Each Spring, the participants of the Annual Baseball Predictions game try to forecast the outcome of each of the divisions of Major League Baseball by predicting the order of finish for each team. These predictions are entered into an AppleWorks 6 spreadsheet where the status of the game is maintained throughout the season. The web site provides the status of the game for on-line users and this page defines the content of the web site and explains the content and purpose of each page. Pages for the current game are inactive until the game gets underway in late April and early May and first player standings are available in early-May. This year's game, 2013, is our 54th.

Current Player Standings: This page represents the current standings for this year's game. The standings include player location/source/publication for each player. Each player's score is given at the division level. The scoring of the game is based on the number of games each team is out of their projected place in the standings and is explained and illustrated in the Top 3 Players page. The Standings pages also show a tie-breaker for each player. The tie-breaker represents the total score for each player's projected division winners. This data represents the summary/recap level data from the primary spreadsheet that supports the game. This page and the next four pages are available soon after all data has been tested- early to mid-May. Player Standings are normally run on Mondays and Fridays and posted to the site by mid-day Monday (PDT). They may be run more frequently late in the season if the competition warrants it. The annual Final Standings are available on the website about ten days after the end of the season.

Current Game Log: This page represent a summary of the weekly players standings, lead changes and general data regarding player movement.

Game Status: This page is a running narrative of information regarding the progress of this year's game as it is being developed during March and April and is maintained until periodic standings become available in early May. If you haven't received the periodic player standings recently this might be a good place to find out why and when the data will be back on line.

Top 3 Players: This page shows the Major League standings and illustrates the player scoring as of the date of the current standings as well as listing the player picks for the top three players and their scores at the detail level. Actually, this is a look into details of the primary spreadsheet that supports the game. That spreadsheet includes a similar listing for each player as well as a summary/recap of all the players scores where the standings are sorted by tie-breaker and total score. It is important to note that the scoring of the game is based on the number of games that each team is out of it's predicted order of finish while the tie-breaker represents the games or points accumulated by each player's six project division leaders.

Leader Board: This page shows the top three players and their relative scores for selected standing runs along with the respective dates and run count. It includes all of this year's leaders and most of the lead changes along with a count for each category.

Keys: This page defines and lists significant keys to our performance in this year's game as of the date shown on the index page. Keys are based on the significant gaps in the current Major League standings and the Player Consensus and may also list players that have certain keys. This data is available after the All-Star Break.

All-Star Break Standings: This page is similar to the Current Standings and represent the player standings as of the All-Star Break. This page serves as a bench mark for the current season until the end of this year's game.

History of the Game: This page is a narrative describing how the game has grown and evolved during the 53 years (inactive for five years) since it's inception in 1955 through today's game as it is played out on the internet. This page also includes links to a set of data regarding a challenge that was made to the game's scoring method in July of 2008. This is the only time that anyone has ever challenged the scoring method of the game since it's inception.

Game Transition: A discussion of the changes in the player make-up and the current status of the game during the period since it went on-line in 2000.

Prior Winners: This page is a listing of the top three players and their scores for each of the 53 games played through 2012.

Cum Stats: These pages list the cumulative average statistics for currently active players who have participated for three or more years. It shows the number of years that each player has participated, the cum average percentage and the rank of the 160 active players that have played for three or more years through 2012. An additional page lists 205 recently active players that are not in this year's game. There is also a page that lists the year-by-year scoring of the Top 4 currently active players. There are hundreds of inactive players that have never been moved from the old data base. Following the game of 2009 Nelson Slagle did an analysis of the CumStat details and put together some interesting stats and information for the 50 Year Stats.

The Cum Stats pages also include a listing of each player's best prior finish, previously included with the All-Star Break standings. This feature was added in 1994 at the suggestion of Rick Mize. The best prior finish is a weighted value and is dependent upon the number of players in the game for a given year. For example, it is better to finish 20th against over 200 players than to finish 10th against less than 100 players. An example of how the Cum Stats are computed is shown here:

Dudley Michael of Brea, CA was the Cum Stats leader through the year 2000 and best illustrates the Cum Stats. He is currently 38th best (thru 2012) overall and 13th best among players with ten or more years. Check out Dudley's stats for 1995 and 1999. In 1999 he was one position higher than 1995 but his stats were nearly four points better because there were nearly 60 more players in 1999. A similar comparison can be made for 1994 and 1997 and the the years 1998 and 2003. Dudley has a twenty year average of 40.07%. Note that both the total players and the place or position have been adjusted by one (-1). That is because we do not compete against ourselves.

Here is another look at the detailed CumStats for two of our veteran players.

Player Consensus: This page is a recap of all the team-by-team player picks for the players for the current game, including the League Championship Series and World Series picks. The consensus does not include last year's Final Standings, this year's Spring Training standings, Simulations and Odds.

Archive: These pages include player standings and other related information for each of the ten years (2000 thru 2012) that the game has been on-line. There is also a page for the Early Years with links to the final player standings for each of the first forty years of the game including four old newspaper articles that referenced our game. These pages were added to the site during the last half of 2008.

Photo Gallery: This is a page of "thumb nail" photos with links to full size photos of some of the games players, including thirteen past winners. This data was been added to the site in December 2009 and has since grown to 47 pix. I will continue to add new photos as they become available.

Player Pick Forms: These pages are activated in February or March and are the forms that are used at the beginning of each year's game for submitting individual player predictions. The first is a printable form for those that wish send their picks via USPS or for retaining a copy of their own picks. The second is an interactive, user-friendly form for those that wish to prepare and e-mail their picks directly from the web site. The interactive form is the preferred method and requires that most fields be filled out before it can be e-mailed. The form was restored in 2007 after a one year absence due to the efforts of Atticus Ryan and Todd Slavinsky and their United Leagues Forum page. Another form is e-mailed to approximately 200 active and former on-line players prior to the beginning of each season. The forms remain active through the first week of April and then closed until the following season.