The United States of Esoterica

Winner gets a shout out on BoA:Audio, Season 5 in November and bragging rights to being the 2009 "binnall league" Champion.

Deadline to enter is Sunday, April 12th, 2009. (Extended one week for any late-comers who decide to join up after hearing the Baseball Special)

Guests featured on the BoA:Audio Baseball Special will also be participating. Their picks will be posted here after the episode airs. In order to prevent any influence by the guests, my picks have already been made and are posted further down in this thread.

Rules: Pick the division winners, league and World Series champions. Most correct predictions wins. No points for transposed picks (i.e. if Yankees win Wildcard and you picked them to win the AL East, you don't get credit) also known as the "Kimball rule."

My picks ...

I'm going to be different this season.

AL East Champs : Yankees
AL Central Champs : White Sox
AL West Champs : Texas Rangers
AL Wildcard : Red Sox

NL East Champs : NY Mets
NL Central Champs : Milwaukee Brewers
NL West Champs : LA Dodgers
NL Wildcard : Philadelphia Phillies

AL Champion : Yankees over White Sox
NL Champion : Mets over Brewers

World Series Champion : Yankees

Your pick of the Brewers really surprises me, since they lost their top two pitchers that got them into the post-season and the Cubbies still look strong.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rangers pull off the upset in the NL West. It does look like an open division.

I'm sitting on Dolan, Kimball, and Coleman's picks. I'll post them next weekend, once we have the special posted.

I love the infield and I think their young pitchers will come trhough for them until they can make a trade for a ace down the stretch come playoff time

But the big question is ... what kind of a world are we living in when binnall picks the Tigers to win the AL central, but Motown's own RSS opts for the White Sox?

Ahh, a world where RSS doesn't believe in their catcher, their shortstop, their closer, their bullpen in general, or their supposed ace who was horrible last season.

I do however believe in Jim Leyland. And in case this is his last season, I'm going to cherish the time remaining.

In preparation for his impending appearance on the 3rd annual BoA:Audio Baseball Special, Loren Coleman has posted a piece entitled Masonic Origins of Baseball @ the Copycat Effect blog. Fascinating stuff and definitely something I'll try and discuss with him today when we tape the interview. You can find the post here: http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2009/03/masonbb.html

Also, Loren posted his 2009 predictions in the post, so I'll forgo the surprise and post them in the official thread as well ...

Predictions sent in by my brother, James Binnall ...

AL East Champs : Red Sox
AL Central Champs : White Sox
AL West Champs : Angles
AL Wildcard : Yankees

NL East Champs : Phillies
NL Central Champs : Cardinals
NL West Champs: Dodgers
NL Wildcard : Cubs

AL Champion : White Sox
NL Champion : Cardinals

World Series Champion : Cardinals

I think the Cards are going to surprise a lot of people since they aren't having to worry about Mulder and Isringhausen. While they don't have the best rotation, they do have Carpenter who is one of the best in the NL and can help with the younger guys on the staff.

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST YANKEES
AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL INDIANS
AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST ANGELS
WILD CARD RED SOX

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST PHILLIES
NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL CUBS
NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST DIAMONDBACKS
WILD CARD CARDINALS

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPS YANKEES
NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPS PHILLIES

YANKEES WORLD CHAMPIONS 2009

I agree that the Cardinals are a dangerous under-the-radar team this year. They are like the NL version of the Twins, always making a lot out of a little.

Welcome aboard, MYSTERYMAN. Thanks for joining us in the contest this year.

For those wondering how the "experts" feel, ESPN has just posted the predictions from their baseball staff ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview09/news/story?page=09expertpicks

Amongst the experts predictions for the World Series winner, six picked the Red Sox, five picked Tampa Bay, the Yankees & Cubs each got three votes, and the Twins, Cardinals, and Mets all got one vote.

I'll post the 2009 predictions from our esoteric all stars momentarily. We'll also be extending the deadline to enter by one week, for any stragglers who may decide to join us after hearing the Baseball Special.

Here they are, the official picks of all the guests for the 3rd Annual BoA:Audio Baseball Special.

Picks can be viewed in chat form here: http://www.binnallofamerica.com/2009bspicks.html

Richard Dolan ::




Loren Coleman ::




Paul Kimball ::




Adam Gorightly ::




Greg Bishop ::

AL East Champs : Red Sox
AL Central Champs : Twins
AL West Champs : Diamondbacks
AL Wildcard : Yankees

NL East Champs : Mets
NL Central Champs : Cardinals
NL West Champs : Dodgers
NL Wildcard : Marlins

AL Champion : Red Sox
NL Champion : Mets

World Series Champion : Red Sox