Introducing the 2012 Don't Kill the Mellinger Royals Over-Under Challenge
The Kansas City Star
ST. LOUIS — Today’s column is on the only thing many sports people seem to be talking about, or, at least, the only thing that doesn’t involve Tim Tebow:
Roger Goodell’s crusade against NFL violence being doomed because players and fans (us) want it that way. I do hope you’ll read it.
But the purpose of this blog post, while I wait to go cover Kansas in the Sweet 16 here, is to introduce the 2012 Don’t Kill the Mellinger Royals Over-Under.
For the uninitiated, we bring you various rough predictions regarding the upcoming season and you pick whether the actual total will me higher or lower.
Simple game, hopefully we’ll have fun. There will be a prize for the winner (I’m working on that), and a very nice guy named Drew has agreed to do the numbers crunching here.
A couple things to point out, and please follow these, because it’ll make things much easier for Drew:
all entries must be emailed to dontkillthemellinger@gmail.com by the first pitch of the season opener, which is 9:05 Kansas City time on Friday, April 6.
Drew is a student with a social life, so we’ll cap this at the first 100 entries. We will try to update this three times: shortly after the start of the season so you can see how many people went over and under in each category, at the All-Star break to see the top 10, and at the end of the year to crown a champion. And when I say “we will try,” I mean “Drew will try.”
put “Royals Over-Under” in the subject line, and the name of each category, followed by your choice of over or under. Example:
Wins: over
Royals All-Stars: under
…and so on.
at least for our purposes, over and under is literal. So with Duffy’s ERA, for instance, “under” means you think his ERA will be less than 4.85, and that you think Hosmer will hit fewer than 24 home runs.
the attendance will be used as the tiebreaker, if needed, and this isn’t Price Is Right, so you can go over. Closest wins.
all disputes (even mistakes by Drew or me) will be settled by Drew or me. Good thing is, we’re not jerks.
Here goes:
Wins: 77.5
Games within first place: 15
Royals selected as All-Stars: 1.5
Yuni Betancourt starts: 99.5
Ned Yost ejections: 2.5
Eric Hosmer home runs: 24
Alex Gordon OPS: .835
Jeff Francoeur on-base percentage: .319
Billy Butler extra-base hits: 63
Mike Moustakas batting average: .275
Mike Montgomery starts 12.5
Luke Hochevar wins: 10.5
Jonathan Sanchez walks: 85
Danny Duffy ERA: 4.85
Team saves: 33
Tiebreaker: guess the season home attendance total. If it helps, last year’s total was 1,724,450.
Tony Hansen
1 year, 1 month agoThe optimist in me… Wins: 92
Games within first place: 0
Royals selected as All-Stars: 3
Yuni Betancourt starts: 99
Ned Yost ejections: 2
Eric Hosmer home runs: 30
Alex Gordon OPS: .800
Jeff Francoeur on-base percentage: .400
Billy Butler extra-base hits: 63
Mike Moustakas batting average: .300
Mike Montgomery starts 5
Luke Hochevar wins: 15
Jonathan Sanchez walks: 85
Danny Duffy ERA: 4.25
Team saves: 40
Read more here: http://mellinger.kansascity.com/entries/introducing-2012-dont-kill-mellinger-royals-over-under-challenge/#storylink=cpy
Mark Peavy
1 year, 1 month agoWhat am I missing? Three months ago you wrote “84-78 looks perfectly logical.” Now, the over-under for wins is 77.5. You aren’t backing away from your prediction of 84 wins, are you?
As for today’s column, you said “the NFL’s culture is defined by violence, and we’re all complicit.” Who are “we?” More specifically, does “we” include sports writers and commentators? You explicitly mentioned Goodell, players, and fans, but you didn’t mention the people who make a living writing about the NFL’s culture of violence. Please feel free to share the complicity with those of us who are readers of the sports pages.
Sam Mellinger
1 year, 1 month agoI am backing away, Mark. When I was at spring training, I shaved a few wins off, was thinking more 81-82. Then the Perez and Soria injuries….
And, yes, I’m absolutely including sports writers, announcers, everyone in that. We’re all complicit.
So Watchawant
1 year, 1 month ago86-76. Mark it, Dude.