Atlanta Braves 2015 Season Prediction Contest Update
Sep 20, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski (15) reacts with teammates after driving in the winning run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the ninth inning at Turner Field. The Braves defeated the Phillies 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
The Questions About This Team (5 of many)
I will condense these questions: in part for the sake of length, and in part because most of us were a lot more optimistic in April than now. None of these have a majority of correct responses.
- T1: Total number of team wins in 2015 (76 and lower; 77 or more)
- T2: Team Runs scored, National League rank (1-11 or 12+)
- T3: Team Earned Run Average, National League rank (1-7 or 8+)
- T4: Team Strikeouts (on offense), National League rank (1-5 or 6+)
- T5: Finishing position in the NL Eastern division (1-3 or 4+)
The first of these is already decided: at 60-90, the Braves still have to win thrice more to avoid that 100-loss milestone. 74% of us had hope for a lot better result.
Likewise, the run scoring (15th) and ERA (13th) battles are pretty well over, too. The bright spot (?) is that the Braves will almost certainly end the year with the fewest strikeouts in the National League (4th overall, but could end up 2nd). But lest you think that this is a negative correlation to success, the Kansas City Royals are killing everybody else in baseball in this category: 160 fewer than anyone else.
Thanks to the sweep of the Phillies this weekend, the Braves actually still have a shot at finishing in third place. They are now four games behind the Marlins… and these teams still have a 3-game series to play against one another soon. We’ll probably finish ahead of the Phils now (4 games up with 12 to play), but given prior success vs. the Fish, that 4 game margin isn’t so big looking upward in the rankings.
But there I go being optimistic again.
Overall…
Right now, our contest is led by 3 entrants that have 11 correct answers apiece, with 3 more at 10 correct (oddly, one of these didn’t even submit answers for 2 questions!). The Kimbrel query could decide the winner outright, though if the Braves somehow pass up the Marlins for third place, then we could end up with a logjam of 3 or 4 that invokes all of the 3 tie-breaker questions.
Me? Ummm…. 6…. but I wasn’t really trying to win, you see. My entry was just to …. test the entry mechanism. Yes – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
In 2 weeks, we’ll announce the winner.