Wall Street Journal Baseball Challenge and Responses

THE BASICS (point value in parentheses)
1. Which six teams will be division winners? (5 each)
2. Which two teams will win the wild cards? (5 each)
3. Which two teams will go to the World Series? (15 each)
4. Which team will win the World Series? (30)
5. Which team will have the best regular-season record? (10)
6. Which team will have the worst regular-season record? (10)
7. Who will win the AL and NL Cy Young awards? (10 each)
8. Who will win the AL and NL MVP awards? (10 each)
9. Who will win the AL and NL Rookie of the Year awards? (10 each)

TEAMS (all remaining questions 10 points each. All questions include regular-season games only.)
10. Which NL team will score the most runs? And which AL team? (5 points each)
11. Which NL team will give up the most runs? And which AL team? (5 points each)
12. Which team will have the most-improved record, measured in increase in total regular-season victories?
13. Which team will suffer the biggest decline, measured in decrease in total regular-season victories?
14. Rank these teams in order of regular-season wins, most to fewest: Nationals, Pirates, Orioles, Devil Rays, Royals.

INDIVIDUALS (Asterisk denotes partial credit will be given.)
15. Which manager will be first to no longer be managing his team (whether fired, retired, resigned or otherwise not managing) in 2008?
16. Who will be the highest-salaried player (based on 2008 salary) released or traded?
17. Which starting pitcher who’s changed teams (a group that includes Johan Santana and Dontrelle Willis) will earn the most wins?
18. Will anyone reach the 20-20-20-20 threshold (in doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases) that Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins reached last year? If yes, who?
19. How many home runs will Barry Bonds hit?*

WE’RE CURIOUS
20. Will average television ratings for the World Series go up or down from last year’s 10.6?

I’m going mostly chalk this year. Unlike most years, I see nothing wrong with a lot of the Conventional Wisdom. The big one for me is that the Reds are actually in the mix as a legitimate darkhorse in the NLC. I have to go for it.

1. Mets (to repeat—just kidding, he! He!), Reds, Rockies, BoTox, Tigers, Angels. Though I’m tempted to bail on LAA; eventually not getting past the first round will break a team.
2. Phillies, Yanks.
3. BoTox and Phillies. Reds contribute to the final outcome by eliminating the Mets in the first round for Phila and for the Griffer, probably in his last year in Cincy.
4. BoTox Dynasty, Phase I.
5. Mets. I’m looking for NY-Phila race to be a hot one with some 95 wins each and beat the NL Central teams up mercilessly. Boston and Yanks will run into some tougher opposition (TBR turns out to be a better idea than TBD, and the Rays will no longer obediently give each AL East bleeder 12 wins+ each. Orioles will now absorb that role.
6. A good question, indeed. I’ll go with Orioles, narrowly over the Twins and Pirates.
7. AL Cy Young: Mark Buehrle. NL Cy Young: Chris Young (PMar finishes second in the voting).
8. AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera. NL MVP: Jose Reyes (narrowly over Teixeira; Pujols plays about 100 games).
9. AL Rookie of the Year: At the risk of submitting a possibly illegal entry, Erick “Aqbar” Aybar. NL Rookie: Joey Votto.
10. Teams scoring the most-- NL: Brewers; AL: Yankees. Strangely, WSJ reverses league it asks for starting with this question. Please note for automated replies.
11. Give up the most—NL: Brewers (also). AL: Orioles.
12. Tampa Bay Rays. Give them a moment of glory!
13. Minnesota Twins.
14. Best to worst— Royals, Nationals, (F.D.) Rays, Pirates, Orioles.
15. First manager to go: Tony LaRussa (a guy can hope).
16. Highest-salaried player released or traded: Milton Bradley is a perennial choice.
17. “Which starting pitcher who’s changed teams (a group that includes Johan Santana and Dontrelle Willis) will earn the most wins?” Well, duh, Johan Santana.
18. No.
19. Bonds will hit four HR before his new indictment comes down; seven after. Total of 11.
20. Way, way up, as New York is reluctantly drawn into the Atlantic Seaboard drama of usedtobees Boston and Philadelphia. NL wins All-Star game (my most extreme prediction!) and Phillies lose game 7 at home.

I found the questions very pedestrian; not much imagination went into their framing this year.