AaronGleeman.com

*****A completely unrelated note*****

I get a lot of good emails from my readers and I really enjoy them.

Honestly, one of my favorite parts of each day is waking up and checking my mail to see what stuff my readers have sent.

But, I would like to get even more reader responses than I do now.

So, that means you (Yes, YOU!) should occasionally drop me an email or two.

It can be a comment or question about something I have said.

It can be a suggestion for a future topic.

It can be your opinion on something in the news.

It can be a story about something you want to share with me.

It can be whatever the heck you want.

But, don't be shy...send me an email.

It doesn't cost you anything and you'll probably get a nice, big, long response back from me.

On that note, I am officially starting the "Aaron's Baseball Blog Mailbag."

Yippee!!

Basically, you send me an email about something and once a week or once every couple weeks (I haven't decided which) I will devote an entry to all the mail I received.

If you send me a funny comment, I'll post it.

If you send me an interesting comment, I'll post it.

If you send me a question, I will attempt to answer it.

If you send me a possible topic idea, I'll use it.

You get the point.

Send me some emails people, it's fun!

Email me

Okay, on to the real stuff...

Diamond-Mind.com recently published an article examining the pre-season predictions of all the most important publications and well known writers.

Guys like Peter Gammons, Rob Neyer, Phil Rogers, Joe Sheehan, John Sickels and many more.

And publications/websites like Baseball Weekly, Baseball America, the Chicago Tribune, Sporting News, USA Today, etc.

Of the 45 people or organizations that the article calculated "accuracy scores" for, Tony DeMarco of MSNBC.com finished #1.

I have never even heard of Mr. DeMarco, but apparently he did a real nice job picking the standings before this season.

After I read this article, I suddenly remembered that I actually made predictions prior to the season and they were (supposedly) published somewhere!

See, this website is only like 4 months old, so it wasn't around when I made my pre-season predictions, but I was able to enter my opinions along with hundreds of other "Primates" over at BaseballPrimer.com.

After about 15 minutes of searching the Primer website, I finally stumbled upon my predictions.

Here they are:

AL East:

1) Yankees

2) Red Sox

3) Blue Jays

4) Orioles

5) Devil Rays

Hey now! A perfect score for me!

I somehow managed to predict all 5 spots in the exact order they ended up.

I've got to admit that the AL East was probably the easiest division to pick, as it featured (in terms of talent) 2 upper class teams, 1 middle class team and 2 lower class teams.

Anyway, a perfect score is a perfect score no matter what, right?

AL Central:

1) Twins

2) White Sox

3) Indians

4) Royals

5) Tigers

Guess what? Another perfect prediction!

I went 5 for 5 in both the AL East and AL Central.

AL West:

1) A's

2) Mariners

3) Rangers

4) Angels

Well, nobody is perfect, right?

I got the A's winning the division correct, but after that it wasn't so good.

I had the World Series Champions finishing in last place, although I don't think I was alone in predicting that.

I also didn't expect the Texas pitching staff to keep stinking as much as they did.

NL East:

1) Braves

2) Mets

3) Marlins

4) Phillies

5) Expos

Well, once again I got the division winner correct.

And, once again, I didn't get much else right.

"My" second place team (the Mets) finished in dead last, while my last place team (the Expos) finished in 2nd.

NL Central:

1) Astros

2) Cardinals

3) Cubs

4) Reds

5) Brewers

6) Pirates

This division was a real mess.

My #1 and #2 teams flip flopped in real life.

The Cubs were a lot worse than I thought they would be and the Pirates were a lot better.

NL West:

1) Giants

2) Diamondbacks

3) Padres

4) Rockies

5) Dodgers

Once again, my #1 and #2 teams flip flopped.

Other than, I got everything wrong.

Okay, so let's recap:

I got 4 out of the 6 division winners correct, including all 3 in the American League.

Overall, I don't think I did all that well.

If I calculate my "accuracy score" the same way the article did...

I get 0 points for the AL Central and AL East (remember, the lower the point total, the more accurate you were).

I get 6 points for the AL West, 10 for NL West, 12 for NL Central and a whopping 20 for the NL East.

For a grand total of...

48 points.

Where would that put me if I were included with the 45 people/places in the article?

I would have been tied for 16th place with Baseball America, the Chicago Tribune, David Schoenfield of ESPN.com, Rob Neyer, Sean McAdam of ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated and Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.

Not a bad group to be with!

My favorite magazine (Baseball America).

A major newspaper (ChiTown Trib).

The most prestigious sports magazine in the history of the world (Sports Illustrated).

And 4 ESPN.com guys, including one of my favorite writers, Rob Neyer.