a fink's Inaugural Mid-Season Predictions Contest RESULTS!

Well, VEB. This beautiful regular season is in the books. But, oh, my friends! The fate of the Cardinals was not the only thing decided last night. Here are the results of my predictions contest. With commentary.

Relevant link: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2011/7/10/2268541/a-finks-inaugural-mid-season-predictions-contest-with-prizes

Well, to do away with the big suspense, hr won. Yes, hr won at getting last place. He beat out d-dee narrowly, getting just 1 correct while she got 2.

His error was one many of you made, he thought Ryan Theriot would end the season with more hits than Matt Holliday, and thus chose "false" to number 5, cleverly trying to get it wrong. d-dee didn't trip up there, but she misjudged just how well the glass in David Freese's ankles had healed, and clearly didn't understand the basic tenet that CDNGAF.

Anyway, congrats to hr. He has a surprise coming his way. I'll edit this post with the big reveal once he has received his prize.

Before we get to the real winners, some observations.

1. We mostly thought the Cards would win the Central.

2. We mostly (correctly) thought the Cards would end up with 88-90 wins, so we did not overestimate our team, but we certainly underestimated the Brewers.

3. We mostly thought Lance would end with more homers than Albert, but there were plenty of Albert-believers as well.

4. The vast majority of us thought Albert would NOT get to .300/35. We were right, but barely.

5. About 2/3rds of us thought Holliday would end up with more hits than Theriot, which was correct, though they were fairly close.

6. We overwhelmingly believed in Freese's ability to make 45 starts. I was surprised at this faith, and had I entered the contest, I would have missed this one.

7. Most of us showed faith in Carp's ability to finish over .500, which is awesome. 

8. We believed that the Cards would not acquire Bell or Adams or Reyes, which was correct.

9./10. Very few entrants got points from these rankings, mostly due to Pujols and Carp's resurgence (Carp/Berk/Holliday ALL had 5.0 fwar. I gave credit to any order of their appearance if they were in the proper range), and the very close nature of Theriot/DD/Skip, and Westy/Salas.

11. Nobody saw Salas' 2nd half struggles coming.

OK!

2nd place: There was a 3-way tie between Fan4. Schweaty, and Felonious Monk, all at 7!

It looks like I'm shipping over-seas, as Felonious Monk was the closest on the tie-break! Congratulations!

The winner, with 8 correct is......................................

.....................

...

.

Taskmaster! 

I'm not entirely sure who you are, but congratulations! 

hr, Taskmaster, and F. Monk, please e-mail me at  ........................................

within a week. I'll need your address to ship you your prizes! If I don't hear from you by then, prizes will be given to the next closest (fan4 is ahead of Schweaty)

Thanks for playing!

Courtesy of The Continental:

Answer key 

1. The NL Central regular season crown will go to:
B.) The Milwaukee Brewers – by 6 freaking games

2. The St Louis Cardinals will finish 2011 with this many wins:
C.) 88-90 – The Cardinals had 90 wins

3. The player on the Cardinals who will finish 2011 with the most regular season homeruns is: 
B.) Albert Pujols – with 37

4. Albert Pujols will finish the 2011 regular season with at least a .300 BA and 35 HR.
B.) False – but oh so close

5. Ryan Theriot will finish the 2011 regular season with more hits than Matt Holliday.
B.) False – Theriot had 120 to Holliday’s 132

6. David Freese will start at least 45 games in the second half
A.) True – Presuming that “the second half” means after the All-Star Game, he had 55 starts.

7. Chris Carpenter will finish the season with more wins than losses.
A.) True – Carp finished the year 11 – 9

8. The roster will include at least one of the following by the end of the season: Heath Bell, Mike Adams, Luke Gregerson, Francisco Liriano, Francisco Rodriguez, Ryan Dempster, Hiroki Kuroda, Jose Reyes.
B.) False – Nope. Didn’t happen.

9. Rank the following in terms of their fWAR at the end of the season: (at least 4 in the correct position to get a point)
Pujols 5.2, Berkman 5.0, Carpenter 5.0, Holliday 5.0, Garcia 3.7, Rasmus 0.8

10. Rank the following in terms of their fWAR at the end of the season: (at least 4 in the correct position to get a point)
Punto 1.8, Westbrook 1.1, Salas 1.0, Schumaker 0.7, Theriot 0.6, Descalso 0.5

11. Tie-break only: Fernando Salas will finish the season with this many saves:
24