August 28, 2013

Rob LaColla remains on top as our only entrant with six correct picks, trailed by the McCloskeys and Will Rice. Karen, Dan, and Will each hold comfortable HBP leads over our leader as well as the three entrants below them in the standings, which could be crucial down the September stretch.

Jean Segura finally passed the suspended Everth Cabrera in NL steals on Friday, docking a point from eleven entrants. In the AL, Joe Nathan and Mariano Rivera have trimmed Jim Johnson’s saves lead to two. In the last three weeks, Nathan has collected five saves while Johnson has only converted one of four save opportunities. Rivera’s struggles over this same interval almost resemble Johnson’s: three consecutive blown opportunities followed by three saves.

Next update will probably be Tuesday instead of Wednesday…

-Dan and Jud

August 23, 2013

Our top three of Rob LaColla, Will Rice, and Mark Watzke remain the same, but places shuffle around in the middle third. Clayton Kershaw continues his mean streak in Miami(8IP, 5H, 0R, 6K) and pokes his head over Matt Harvey for first in NL strikeouts.

Back to our regular Wednesday update schedule next week…

-Dan and Jud

August 19, 2013

Out of town this week so we’re doing a quick update today…

Rob’s back in sole possession of first with an update high for the year of 7-24. Will Rice and Mark Watzke trail with six points each, followed by a tie for fourth between CC/Zinta and Dan McCloskey. However, both CC/Z and Dan top Rob, Will, and Mark in HBP tiebreaker points with 31.

Our highest average score of the season is due in part to Clayton Kershaw’s domination of the Phils on Saturday (8IP, 3H, 0R, 8K), which scored NL IP and ERA points for the LA lefty. Our top starter for the AL couldn’t match Kershaw’s brilliance on Saturday: Felix Hernández stumbled in Arlington(5IP, 5IP, 5ER) costing the Mariner his ERA lead and dropping Will, Dan, and Amy Gill down one point in our standings.

Maybe we’ll send out another update on Friday if things get interesting. See ya!

-Dan and Jud

August 14, 2013

Will Rice is back on top this week with Rob LaColla trailing by just two HBPs. CC/Zinta and Dan McCloskey tie for third a full point behind Will and Rob, but maintain a sizable lead in the tiebreaker column.

Miguel Cabrera’s big week (7R, .379, 5HR, 11RBI) pushed Mike Trout out of a tie for ALruns, but still wasn’t enough to pass the O’s Chris Davis in RBI. Trout’s bounce brought two-thirds of our entrants down a point and took Dan out of a comfy seat in first place. Another Oriole could make the AL runs race interesting down the stretch: Adam Jones, uniquely picked by our current leader Will Rice, is just six runs behind Cabrera.

Would you like a Predictions Pool score update every time it changes? Follow @PredictionsPool on Twitter for almost-daily top five leaderboards!

-Dan and Jud

August 7, 2013

Dan McCloskey leads the MLB Predictions Pool this week with Will Rice, Rob LaColla, and Mark Watzke trailing by HBPs only. Dan earns his second lead of the year and breaks a nine-week streak of updates topped by Rob and/or Will.

Many of us picked up a fresh point this week when Mike Trout finally caught up with a banged-up Miguel Cabrera in the AL runs column. Trout trails considerably in stolen bases, but another less popular entrants’ pick could make a run at current leader Jacoby Ellsbury for the steals title: Toronto’s Rajai Davis (chosen by Will, CC/Zinta) trails by just six swipes and has fifteen July/August steals to Ellsbury’s eight.

As anticipated in our last update, current NL SB leader Everth Cabrera has been suspended for the remainder of the 2013 season. If and when Cabrera’s frozen total of 37 steals is eventually surpassed by the trailing active NLers (Starling Marte (32), Jean Segura (31), Carlos Gómez (29)), a majority of our entrants will lose a point they’ve counted on for the last twelve updates. If indeed Gómez manages a final lead in this category, entrants Steve Craig and Amy Gill will effectively gain two points on the Everth camp.

Happy August!

-Dan and Jud