As predicted by you, me, and all the other commenters in Monday’s column, the Minnesota Twins will be the champions of baseball.
DIVISION SERIES:
The New York Yankees easily handle the Tigers, as they scored the highest wins predicted in any division series game, with 2.9. The Tigers were an even 1, which means the Yankees should win three games to one. This means they will win on the road, in Comerica Park, in Game Four, with Jeremy Bonderman on the hill and Jaret Wright/Cory Lidle pitching.
The Twins are slated to defeat the Oakland Athletics, also three games to one. The A’s could eke out a second game, however, as they are only .1 point off from being 1.5, which rounds up to two. Nonetheless, they should lose in Game Four with Rich Harden taking the fall and Carlos Silva turning in a performance worthy of admiration as they advance in sunny California.
In the closest matchup, the Los Angeles Dodgers will eke out a series victory against the Mets, as they beat the Mets 2.4 games to 2.3 games. This should make for a very exciting Game 5, which will feature old friend Derek Lowe getting the victory, and gaining a reputation as an October pitcher.
San Diego is predicted to trounce over the Cardinals, 2.8 games to 1.4. This means that the Padres should storm back to win the next three games (ending in Busch Stadium in Missouri) after their loss at the hands of Chris Carpenter yesterday. Jake Peavy, who will probably end up matching up against Carpenter in Game 4, should come out ahead again.
Moving on to the Championship Series, here’s how the math works: I went in and tallied the total number of games each team was predicted to win in the Championship Series, regardless of opponent. (Meaning if the Yankees were predicted to face the Athletics, I counted how many wins the Yankees were predicted to win.) I then averaged it out by the number of people who thought the Yankees would play in the Championship Series. This is how I calculated the World Series as well.
As you can see, the Yankees and Twins are locked in a virtual tie with 2.5 games apiece. Rounding up, that means a Game Seven. The first tiebreaker I tried was how many people thought the Yankees would advance to the World Series, and same for the Twins. That didn’t work, as seven thought that the Twins would advance, and seven for the Yankees (16 total predictions were counted.)
I then looked up how many people thought the Twins or Yankees would win the World Series. The Twins won that showdown, as the Twins were predicted to win the World Series six times to the Yankees’ three. So the Twins advance, and most likely on the back of Johan Santana.
The NL offered an easier way to determine who advanced, as San Diego was predicted to win Game Seven over the Dodgers. Thus, a Twins/Padres World Series was set up, which is the most common World Series prediction Fire Brand readers had.
In a tightly contested affair, that either ends in the late innings of Game Six or in Game Seven, the Twins become the World Champions of the world, beating the Padres 3.9 games to 2.9 games.
Time will tell if Fire Brand predicted the games correctly, the winners of each series correctly, or the World Series winner! For what it’s worth, the predictions look excellent!
