Sunday, February 17, 2008

IS HE REALLY A PROPHET?

The Prophet. The nickname was given to me from an old dear friend who loved my insight into sports and my visionary ability to predict professional sports game. I hardly ever bet but sometimes others do with my foreshadowing. I wanted to test myself in 4 ways.
In 4 particular blogs from last year, I gave my predictions of the 2007 MLB season and NFL season's plus the the 2007-08 NHL and NBA campaigns. I had a few minutes so I went back and took a look. I figured a fair over/under would be 8 games. I mean, come on, there are 162 MLB games per team in 2007. Sure, the over/under in the NFL predictions will be 2 or 3 and the NBA/NHL more like 4 or 5, but baseball can be difficult.
Every year a surprising team exists- remember the Tigers in 2006 and the Royals in 2003. Every season injuries can alter a team's success. There are more factors than one would believe.
Yeah sure, some teams are rather easy. We all know teams like the Red Sox, Braves, and Yankees will win at least 90 games. The same goes for the Royals, Orioles and Pirates losing at least 90 games. Knowing that, let's see how I did.
Next to each team is 3 numbers- the first is how many wins I predicted and the second number is how many games in fact the club won in 2007. The last number is how close I was.

AL East- Great start. I got all five right.
Boston 92-96 4
New York 95-94 1
Toronto 88-83 5
Baltimore 69-74 5
Tampa Bay 66-72 6

AL Central- Very good. I nailed 4 out of 5. The White Sox were easily the most disappointing team in 2007. They won 90 games in 2006 and an AL best 99 the year before.
Cleveland 88-98 8
Detroit 90-88 2
Minnesota 86-79 7
Chicago 90-72 18
Kansas City 63-69 6

AL West- Very good. I nailed 3 of 4. Only the quirky A's stopped perfection. I missed by 2 games. I was counting on a solid August as in years past.
Los Angeles 86-94 8
Seattle 81-88 7
Oakland 86-76 10
Texas 77-75 2

NL East- Oops. I just missed. I was 2 games off on FLA and Wash. 3 of 5 is okay I guess.
Philadelphia 86-89 3
New York 91-88 3
Atlanta 84-84 0
Washington 63-73 10
Florida 81-71 10

NL Central- Yes! I nailed 5 out of 6. I just missed the streaky Astros by 2 games.
Chicago 83-85 2
Milwaukee 83-83 0
St. Louis 85-78 7
Houston 83-73 10
Cincinnati 76-72 4
Pittsburgh 76-68 8

NL West- A bit disappointed here. I only got 2 out of 5. I was close on 2 but bombed on the Rockies. But honestly, nobody though they'd go anywhere. They got hot though, winning 12 of the final 13 games to finish with an astonishing 90 wins. Meanwhile, the young D- backs grew up fast and my 80 wins turned into 90. Lastly, the Bonds hysteria to break the record coupled with a disappointing Zito hampered their season and my strong finish here.
Arizona 80-90 10
Colorado 74-90 16
San Diego 86-89 3
Los Angeles 86-82 4
San Francisco 82-71 11

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