2013 THT awards review

It’s time to embarrass the lot of us once again as we review THT’s preseason predictions for the 2013 playoffs and the major awards. And since we have a sabermetric focus around these parts, I’ll apply a (debatably rational) formula to determine who did the best with his picks. To spread the wealth, I’ll separate the postseason from the awards so we can have two winners.

2013 playoffs recap

The scoring system for the postseason is fairly straightforward. Picking a team to win its division is worth two points, as is correctly choosing a Wild Card winner. If someone picks a team to be a Wild Card, and that squad actually won its division, I’ll also give one point. Vice versa if a Wild Card winner is picked to win its division. (Maybe this isn’t so straightforward after all…)

Since all I asked for in the spring was pennant winners and World Series champs, we’ll give four points for making the finals and eight points for winning the world title. (If you click on this link and scroll to the bottom, you’ll see that those last two categories earned points for but a solitary soul, but those points turned out to be key.)

And now the results.

Staffer                Points
Paul Francis Sullivan    13
Dave Studeman            12
Chris Jaffe              11
Jeffrey Gross            11
Matt Hunter              10
Jason Linden              9
John Barten               9
Steve Treder              9
Bruce Markusen            8
Doug Wachter              8 
Jack Weiland              8
Matt Filippi              8
Brad Johnson              7
Dan Lependorf             7
Greg Simons               7
James Gentile             7
Mike Clark                7
Sam Hendrickson           7
Shane Tourtellotte        7
Joe Distelheim            6
Nick Fleder               5

Paul Francis Sullivan was the only one of us to correctly predict the St. Louis Cardinals as a World Series participant, and not one of us expected the Boston Red Sox to win it all. That prescient insight pushed Sully past our head honcho, Dave Studeman, and into first place. Chris Jaffe and Jeffrey Gross will have to split the bronze medal for third.

Oh, and don’t consult Nick Fleder (well, any of us, really) before heading to Vegas to place your preseason bets.

2013 awards

The scoring methodology for the awards is a bit complicated. I think it’s about equally as important to have gotten any one of the awards correct. However, the ballot lengths are not the same for each award, and every player (theoretically) has a chance at the MVP.

What I decided to do was award 14 points for picking the correct MVP and 10 points for choosing the correct Cy Young or Rookie of the Year. From there, I gave nine points for choosing the player who finished second in any award voting, eight points for a third-place finish, etc., all the way down to one points for a tenth-place or lower finish. So if a THT member’s selection received even a single vote, our staffer received a point.

Staffer                Points
Dan Lependorf            36
Dave Studeman            33
Doug Wachter             31
Steve Treder             30
Shane Tourtellotte       29
Greg Simons              27
James Gentile            24
Joe Distelheim           24
Paul Francis Sullivan    23
Bruce Markusen           17
Jeffrey Gross            17
Sam Hendrickson          16
Jack Weiland             15
Nick Fleder              15
Chris Jaffe              14
Jason Linden             14
Mike Clark               14
Matt Hunter              11
John Barten              10
Matt Filippi              9
Brad Johnson              5

Dan Lependorf captures the crown when it comes to awards picking, with five of his six picks landing on the ballot. (He missed only the National League Cy Young, pegging Gio Gonzalez as the winner.)

Studes came in second again, far and away the best combined performance in these two categories, even if we’re not naming an overall champion. He also finished fourth in our division predictions. It’s like the guy knows a thing or two about the game of baseball.

Maybe there’s something about having a name beginning with “D” that helps, because Doug Wachter finished in third place.

Congrats to the winners. Parade around town, shout your victory from the rooftops, or take a Yoohoo shower. You’ve earned it.