Joe you need to write about Joe Medwick (Ducky Medwick) the last NL Triple Crown winner. He is the perfect candidate for one of your articles. A controversial HOF member, tons of hilarious and goofy quotes to his credit, an audience with the pope, nearly died from a fastball to the head, a ridiculous nickname, the only player ever to be removed from a Game 7 in the World Series, etc...
*This comment has nothing to do with the blog post.
I think this is great satire, but other readers are correct, other than BP and 538 (who use actual analytics) most people did not see this coming in preseason.
When I was a kid, pretty certain that the "expert" writers didn't know any more than I did, I would make my predictions, then seek out sports magazine predictions, and then seal them in an envelope and open them the end of the season and see how I did, and see how the "expert" predictions fared.
Now, I just look for the ESPN, Athletic, and Fangraphs writer polls and bookmark them.
Between the 3 sites, there are 94 writers making division winner predictions. 74 of those guys picked the Blue Jays. There were 9 votes for both the Rays and the Yankees, and 2 deluded Red Sox homers.
In the AL Central, none of the writers picked the Cleveland Guardians to win. The White Sox got 83 votes, the Twins 8, and 3 crazy people voted for the Tigers.
In the West, 65 correctly picked the Astros, 21 picked the Mariners, and there were 8 Angels (Always overrated. I cashed my 8th straight under bet on the Angels this year) picks
The battle for the NL East isn't over, But 64 of the writers picked the Braves to repeat, ad 24 were on the Mets, and those teams will finish 1 and 2. The other 8 were on the Phillies, who will be third.
The Brewers were media darlings, getting 76 votes to win the central, while the Cards only got 17 and there was 1 loyal Cubs die hard. Of course, they did not know that the Brewers would make a trade deadline deal while leading the division as if they were playing for the future and not for this year.
Of course, everyone thought the Dodgers would win. Well, almost. There were 5 guys holding out for the Giants as the Dodgers got 89 votes.
Actually, the Blue Jays were the 2nd most popular pick to win the World Series (Hey, they still have a chance) with 26 of the 94 writers picking them to win. The Dodgers were obviously the favorite with 43 votes. The White Sox, who were definitely the most overrated team, were third with 9 votes.
The Yankees got 3 votes to be Champion, also less than the 4 who voted for the Brewers. At least 3 other votes are already out in addition to the 9 picking the White Sox - there was one Twins vote and 2 Angels (I laugh every time I see an Angels pick)
The Astros were my pick this year. 0 of the 94 writers picked them to win it all. The Braves (2), The Giants, the Padres, Rays, and Red Sox got the remaining votes.
@KHAZAD, your posts are always informative. They’re worth going back to day-old comment sections to read. Out of curiosity, are you many time zones away from the US or do you just spend more time researching your answers?
I work until 1 a.m. (central time), so I am on a bit of a different schedule than most. I work 10 hours, and I sleep late and treat my mornings like mornings, and relax in my "evening" - when most of you are asleep.
I hated it when you picked the Yankees. And I hate it even more that you were proven so right so soon in the season. And just when they were looking vulnerable they are starting to gel in time for the playoffs. It's all your fault.
I get that this is all tongue in cheek here, obviously. Pos was really just basing this off Boone's quote, which I thought was kinda silly too when I heard it. Maybe Boone meant during their August swoon?
But actually, it turns out Boone was right! A surprising amount of folks took the trendy pick with Toronto.
I seemed to recall that the Jays were kinda up-and-coming, dark horse candidates, but not really favorites, but evidently not. The Rays won 100 games last year, the only AL team to do so. If not favorites, they were certainly in the mix, no? Barely, it turns out.
ESPN had the Jays #2 overall (among the 30 clubs) in their power rankings, with 96 projected wins, the Yankees #6, with 94, and the Rays at 9 with 86 Wins.
Sporting News had the Yankees tied for 3rd with Boston at just 86 Wins, ahead of only Baltimore.
Of Sports Illustrated's seven baseball writers, only Tom Verducci picked the Yanks to win the AL East. Four of the other six picked Toronto, and two the Rays. Four of those six picked the Yankees to win the 2nd or 3rd WC, and someone named Emma Baccelleiri picked the Yankees to miss the playoffs entirely.
Among the Ringer's four MLB experts, all four picked Toronto to win the division AND the AL pennant. Three of 4 had the Yanks as the 2nd WC, with one picking them to miss the playoffs completely.
All five of CBS Sports' experts picked the Jays, with 4 of 5 picking the Yankees second, and one third.
Clay Davenport, FanDuel and McPaper all picked the Yankees to finish 3rd.
Baseball America picked the Yankees to finish 3rd in the AL East.
FanGraphs picked the Yankees to finish 2nd, 1.3 wins behind Toronto.
Three of four FOX Sports commentators picked the Jays, and the other picked the Rays.
Three of the five writers for Beyond the Box Score picked Toronto. One picked the Rays. Someone named Matt O'Halloran picked the Red Sox (He starts his paragraph with "This may be a homer pick, but..." LOL).
Anyway, I was surprised, too. Just goes to show you: Sometimes the dark horse is dark for a reason. In this case the reason was that their pitching was really mediocre.
Now imagine if they finally won a World Series - wouldn't that be something? America would swoon with joy at the Yankees ending their desertification-process-of-the-Sahara-some-5000-years-back-level drought of an astounding, glacial timeframe - nay, cosmic timeframe - of 13 years!
More and more, people are saying that twitter user HorsefacePakusa should get some form of credit or tip of the cap for replying to Joe's tweet last night with this exact phrase.
Joe you need to write about Joe Medwick (Ducky Medwick) the last NL Triple Crown winner. He is the perfect candidate for one of your articles. A controversial HOF member, tons of hilarious and goofy quotes to his credit, an audience with the pope, nearly died from a fastball to the head, a ridiculous nickname, the only player ever to be removed from a Game 7 in the World Series, etc...
*This comment has nothing to do with the blog post.
I think this is great satire, but other readers are correct, other than BP and 538 (who use actual analytics) most people did not see this coming in preseason.
When I was a kid, pretty certain that the "expert" writers didn't know any more than I did, I would make my predictions, then seek out sports magazine predictions, and then seal them in an envelope and open them the end of the season and see how I did, and see how the "expert" predictions fared.
Now, I just look for the ESPN, Athletic, and Fangraphs writer polls and bookmark them.
Between the 3 sites, there are 94 writers making division winner predictions. 74 of those guys picked the Blue Jays. There were 9 votes for both the Rays and the Yankees, and 2 deluded Red Sox homers.
In the AL Central, none of the writers picked the Cleveland Guardians to win. The White Sox got 83 votes, the Twins 8, and 3 crazy people voted for the Tigers.
In the West, 65 correctly picked the Astros, 21 picked the Mariners, and there were 8 Angels (Always overrated. I cashed my 8th straight under bet on the Angels this year) picks
The battle for the NL East isn't over, But 64 of the writers picked the Braves to repeat, ad 24 were on the Mets, and those teams will finish 1 and 2. The other 8 were on the Phillies, who will be third.
The Brewers were media darlings, getting 76 votes to win the central, while the Cards only got 17 and there was 1 loyal Cubs die hard. Of course, they did not know that the Brewers would make a trade deadline deal while leading the division as if they were playing for the future and not for this year.
Of course, everyone thought the Dodgers would win. Well, almost. There were 5 guys holding out for the Giants as the Dodgers got 89 votes.
Actually, the Blue Jays were the 2nd most popular pick to win the World Series (Hey, they still have a chance) with 26 of the 94 writers picking them to win. The Dodgers were obviously the favorite with 43 votes. The White Sox, who were definitely the most overrated team, were third with 9 votes.
The Yankees got 3 votes to be Champion, also less than the 4 who voted for the Brewers. At least 3 other votes are already out in addition to the 9 picking the White Sox - there was one Twins vote and 2 Angels (I laugh every time I see an Angels pick)
The Astros were my pick this year. 0 of the 94 writers picked them to win it all. The Braves (2), The Giants, the Padres, Rays, and Red Sox got the remaining votes.
@KHAZAD, your posts are always informative. They’re worth going back to day-old comment sections to read. Out of curiosity, are you many time zones away from the US or do you just spend more time researching your answers?
I work until 1 a.m. (central time), so I am on a bit of a different schedule than most. I work 10 hours, and I sleep late and treat my mornings like mornings, and relax in my "evening" - when most of you are asleep.
I guess the Red Sox are out as well, so 13 of the 94 writers are already out.
I hated it when you picked the Yankees. And I hate it even more that you were proven so right so soon in the season. And just when they were looking vulnerable they are starting to gel in time for the playoffs. It's all your fault.
Best Satire. Thanks for mentioning the Blue Jays!
Yankee fan here, well done. Really liked it, but perhaps Michael Schur is rubbing off on you a little too much!
hey Joe, I sent you an email about my subscription a week ago and haven't heard anything back yet, just trying to get the situation sorted, thanks.
Yankee fan here. Loved this article and truly love you Joe. I’m going to read this every night before bed.
Thanks
I get that this is all tongue in cheek here, obviously. Pos was really just basing this off Boone's quote, which I thought was kinda silly too when I heard it. Maybe Boone meant during their August swoon?
But actually, it turns out Boone was right! A surprising amount of folks took the trendy pick with Toronto.
I seemed to recall that the Jays were kinda up-and-coming, dark horse candidates, but not really favorites, but evidently not. The Rays won 100 games last year, the only AL team to do so. If not favorites, they were certainly in the mix, no? Barely, it turns out.
ESPN had the Jays #2 overall (among the 30 clubs) in their power rankings, with 96 projected wins, the Yankees #6, with 94, and the Rays at 9 with 86 Wins.
Sporting News had the Yankees tied for 3rd with Boston at just 86 Wins, ahead of only Baltimore.
Of Sports Illustrated's seven baseball writers, only Tom Verducci picked the Yanks to win the AL East. Four of the other six picked Toronto, and two the Rays. Four of those six picked the Yankees to win the 2nd or 3rd WC, and someone named Emma Baccelleiri picked the Yankees to miss the playoffs entirely.
Among the Ringer's four MLB experts, all four picked Toronto to win the division AND the AL pennant. Three of 4 had the Yanks as the 2nd WC, with one picking them to miss the playoffs completely.
All five of CBS Sports' experts picked the Jays, with 4 of 5 picking the Yankees second, and one third.
Clay Davenport, FanDuel and McPaper all picked the Yankees to finish 3rd.
Baseball America picked the Yankees to finish 3rd in the AL East.
FanGraphs picked the Yankees to finish 2nd, 1.3 wins behind Toronto.
Three of four FOX Sports commentators picked the Jays, and the other picked the Rays.
Three of the five writers for Beyond the Box Score picked Toronto. One picked the Rays. Someone named Matt O'Halloran picked the Red Sox (He starts his paragraph with "This may be a homer pick, but..." LOL).
Anyway, I was surprised, too. Just goes to show you: Sometimes the dark horse is dark for a reason. In this case the reason was that their pitching was really mediocre.
Now imagine if they finally won a World Series - wouldn't that be something? America would swoon with joy at the Yankees ending their desertification-process-of-the-Sahara-some-5000-years-back-level drought of an astounding, glacial timeframe - nay, cosmic timeframe - of 13 years!
I’m a Red Sawx fan ... all we have going for us right now is Yankee snark!
For the movie, I see Michael Cera as Aaron Judge.
The Rock?!
I get that’s it’s sarcastic, Joe, but jealousy and bitterness don’t become you. You are better than this.
Next Week: The downtrodden Dodgers fly under the radar, defy all odds and sneak into the playoffs.
Looks like Ben Affleck subbed for Joe on this one. Was it just a tear or two or were the tears flowing freely?
Thanks, Joe. I've always had great empathy for the Yankees. And their fans, always humble in defeat yet ever faithful.
More and more, people are saying that twitter user HorsefacePakusa should get some form of credit or tip of the cap for replying to Joe's tweet last night with this exact phrase.