Opening Day keeps the doctor away

It's 80 degrees in Chicago today and I'm counting the seconds until opening day. Some of us will be lucky enough to have multiple starters taking to the hill.

I'd say the Josh Hamiltoes probably have the best overall rotation. A 1-2-3 punch of Greinke, Lincecum and King Felix is pretty brutal. And Weaver is one helluva No. 4 starter in this rotation.



Opening Day Starters
The Josh Hamiltoes - 4 (Weaver, Lincecum, Greinke, Hernandez)
Olerud Helmeteers - 4 (Oswalt, Shields, Gallardo, Beckett)
Doc's LSD No No - 3 (Haren, Marcum, Santana)
JasonBere Sluggers - 2 (Jimenez, Verlander)
The Old Mill - 2 (Halladay, Baker)
Tito Landrum Express - 1 (Sabathia)
Jabberwocks - 1 (Carpenter)
Gilkey's Eyeballs - 1 (Johnson)

*amended to reflect blockbuster trade

Predictions That Count

Now that most everyone's made a prediction about how actual baseball will play out, why not make some predictions about this league. Below are my completely biased guesses as to just exactly who I'll be dominating and by how much.

2010 La Liga Predictions
1. Tito Landrum Express
Offensive balance and a dominant pitching staff with 2 kick-ass closers make this thing a no contest by late June.
2. The Josh Hamiltoes
The game's best player and a set of ridiculous starters keep this team close, until Aaron Hill remembers that last year was a fluke.
3. Jason Bere's Sluggers
This band of misfits overperforms for the first half of the season keeping them up in the standings.
4. The Old Mill
A team powered by 4 top 10 players rocks the offensive stats but gets rocked on the mound.
5. Gilkeys Eyeballs
Surprising pitching performances are the highlight of this team that is in need of, well, highlights.
6. Doc's LSD No-No
A phenomenal pitching staff just can't seem to carry the offense. A late season trade with The Old Mill is too little too late.
7. Jabberwocks
A starting line up featuring an Elvis, a Shin-Soo, an Ichiro, and a Chone is laughed off the field during the announcement of the batting order.
8. Olerud Helmeteers
This sucky team just sucks all year long. You hear me Jake!?! You're going down! Sux.

Last Year's Predictions

You should check out Matt's post from yesterday and comment on it so that next year at about this time, I can do this:

Last Year's Predictions:

Zero is a perfect score. To calculate your total places off, I found the number of places above or below the actual that you predicted each team within their division.

Reality Luke Matt Jake Jason Brett AL EAST NYY TAM 2 NYY 0 BOS 1 BOS 1 TAM 2 BOS* BOS* 0 TAM 1 NYY* 1 TAM 1 BOS* 0 TAM NYY 2 BOS 1 TAM 0 NYY 2 TOR 1 TOR TOR 0 BAL 1 BAL 1 BAL 1 NYY 3 BAL BAL 0 TOR 1 TOR 1 TOR 1 BAL 0 AL CENTRAL MIN MIN 0 DET 1 CLE 4 CLE 4 MIN 0 DET KAN 2 CLE 3 MIN 1 KAN 2 KAN 2 CHW CLE 2 MIN 2 CHW 0 CHW 0 CLE 2 KAN DET 2 CHW 1 DET 2 MIN 3 DET 2 CLE CHW 2 KAN 1 KAN 1 DET 3 CHW 2 AL WEST LAA LAA 0 LAA 0 LAA 0 LAA 0 LAA 0 TEX OAK 2 TEX 0 OAK 2 TEX 0 OAK 2 SEA TEX 1 OAK 1 SEA 0 OAK 1 TEX 1 OAK SEA 1 SEA 1 TEX 2 SEA 1 SEA 1 NL EAST PHI PHI 0 NYM 3 PHI 0 PHI 0 FLA 1

FLA ATL 1 PHI 1 NYM 2 NYM 2 PHI 1 ATL FLA 1 FLA 1 ATL 0 ATL 0 NYM 1 NYM NYM 0 ATL 1 FLA 2 FLA 2 ATL 1 WAS WAS 0 WAS 0 WAS 0 WAS 0 WAS 0 NL CENTRAL STL CHC 1 STL 0 CHC 1 CHC 1 CHC 1 CHC STL* 1 CHC* 0 STL* 1 STL 1 MIL* 1 MIL MIL 0 HOU 2 MIL 0 MIL 0 STL 2 CIN HOU 1 MIL 1 HOU 1 CIN 0 PIT 2 HOU CIN 1 CIN 1 CIN 1 HOU 0 HOU 0 PIT PIT 0 PIT 0 PIT 0 PIT 0 CIN 2 NL WEST LAD LAD 0 LAD 0 LAD 0 ARZ 4 ARZ 4 COL* ARZ 3 ARZ 3 ARZ 3 LAD 1 LAD 1 SFG COL 1 SFG 0 COL 1 COL 1 SFG 0 SDP SDP 0 SDP 0 SFG 1 SDP 0 COL 1 ARZ SFG 2 COL 3 SDP 1 SFG 2 SDP 1 World Series NYY STL STL LAA TAM FLA PHI KCR NYY ! LAD PHI !! BOS

TOTAL OFF 28 30 30 34 37

Luke took the cake last year, and also tied best division honors, by only being 2 places off in the NL East. Jason was only 2 off in the AL West (an easier task, with only 4 teams), but also was only 2 off in the NL Central (the hardest division - 6 teams). Jason and Matt were the only managers to predict correct entries in the world series. Jason accurately predicted Philadelphia would lose, and Matt predicted the Yankees to be there.

By the way, check out matt's awesome spring training photo. I'm nominating it as a possible league header. That is, unless Jason took that picture currently in the header, which would be awesome.

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That is all.

Jake (Jake)