Here are the original posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Worst Predictions

Sports Illustrated picked the Mets to win it all, reaching the World Series (where they would play the Angels) by beating the Cubs. They successfully picked all the American League playoff teams but only 2/4 in the NL. Which isn’t bad but picking the Mets to win it all with their preseason roster was crazy to start with and is hilarious now.

Tyler Kepner picked the Royals to win the AL Central, which I didn’t get then and don’t get now. His World Series winner was the Cubs (over the Yankees).

Lots of people picked the Cleveland Indians to win the AL Central. This I find forgivable because the Indians this year and last felt like they were poised to be very good and then weren’t for various reasons like Fausto Carmona becoming terrible and Jake Westbrook’s elbow dying.

Anyone who picked the Diamondbacks to win the NL West. Wild Card, I’d buy, but I’m not sure why you’d think they’d leap over a much better Dodgers team for the division. The A’s winning the AL West seems crazy now but at the start of the season it wasn’t, the Diamondbacks adding crucial piece Jon Garland doesn’t make them better than the Dodgers at the start of the year.

Picking the Reds to do anything was pretty special. Even if you believed their pitching would perform well, they didn’t have anything really resembling an offense at the beginning of the season.

I’m going out on a limb guessing Jim Caple picked the Twins winning the World Series as a joke/wish so that one doesn’t count.

Best Predictions

Anyone who picked the Yankees to win! Which was actually only four writers from ESPN.

Peter Pascarelli’s predictions were the closest to reality, but in the beginning of the year they probably looked somewhat crazy. When it comes to the *L Central it’s all messy, and not picking the Cardinals wasn’t a sin by any means. The Cubs were the sensible choice (for the division, not the pennant) because nobody knew the previously very injured Cardinals pitching would bounce back like it did.

Prediction Tally

Here is a table that tallies the picks for Division, Wild Card, Pennant and World Series winners. Not everyone picked everything so no, it doesn’t all add up in the end.

Conclusion

Never bet on the Mets or Cubs.

This is probably the last round-up as the season is officially underway. I plan on revisiting these when the season is over. Again, I am just ignoring all the awards predictions because while some of them are hilarious that stuff is too erratic to really hold people to. You may wonder why they even bother because I sure do.

Because this is big and messy thanks to ESPN having ten-thousand “experts”, I’ve put everything behind a more tag. So read on, if you wish.

ESPN Writers

The Hardball Times

AL Wild Card – Yankees

AL Pennant – Red Sox

NL Wild Card – Phillies

NL Pennant – Cubs

World Series – Red Sox

This year’s theme seems to be that the Reds will improve by a lot–I think this is faulty trying to find the next Rays logic. They will improve but are unlikely to overtake the Brewers who have a far superior lineup.

Ken Rosenthal (Fox Sports)

Rosenthal’s predictions are, in a nutshell, “2008 will happen again, except the other team will win the World Series”. I’m not sure if this is the safe approach but it is close to it.

AL Wild Card – Boston Red Sox

ALDS – Rays over Twins, Red Sox over Angels

ALCS – Rays over Red Sox

NL Wild Card – Mets

NLDS – Phillies over Dodgers, Cubs over Mets

NLCS – Phillies over Cubs

World Series – Rays over Phillies

Bill Madden (NY Daily News)

Two important things to note here: 1) Madden always has a mega hardon for the Braves and; 2) He predicts records and never bothers to check his math and it is never right.

AL Wild Card – Boston Red Sox

NL Wild Card – Braves

This is kind of ugly to look at, so I apologize for that. I’m trying to tweak it to make it as readable as possible.

Sports Illustrated

SI officially publishes one list of predictions for the whole magazine staff instead of individual ones.

AL Wild Card – Boston Red Sox

ALDS – Yankees over Twins, Angels over Red Sox

ALCS – Angels over Yankees

NL Wild Card – Phillies

NLDS – Mets over Dodgers, Cubs over Phillies

NLCS – Mets over Cubs

World Series – Mets over Cubs

Tyler Kepner – NY Times

He’s only put up his AL specific predictions thus far.

ALCS – Yankees over Red Sox

World Series – Cubs over Yankees

CBS Sportsline

Sportsline gives individual writer/editor predictions, including awards and all that. I think trying to predict awards is useless (Johan Santana to win the Cy Young, what a daring guess!!!) so I’m leaving those off.