The results are in… Karen McCloskey is our 2013 MLB Predictions Pool winner! She is our ninth new champ in our contest’s nine-year existence; Karen also held or shared the lead in each of our September updates. Congratulations!
Here are the season category leaders, with bold indicating players we actually chose:
AL BA: Miguel Cabrera (8 entrants)
AL R: Mike Trout (14)
NL BA: Michael Cuddyer
NL HR: Pedro Alvarez, Paul Goldschmidt
NL RBI: Paul Goldschmidt
NL R: Matt Carpenter
NL SB: Eric Young Jr.
AL IP: James Shields (1)
AL W: Max Scherzer
AL ERA: Aníbal Sánchez
AL S: Jim Johnson (5)
NL IP: Adam Wainwright
NL W: Adam Wainwright, Jordan Zimmermann
NL ERA: Clayton Kershaw (12)
NL SO: Clayton Kershaw (12)
NL S: Craig Kimbrel (10)
NL HBP: Shin-Soo Choo
NL HBP: Charlie Morton
Some pool tidbits:
- Our average score of 3.05 pts is our highest since 2010. Ten entrants predicted at least four categories correctly, compared to seven entrants in 2012 and only two in 2011.
- Our 2013 entrants averaged less than 30 HBP for the first time in Predictions Pool history, breaking a five-year streak of 40+ HBP.
- Mike Levine earns our only “unique pick” this year, as the only entrant to pick James Shields for AL IP. Mike was also the only person to pick September call-up Billy Hamilton for NL SB, who stole 13 bases in as many games for the Cincinnati Reds. Spread that over a full season and Hamilton ’s 162 steals easily win the category.
- Karen is the first entrant since at least 2006 to lead in both our first and last official updates in a season.
We hope you had as much fun participating in this year’s pool as we did. Enjoy the playoffs, and congrats to Karen once more!
-Dan and Jud
