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May 2nd: Welcome to the first edition of the 2011 Annual Baseball Predictions and Player Standings. We are underway right on time despite having to move to a new spreadsheet application this time around. We have 209 players in the game this year, down from 235 players in last year's game, including thirty-two players that are new to the game.

Nancy Jo Michael of Brea, CA is the current leader, three points ahead of Quinn Campuzano of Placentia, CA and four points ahead of Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA. Matthew was the leader when we started developing the math data and Nancy Jo, our 2006 winner, has lead since then.

Two of the early keys are Cleveland 1st in the AL Central and Colorado first in the NL West. Only two players, Quinn Campuzano (2) and Gail Lampson (10) have the Indians correct while thirty-five players have the Rockies in the NL West. Nearly everyone in the game has maximum score (31 pts) in the AL Central as a result having that division upside down. Only fourteen players (7%), five of the top ten, managed to beat that score. Meanwhile in the AL West ninety-six players, nearly half, have the division correct and a perfect score.

May 9th: Quinn Campuzano of Placentia, CA took over the lead last Friday and has now opened up an early and big eleven point lead over Chuck Averill of Ontario, CA and a twelve point lead over Todd Colegrove, our 2008 winner, of Churchville, NY. Quinn is is one of just two players to have picked the Indians first in the AL Central. We would not expect to see this big a lead until mid-season.

This week's scores are somewhat lower than a week ago and there has been a lot of player movement primarily as a result of the Giants sweeping the Rockies in San Francisco this weekend and closing to within one game of Colorado in the NL West and the Angels moving ahead of the Rangers in the AL West while the Rays pulled even with the the Yankees in the AL East.

May 16th: Quinn Campuzano of Placentia, CA continues to show us the way this time around. Quinn's lead swelled to fourteen points last Friday but this morning it is down to just six points over Gerry Bilek of Palos Park, IL and eleven points over John Wilford of Los Alamitos, CA. Quinn has also picked all six division leaders and currently has a perfect tie breaker.

Lots of changes in the current player standings as the AL East has tightened up while Detroit is currently on a seven game winning streak and has moved ahead of Kansas City in the AL Central. In the National League the Reds have overtaken the Cards and the Brewers swept the the Pirates in the NL Central while the Giants have moved ahead of the Rockies and the NL West. Meanwhile the Twins continue to fall back in the AL Central and the ALC now accounts for more than half (53%) of our total accumulated score to date. Not to worry though as it is still very early.

May 23rd: We have had a lot of player movement in the past week and a couple of new leaders. Our current leader is Jamie Gehrke a first time player from Kansas City. Jamie now leads Chuck Averill of Ontario, CA by four points and Pete Palmer of Hollis, NH, Gerry Bilek of Palos Park, IL and last year's winner, Audrey West of Montara, CA by eight points, while Pete holds a tie breaker lead over Gerry and Audrey.

Tony John of Kansas City was the leader last Friday. Jamie and Tony are playing partners. There are almost certainly a few lead changes and new leaders that we missed this week but I am only running the data in Fridays and Mondays.

May 30th: First time player, Jamie Gehrke of Kansas City continues to lead the pack and now holds a six point lead over Pete Palmer of Hollis, NH and an eight point lead over Hector Garcia of Yorba Linda, CA.

We now have consensus last place picks leading the AL Central and the NL West while another last place pick is challenging in the AL West. Is everyone ready to move on to 2012 or should we just hang in there and see out it turns out?

June 6th: Another week, another new leader. Pete Palmer of Hollis, NH has moved in front, barely, to become our sixth different leader and currently holds a tiebreaker lead over second year player, Travis Confer of Seattle and a one point lead over Lindy's Baseball Annual and last week's leader, Jamie Gehrke of Kansas City. With four players within a point of the lead and another 20 players within twenty points of the lead, we might expect to see lead changes on a daily basis, if only someone had the energy to develop daily standings- maybe in September.

June 13th: Another lead change over the weekend as Jamie Gehrke of Kansas City moved back in front and now holds a one point lead over Lindy's Baseball Annual and a two point lead over last week's leader, Pete Palmer of Hollis, NH. There are now eight players including two past winners within five points of the lead and another ten players and another past winner within ten points of the lead. This last group also includes a player that hasn't won in 51 attempts and hasn't been this close in a long time.

June 20th: Two more lead changes and another new leader this week. Dave Hatfield (4) of Pittsburgh, led briefly on Friday but Jamie Gehrke of Kansas City has regained the lead and is now three points on front of Caleb Whitaker of Custer MI, and Chad Sparling of Grand Rapids, MI.

Some notable changes in the league standings are having an affect on the player standings. In the AL Central the Twins have finally overtaken the Royals and Kansas City is about to become a factor, while in the NL East the Marlins have dropped 20 of their last 22 games and plunged into last place. Meanwhile, in the NL Central, Albert Pujols will be out for a month with a broken wrist and the Cardinals, currently tied for the lead appears ready to take a plunge as well.

June 27th: Not much to report this week as Jamie Gehrke of Kansas City has maintained his lead and in fact widened it some and now leads Chad Sparling of Grand Rapids, MI by nine points and Caleb Whitaker of Custer MI by 16 points.

Some of the keys are begining to take shape now. One surprising key is Pittsburgh 4th in the NL Central (they're actually 3rd as I write this) four games behind the Brewers and twelve games ahead on Houston in last place where the Pirates were projected to finish. Seven players, including our current top three picked the Pirates fourth. Other keys currently include Florida last (16) in the NL East, Milwaukee first (41) and Houston last (40) in the NL Central and Oakland last (14) in the AL west. Only one player has the D'backs as high as second in the NL West. I will begin to post and maintain the keys as of the All-Star Game in two weeks.

July 6th: We reached the half-way point of the season on Friday, July 1st, and welcomed a new leader as first time player, Chad Sparling of Grand Rapids, MI held a tie-breaker lead over last week's leader, Jamie Gehrke of Kansas City. By Monday Chad's lead had swelled to two points over 1985 winner, Warren Morris of Orange, CA, Dave Hatfield of Pittsburgh and Jamie Gehrke. Chad is our eighth different leader this year.

There are currently eleven players with ten points of the lead and then it begins to get congested as there are another 25 players that are within eleven to fifteen points of the lead.

As we approach the All-Star Break there are ties in two divisions of MLB, the Angels and Rangers in the AL West and the Brewers and Cardinals in the NL Central while the Phillies hold the biggest lead, four games in the NL East. Last place teams would appear at the moment to be more secure where five teams: Baltimore, Kansas City, Oakland, Florida and Houston trail their respective divisions by at least three games. The Astros who trail the NL Central by six games look like a good bet to continue to fade, Forty players have Houston last in the NLC.

I hope to have the CumStats for this season ready by the A-SB which means that I'd best get started on them as there isn't much time left.

July 11th- All-Star Break: Another week and another new leader as Warren Morris of Orange, CA now holds a tie-breaker lead over Dave Hatfield of Pittsburgh and four point lead over Rick Mize of Long Beach, CA. Warren won the game back in 1985 and his son, Pat, won two years ago.

The CumStats files have been updated and posted. The game keys file will take a little longer as I no longer maintain the common picks file that supported this activity.

July 18th: Not much change on the leader board as Warren Morris of Orange, CA remains out in front and now holds a one point lead over Dave Hatfield of Pittsburgh and two point lead over Rick Mize of Long Beach, CA.

I have added the the Keys to the game page. At this point in the season (ten weeks to go) last place teams are much more important than first place teams. This time I have included a combination (last listing) key- Baltimore, Kansas City and Houston, all last in their divisions. Thirteen players have all three correct. Most players have at least one correct but 37 do not have any and, for the moment at least, are in a world of hurt. This page should have been added last week but I forgot how to do it. After thinking about it for a few days, it finally came to me, and it only took a couple of hours to create. As it turns out the memory has a strange affect on some elderly folks. Perhaps it is time for this one to move on.

July 25th: Once again, not much change on the leader board but the leaders have opened up a little daylight among themselves and from the rest of the pack. Warren Morris of Orange, CA remains out in front and now holds a five point lead over Dave Hatfield of Pittsburgh and nine point lead over Rick Mize of Long Beach, CA. It wasn't that long ago that we had about twenty or more players within ten points of the lead. Today there are fourteen points separating first and fourth. But there are 22 players within ten points of fourth place.

No player standings next Monday as we will be on the road for a few days starting next Sunday. Might get something up by Friday or I might not.

August 8th: While I was away we had a couple of lead changes and another new leader. Randy Nichols of Santa Clarita, CA became our tenth different leader this year when he moved in front on August 3rd. Warren Morris of Orange, CA continues his quest to become the our second two time winner and regained the lead two days later. Warren now holds a two point lead over Hector Garcia of Yorba Linda, CA and four point lead over Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA. Nelson finished third back in 1978 but this is his first trip to the leader board since the game went on-line in 2000.

The player standings are rarely run on Wednesday but I had the league standings for August 3rd so I ran them. Otherwise we might have missed Randy's move altogether. Randy is one of nine players to have the new Combo Key correct and he made up 21 points on Warren in a two day period and jumped from 20th place all the way to first as all of Randy's team were going in the right direction.

Meanwhile there has been a changing of the guard at the back of the pack. Up until a week ago, first time player, Ted Carman of Las Vegas has had the last spot pretty much to himself but now he has some company.

The Combo Key has been revised to include Texas and Los Angeles in the AL West and dropping Kansas City. Nine players, all in the top sixty, have this combination correct including two of the top four players and, if it continues, it may produce a winner. Milwaukee and St Louis have also been included in the keys.

August 15th: Warren Morris of Orange, CA continues his quest to become the our second two time winner and now holds a two point lead over fellow Buckeye, Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA and six point lead over Randy Nichols of Santa Clarita, CA. I'm only guessing here but I'll bet that this is the first time that a pair of Buckeyes have held the top two spots since Nelson left Columbus nearly a half century ago.

August 16th: After fifty-one and three-quarter years of supreme effort he has, by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin, finally made it to the top. Because the Minnesota Twins are closer to the division lead in the ALC than the Cincinnati Redlegs are in the NLC, Nelson Slagle now finds himself at the top of the list and holds the narrowest of tie breaker leads over Warren Morris. Now lets see how long it lasts.

August 22nd: Another lead change and another new leader. Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA took a tie-breaker lead over former leader, Warren Morris of Orange, CA last Monday and has held a slim lead since then. Nelson now holds a one point lead over Warren and a five point lead over BoDog Sportsbook (odds). Nelson create our game in 1955 and has participated in it every year since then. This is his 52nd time around and the first time that he has ever been in front- well it's about time!

August 29th: Warren Morris of Orange, CA has regained the lead and now continues his quest to become the our second two time winner. Warren now holds a ten point lead over fellow Buckeye, Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA and twelve point lead over BoDog Sportsbook (odds). Today's run is our 39th this year. Warren first took the lead on July 8th, the 21st run, and has held the lead all but four times since then. His current ten point lead represents the largest lead that Warren has held. Four weeks to go folks.

September 5th (Labor Day): With just three weeks to go Warren Morris of Orange, CA has opened up an eighteen point lead on the rest of the field. Meanwhile the race for second place has tighten up and Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA now holds a one point lead over BoDog Sportsbook (odds) and Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA and six players are now within ten points of second place.

September 12th: Warren Morris of Orange, CA continues to maintain a double digit lead and, with just two weeks (17 days) to go, appears to be on his way to his second Annual Baseball Prediction title. Warren now leads Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA by seventeen points and Nelson Slagle of Westminster, CA by 24 points.

September 19th: With just ten days to go Warren Morris of Orange, CA continues to maintain his quest to become our second two time winner but he has given back most of his lead and now leads Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA by seven points and Alexis Hauck of Friday Harbor, WA by twelve points.

Alexis is making her first trip to the leader board in quite a while and she has an interesting combination. Alexis has New York in the AL East, Detroit in the AL Central and Milwaukee first and Houston last in the NL Central, all minority holdings. She also has Tampa Bay finishing ahead of Boston in the AL East where the Rays just took six of seven from the BoSox. She also has Detroit and Cleveland 1/2 in the AL Central. Alexis has made up 21 points on Warren in the past week and I like her chances.

September 26th: Another week and another lead change and this one comes very late in the game. With just three days/games left on the schedule, Alexis Hauck of Friday Harbor , WA, has moved to the front of the pack and now leads Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA by just two points and last week's leader Warren Morris of Orange, CA by just four points.

There are only three days left but this isn't over yet. While there are only a couple of differences between Matthew and Warren's picks Alexis has meaningful differences (keys) with the rest of the leaders in five divisions. Those keys were moving in Alexis' favor last week but she isn't home yet. Stay tuned as I will post on the leader board everyday this week.

September 27th: With just two days to go, Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA has taken a tie-breaker lead over Alexis Hauck of Friday Harbor, WA. Warren Morris of Orange, CA remains in contention, just two points back. Matthew was the leader when the spreadsheet was first completed in late April. We can expect a couple more changes at the top and perhaps even a one game playoff to decide one or both of the Wild Card winners.

September 28th: Another day, another lead change. More to follow. With just one day/game remaining in the regular season, Warren Morris of Orange, CA has retaken the lead and now hold a two point lead over Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA and an eight point lead over Alexis Hauck of Friday Harbor, WA.

We enter the final day of the season with a pair of teams tied for the Wild Card in both leagues. While Big Mo would seem to favor both the Cards and Rays there still exists the very strong possibility of a tie and one game playoff in one or both leagues. News at 11!!

Sepember 29th: It's all over but the shouting (and the weeping) as the four signature teams all continued their trend right into (and out of) the post season and there are no games today. Warren Morris of Orange, CA has become our second two time winner as he has rallied to finish four points ahead of Matthew Cataldo of Fontana, CA and eleven points ahead of, first time player, Paul Leoncavallo of Boston (what a sad place to be today).

Warren first took the lead on July 8th and led most of the way for the rest of the season. He held an eighteen point lead on Labor Day. Warren lost the lead three times to four different people but he was never more than four points behind or lower than third place in the player standings. This is Warren's 32nd year in the game since he first entered in 1978. He won the game in 1985 and has finished fifth twice. Warren was ninth last season and his son, Pat, won in 2009.