May 15, 2013

Dan McCloskey moves into the lead after a week containing two stellar starts apiece by Clayton Kershaw (15.2IP, ER, 15K) and Felix Hernández (14IP, 2ER, 13K). Will Rice repeats in second place and Brian Wells jumps nine spots to third.

Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan has a torn flexor tendon in his right elbow, and becomes the third pitcher chosen by our entrants this year to require season-ending surgery. The pool now has twelve players on the DL, accounting for a total of 54 picks.

Big thanks to everyone for settling your entry fees quickly. We are officially all paid and the $420 prize is complete! Click here for the second trivia question of the season, and then post your score on our blog by clicking the “comments” link at the bottom of the May 15th post. See you next week!

-Dan and Jud

May 8, 2013

Rob LaColla takes the top spot in our second update, with Will Rice and Jim Kushner trailing only in the HBP column. The majority of our entrants received bumps this week from Miguel Cabrera’s BA lead and/or Justin Verlander’s Astro-aided 1.55 ERA. Shout out to Joe Maissel for his prescient Carlos Gómez pick for NL BA!

Two unfortunate injuries merit mentioning: Cardinals closer Jason Motte and White Sox pitcher Gavin Floyd both required season-ending ligament replacement surgeries this week. Eight other players chosen by our entrants are temporary residents of the DL.

For those of you keeping score at home, please correct the grid we sent out at the beginning of the season to show Mark Watzke’s NL R pick as Ryan Braun. Sorry about that! Oh, and if your name appears in red below, you haven’t paid your $20 entry fee…

-Dan and Jud

May 1, 2013

Happy to bring you the first pool update of the 2013 MLB season! Karen McCloskey is off to a strong start, leading both in points and HBP. Rob LaColla trails by just 2 beanballs, and Jim Kushner holds third place thanks to his prized Yu Darvish K pick.

Equally as noteworthy (at least to us geeks) is John Agnello’s fourth place portfolio, which features two “unique picks.” John was the only entrant to select Mariano Rivera and Matt Harvey, who currently lead in AL S and NL W, respectively. When one door closes, another opens…

If your name appears in red below, you haven’t paid your $20 entry fee to Dan or Jud. Unpaid entrants will still be listed in future updates, but their scores will not appear until their fee is paid. No hard feelings, but let’s settle up now so we can enjoy the rest of the baseball season without any worries.

Click here for our first trivia question of the season, and then post your score on our blog by clicking the “comments” link at the bottom of the May 1st post. See you next week!

-Dan and Jud

Welcome to the 2013 MLB Predictions Pool

Thanks for entering the ninth annual MLB Predictions Pool! We have 21 entrants this year, making the winner's prize $420. We’re short five members from last season, but at least we’ve increased the chances of winning…

We've attached a file containing the picks for all of this year's members, as well as a breakdown of picks by frequency. The grid and picks breakdown are also available at http://mlbpool.blogspot.com/ near the top on the right. You can also use our blog site to find updates on relevant injuries, more frequent standings updates, and baseball trivia questions.

Please be sure to send your $20 entry fee to either Dan or Jud by the end of April. All paid entrants will be shown in green on the "2013 Complete Pool Picks" link on the blog site. We’re also accepting payments by PayPal made to judehrbar@gmail.com.

Score updates will be emailed once a week, as well as posted on our website, and our official Twitter feed is still at @PredictionsPool. Our first official score update should go out after about five times through the pitching rotations.

Have fun, and good luck!

-Jud and Dan

Picks due tomorrow night!

All picks are due this Friday night (3/29) before midnight. Let Jud or Dan know if you need an entry sheet or have any questions.

Good luck!

judehrbar@gmail.com
dcmccloskey@yahoo.com

Pool invite and entry sheet

Greetings pool participants past, present, and future-


It's time to start making our picks for the 2013 MLB Predictions Pool!

Last year’s contest ended in a tie between Jeff Gatland (our eighth different winner in eight seasons) and Sid Harris (our first repeating champ). So anyone can win, and some can even win twice.

First, Jud will now be using his judehrbar@gmail.com address for all emails. If you send your picks to Jud’s old address, they will not be processed. Second, we will now accept PayPal for your $20 entry fee (payable to judehrbar@gmail.com). If your money transfer carries a fee, please choose to pay the fee as the sender. Of course, you can always mail cash or check to Dan or Jud (addresses in attached entry form).

The Word version of the entry form does a pretty good job of explaining the rules, but here's a refresher:

--You get credit for picking the league leader in a category only. If a player gets traded to the other league during the season, you're probably out of luck. For example, in 2008, CC Sabathia led the majors in innings pitched, but since he was traded from Cleveland to Milwaukee during the season, he led neither league. You'd get nothing for having picked Sabathia.
--Batting average and ERA leaders are subject to MLB's minimum requirements for qualification (3.1 plate appearances per game a player's team has played for batting average; 1 inning pitched per game a player's team has played for ERA).
--All entries must be e-mailed to Dan at dcmccloskey@yahoo.com or Jud at judehrbar@gmail.com by midnight (EST) of Friday, March 29. This is a firm deadline.
--$20 per person to enter.

We're still open to newcomers joining up. If you have anyone else you would like to invite, please request approval from either Dan or Jud. All new entrants are required to submit their $20 entry fee, in addition to their picks, by March 29. Returning entrants may pay Dan or Jud by April 30.

The 2013 MLB Predictions Pool blog is still at http://mlbpool.blogspot.com/, and Twitter is still @PredictionsPool.

Any questions, let us know. Hope you're in for another year.

Good luck,
Dan & Jud

New email address for Jud

Please use judehrbar@gmail.com for all correspondence with Jud from now on.

You'll be receiving the first email for the 2013 MLB Predictions Pool this week!