Reflecting on our 2023 season predictions

The 2023 MLB season is within the books, with the Texas Rangers taking down the Arizona Diamondbacks in 5 video games to win the World Sequence, marking the tip of baseball season in the USA. This season was nothing in need of a catastrophe for Kansas Metropolis because the Royals suffered one of many worst seasons in franchise historical past, ending with a paltry 56 wins. The staff has seen their profitable share decline annually since 2020, with the continued rebuild struggling to bear fruit.

Method again in March, when the climate was slowly warming and optimism permeated the air, we at Royals Evaluate joined the baseball media world in sharing our preseason predictions. Oftentimes, these predictions are made earlier than the season and shortly misplaced to the sands of time, by no means to be revisited. However at Royals Evaluate, we consider in accountability. Thus, let’s dive again in time to March 2023, when the writing employees in addition to the readers shared their season predictions. To judge how properly all people did, I’ve developed an arbitrary scoring system that I’ll clarify as we go. For the readers, I created a composite utilizing the most well-liked responses. Be happy to attain your self within the feedback should you bear in mind your explicit predictions. Let’s now discover out who wins the 2023 title of Most Correctest, beginning with…

Royals predictions

There have been solely two completely different solutions for finest Royals place participant and most of us nailed it. Witt gained this in a landslide, with no one else on the roster even inside shouting distance. Apologies to the Pasquantino-stans on the market, who may have anticipated his harm? One level for those who predicted Witt.

It comes as no shock that everyone whiffed on the perfect pitcher, given Ragans was not within the group till July. Even solely being with the staff for lower than half the season, Ragans nonetheless simply wins this one. The following finest was both Greinke (should you like bWAR) or Singer (fWAR), so I’ll credit score a half level to both of these.

All of us whiffed spectacularly on the staff’s file. Even essentially the most pessimistic amongst us was nonetheless off by 11 wins. The most typical reader reply was “70-74 wins”, so I break up the distinction and known as it 72. I’ll award Jacob a degree for being the closest, whereas giving myself a half level for second place. Subsequent yr I’m predicting someplace within the low 60s. Total, Jacob earned essentially the most factors within the Royals predictions part with 2.5.

American League Postseason

Our postseason predictions had been messy, to say the least. Solely one in all us had one in all Baltimore and Texas within the postseason, whereas all of us whiffed on New York and Seattle. For this part, I’ll award a degree for appropriately prognosticating a staff as a division winner or wild card, and a half level if the staff made the postseason however in a unique place than predicted. The order of untamed playing cards is irrelevant on this case. Shaun is the large winner on this part, nailing two division winners and two wild playing cards.

Nationwide League Postseason

Our Nationwide League predictions had been much more disastrous, largely because of San Diego, St. Louis, and New York all producing disappointing seasons. On the flip facet, none of us had Miami or Arizona within the postseason in any respect. Jeremy set the excessive rating on this spherical with two division winners and a wild card appropriate.

World Sequence

Most of our World Sequence picks tanked earlier than the postseason even began. The final hopes for anyone had been Philadelphia and Houston, who had been each one recreation away from a pennant however faltered in Sport Sevens. These picks had been a complete catastrophe so I’ll simply give half-points for those who have Houston and/or Philly enjoying of their league’s championship sequence.

American League Awards

That is the part the place the solutions are essentially the most diverse. I’ll award one level for appropriately selecting the winner and a half level for a selecting a top-3 finalist that didn’t win. Most of us appropriately picked Ohtani because the AL MVP, not a lot of a shock there. Our Cy Younger picks, nonetheless, had been remarkably poor. All of our picks both obtained harm (deGrom, Ohtani), regressed (Stop, Manoah), or did a little bit of each (McClanahan). Wonderful that no one picked Cole given his monitor file and the relative dearth of true aces on this league. So far as rookies, Henderson and Yoshida had been the highest picks. Yoshida had a disappointing marketing campaign, whereas Henderson left the remainder of the AL rookie class within the mud. The winners on this part are all of us that had the Shohei-Gunnar combo.

Nationwide League Awards

Except for Turner and Jeremy’s fascinating Harper prediction, all of those MVP picks lived as much as the billing. Acuña, Betts, Soto, and Riley all completed within the prime 10 within the NL in fWAR and the highest seven in voting. Acuña and Betts supplied equally compelling circumstances, ending neck and neck atop each the fWAR and bWAR leaderboards. Finally, the {hardware} went to Acuña. Our Cy Younger picks didn’t go as properly. Burnes had a strong season however was not Cy Younger caliber. Nola and Alcantara had been disappointing, whereas Verlander and Scherzer switched leagues midseason. At the least Strider had a powerful marketing campaign, although not sufficient to complete prime three within the voting. There have been solely three solutions for rookies and the chalk choose, Carroll, ran away with it. Senga had a strong season in his personal proper and earned down-ballot Cy Younger assist for it, whereas Walker gave again a lot of the runs he produced offensively along with his abysmal glovework within the outfield.

The Remaining Leaderboard

And the winner of Royals Evaluate’s 2023 most correctest is…..

Congratulations to myself and Alex Duvall on a tie. I promise that I devised the scoring methodology properly earlier than all the outcomes had been truly out, so I didn’t simply make it as much as profit myself. There’s no tiebreaker process so we’ll must accept a draw. In third place is you, the (composite) reader. Effectively completed reader! The utmost factors potential right here was 24, so this simply illustrates how tough it’s to foretell this sport. Did any of you handle to beat Alex and I’s 10.5 factors? Pontificate beneath!