Cent – CWS NL Cent – Cubs
AL West – LAA NL West – LAD
AL WC – NYY NL WC – Phi
AL Champs – TB NL Champs – Cubs
World Series Champions – Chicago Cubs
AL MVP – Jeter NYY NL MVP – Wright NYM
AL Cy Young – Kazmir TB NL Cy Young – Santana NYM
American League
East: Boston Red Sox
Central: Cleveland Indians
West: LA Angels
Wildcard: Tampa Bay Rays
AL Champions: Cleveland Indians
AL MVP: Grady Sizemore – CLE
AL Cy Young: James Shields – TB
National League
East: New York Mets
Central: Chicago Cubs
West: Arizona Diamondbacks
Wildcard: Philadelphia Phillies
NL Champions: Chicago Cubs
NL MVP: David Wright – NY Mets
NL Cy Young: Dan Haren – ARI
WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS: Cleveland Indians
American League:
East: Yankmees
Central: Indians (but rooting for the Chi Sox!)
West: Angels
Wildcard: Red Sox
Pennant Winner: Yankmees
MVP: Mark Teixeira
Cy Young: Cliff Lee
National League:
East: Phillies
Central: Cubs
West: Dodgers
Wildcard: Cardinals
Pennant Winner: Phillies (but praying it’s the Cubs!)
MVP: Manny Ramirez
Cy Young: Brandon Webb
World Series winner: Yankmees (hope I’m wrong, but they’re due and have CC).
AL East Rays
AL Central Twins
AL West LA Angels of Anaheim, of Disney Land, of Orange County, of California
Wild Card – Yanks
NL East Phils
NL Central Cubs
NL West – Relegation…errr….Dodgers
Wild Card – Cards
AL MVP – Carl Crawford
AL Cy YOung Jon Lackey
NL MVP Luis Pujols
NL Cy Young Johna Santana
WS Rays over Phils
American League
East: Boston Red Sox
Central: Cleveland Indians
West: LA Angels
Wildcard: NY Yankees
AL Champions: Boston Red Sox
AL MVP: Evan Longoria – Tampa Bay
AL Cy Young: Jon Lester – Boston Red Sox
National League
East: New York Mets
Central: Chicago Cubs
West: Arizona Diamondbacks
Wildcard: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Champions: New York Mets
NL MVP: Albert “Not Luis” Pujols- St. Louis Cardinals
NL Cy Young: Johan Santana – New York Mets
WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS: Boston Red Sox – Buckner shall have his revenge!!!
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Minnesota Twins
AL West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Wildcard: Tampa Bay Devil Rays
AL Champs: Boston Red Sox
NL East: New York Mets
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
Wildcard: Philadelphia Phillies
NL Champs: Chicago Cubs
WS Champs: Chicago Cubs
AL MVP: Josh Hamilton
NL MVP: Hanley Ramirez
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
NL Cy Young: Cole Hamels
Can I get 12 points if I get the last name correct?
First name error slipped right by me – in fact I thought you meant Luis Gonzalez – I thought it was a LAST name slip. Does Gonzalez even play anymore? Was he one of the “Boys of Steroids”?
Yeah – I must have fat-fingered that one about Pujols. 🙂
“Boys of Steroids” – you might be on to something Pete.
Alright, so I guess it’s about time I made my picks.
AL East – Red Sox
AL Central – Twins
AL West – Angels
AL Wild Card – Yankees
NL East – Mets
NL Central – Cubs
NL West – Dodgers
NL Wild Card – Marlins
AL Champs – Angels
NL Champs – Mets
WS Champs – Angels (really banking on that starting staff getting healthy)
AL MVP – Mark Teixeira
AL Cy Young – Roy Halladay
NL MVP – Hanley Ramirez
NL Cy Young – Johan Santana
Time to make some changes (if allowed) to my Cy Young winners. Here’s all my predictions, with those changes:
American League
East: Yankmees
Central: Indians (but rooting for the Chi Sox!)
West: Angels
Wildcard: Red Sox
Pennant Winner: Yankmees
MVP: Mark Teixeira
Cy Young: Kevin Millwood
National League
East: Phillies
Central: Cubs
West: Dodgers
Wildcard: Cardinals
Pennant Winner: Phillies (but praying it’s the Cubs!)
MVP: Manny Ramirez
Cy Young: Chris Carpenter
World Series winner: Yankmees (hope I’m wrong, but they’re due and have CC).
Kevin Millwood could be 12-0 at the All-Star break and I’d still let you change your pick to him.
Just kidding…well, sort of. Ok, not really.
Since the original deadline was April 15 and I just did mine a couple of days ago, I have no objection.
AL East: Boston NL East: NY Mets
AL Central: Cleveland NL Central: Cubs
AL West: Oakland NL West: Arizona
AL Wildcard: Tampa Bay NL Wildcard: Dodgers
AL Champ: Tampa Bay NL Champ: Cubs
WS Champ: Tampa Bay
AL Cy Young: Erik Bedard NL Cy Young: Derek Lowe
AL MVP: Evan Longoria NL MVP: David Wright
Wally, I had Millwood on my list, but came to my senses before submitting my picks. Casey, did you mean on to something (Boys of Steroids) or ON something (like “what planet does this guy come from?”) Chas, how healthy do you think that Angels staff can GET?
John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Kelvim Escobar…that’s how healthy, Pete.
Pete
On to something – as in that would make a good title.
Casey, just call me Pete Halberstam!