Monday, September 30, 2024

Yanks finish with 94 wins. Rockstar Gary Frenay, take a bow!


Dateline: Syracuse - Baseball oracle Gary Frenay has won the IT IS HIGH 2024 Yankee Sayer of Sooth Regular Season Victories Award. 

In a daring preseason prediction, rendered before March 31, Frenay - (a Syracuse music legend whose band The Flashcubes is in the Power Pop Hall of Fame) -nailed it: 94 wins, dead perfect. 

As a result, he is now also inducted into the prestigious IT IT HIGH Readers Hall of Fame, with his name inscribed into IT IS HIGH Monument Park.  

(For the record, yours truly in March anticipated a measly 86 victories, Stang ridiculously projected 103 wins, and the renowned author HossClarke66 proved to be the biggest Negative Nelly in our entire brood, predicting a mere 69 wins.) 

As for tie-breakers, Parson Tom won the GAMES WON BY CARLOS RODON door prize category, predicting 16. (By the way, Rodon finished with a record of 16-9. If you didn't watch him all season, you'd think he had a great year.) And Carl J. Weitz and Above Average's Cat tied with projections of 41 HRs by Juan Soto (who, if you happened to watch him all season, you knew he had a great year.)

Here are your projections, delivered before March 31. Read them and weep celebrate.

 IT IS HIGH             Yank            Wins by               HRs by

Commenter       team wins   Carlos Rodon    Juan Soto

"I'll Have What They're Drinking" Group
Stang                         103                      28                    73
RtotheE                      97                      10                    36
PgPick                        95                       12                    42
GARY FRENAY         94                      10                    33
JM                                 93                        7                     47
Platoni                        93                      11                      39
Mattingly's
Mustache                   93                       9                     37
Doug K                        92                        9                     48
Parson Tom              92                      16                     38

The "Make it a Double" Group

Kevin                           91                       14                     43
Above Average        90                       12                     45
Jaraxle                        90                       11                      42
Vampifella                90                        6                     40
Hinkey Haines        89                       11                      31
Ken of Brooklyn     88                         8                     37
Joe of AZ                    88                         8                     44
Carl J. Weitz             88                         9                     41
Daveyhead               88                       10                      51
Ranger _lp               87                         8                     37
Above Average's 
Cat                                87                       10                     41
Lieber                         86                         9                     15
El Duque                    86                       10                     35
Mildred Lopez         86                       10                    29
Doctor T                     86                        8                     42
Pocono Steve           85                         7                     40
Publius                       85                         9                     33
BTR999                     85                         9                    35

The "I'm Feeling a Bit Queasy" Group
Acrilly                         84                         6                    44
Scottish
Yankee Fan
               83                         6                     27
Celerino Sanchez   83                         8                     34
Alphonso                   82                         4                     27
Rufus T Firefly        82                         3                     35

The "Somebody Get a Mop" Group
Bern Baby Bern       81                        14                    38
Dick Allen                 80                          9                    54
Hammer of God     80                          8                    36
Copelius                     79                          7                    52
13 Bit                            72                          7                    37
BASEBALL REFERENCE                71 wins 
HoraceClarke66     69                           5                   33

The Yankees won't play again until Saturday, Oct 5, when they face the winner of the Baltimore/Kansas City three-game series. 

Whomever we play, we'll face a five-game series, with Gerrit Cole pitching Game One at home. With luck, whomever we face will have burned out their pitching staff with a few extra-inning marathons. Let's hope for shutouts, with hitters in deep dark slumps. 

We'll be without Anthony Rizzo, a dirty trick by the juju gods. I'm not sure Ben Rice - 0-for-3 with 2 Ks yesterday - looks ready. Apparently, DJ LeMahieu hasn't heeled, which means - well - Oswaldo? Can we bring back J.D. Davis? What about that kid in Scranton, TJ Rumfield, who finished at .292, 15 HRs and 71 RBIs, and he's supposed to be great defensively? 

It might have been nice to give him a shot this season, eh? Maybe next March, to be cruel, we'll put him in a tie-breaker prediction category. 

24 comments:

  1. Missed it by that much. One lousy win.

    I predicted 7 wins for Rodent and I defend that prediction, since it felt like he won 7 games even though he won 16.

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  2. 94 - 72 = 22, which equals Caitlin Clark. Let me tell you, those 22 wins are FAKE WINS, not real, people, move right along here. I'm the official winner and I want you all to stop this QANON-level conspiracy to deny me my place in the IT IS HIGH MONUMENT PARK IIHMP. I'm almost ready to lay down my "guaranteed accurate" 2025 predictions, but I'll wait until Christmas. The hot stove season will have no effect on my accuracy. Okay, it's time to go huff some glue in the broom closet, then get back to my home room.

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  3. Allow me please to clarify that THE Cat who correctly predicted the number of Soto HRs (along with Connecticut Carl) is Above Average’s Cat, aka MY Cat, Oliver Tiberius Cat. As a reward he will be featured in tomorrow’s Haiku.

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  4. Why is it that I have a feeling (of dread) that "Yanks Finish With 94 Wins" is the headline that will be written AGAIN in about a week or so....?

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  5. Duly noted, AA. And I hope your cat does not get eaten.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, E.D.!

      Oliver Tiberius asked me to share the following with you: “I am keenly aware of the perils of contemporary life, especially how the easily manipulated and controlled humans respond to the sensational narratives cobbled together by idiots hellbent on seizing power during such an important election cycle. I will endeavor to continue to live a long and healthy life, Sir. In these uncertain times I wish the best to you and your family. May the kibble rain down and provide you and your family a healthy and prosperous holiday season. Go Yankees! Thank You”

      Delete
    2. As opposed to Marie Provost, who was partially eaten by her dog after she died alone and forgotten. Took some time before anyone realized anything. Immortalized in song by Nick Lowe on his Jesus of Cool LP (released in America as Pure Pop for Now People, because Jesus and Americans a lot like Muslims and images of the Prophet).

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  6. Wise prognosticators await my predictions so they can go the other way. I was off by a collective total of 22, which equals Caitlin Clark, Juan Soto, and the 22 wins Bitty referenced above. Coincidence? I think not. There is obviously a conspiracy afoot here.

    I was going to write about Cabrera at 1B, but somehow I wrote Cepeda instead.
    I wish we could write him in the lineup Saturday.

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  7. AA - I love cats, but would never believe one. They are provocateurs and agents of chaos. I only believe dogs.

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  8. https://affinitynumerology.com/number-meanings/number-94-meaning.php

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    Replies
    1. I don't think the 2024 Yankees bettered the human condition. Just imo.

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  9. I missed the Master's call for Grisham's home run. Anyone know what it was?

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  10. Hey, hey, hey! We don't need upstate rock stars stepping in here and stealing our shots at immortality!

    Oh, all right, congratulations, guitar boy. And 999, I hear ya. It's like my wife, who INVARIABLY turns the wrong way when emerging from any subway station. It's a wrong sense of direction so unerring that it really qualifies as a good sense of direction.

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    Replies
    1. You wife doesn't have relatives in Schenectady, does she? My sense of direction is so bad I can't find my way out of a doctor's office from the examination room sometimes.

      Delete
  11. So...predictions for the postseason?

    In the AL, I go with Baltimore over KC in 3; Houston over Detroit in 3; Houston over Cleveland in 4; Baltimore over your New York Yankees in 5; and Houston over Baltimore in 7.

    I'll give you the NL once the Mets decide if they want to be in it.

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  12. And yes, T.J. Rumfield could and should have been on the Yankees since at least Sept. 1. Hell, he could and should have been on the team since Rizzo went down and Ben Rice went stale.

    Rizzo is yet another Yankee who is/was constantly injured. But once again, Hal & Pal did nothing much to prepare for that. They give me a pain.

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  13. Side note: the Braves are the current home of Gio Urshela, who will be playing in the double header today. The Mets are trotting out Sevvy to start Game 1, I think.

    They could both make the playoffs with a split. A little collusion would seal the deal. Whoever wins the first game is in, so why should they field their A team in the second? Which, of course, makes it easier for the other team to win that game and also get in.

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  14. Yanks brought in Andy Pettitte to be The Pitching Shrink for Carlos Rodon, which I didn't see coming. That explains why he doubled our win prediction. As to why they didn't just make Pettitte (or someone similar) the new pitching coach, well, this is Yankee Wonderland. Everything is back-ass-wards here. Smoking catepillars, Cheshire Cat dissolving into thin air, White Rabbit with a clock around its neck, White Knight talking backwards, and the Red Queen "Off with the head!" We've got it all here.

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  15. Whoever the Yankees play next, whether Baltimore or K.C., it's gonna be a real big pain in the ass. Yankees will have ZERO chance of beating the Orioles. That's been proven this entire year. They have a small chance against the Royals, but Yankee killers like Salvador Perez beg to differ. Either way, I think the Yankees get swept broom clean. Be surprised if they win one solitary fucking game.

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  16. BTW, did everyone catch how Rodon claimed his participation trophy after his final start? "I went out there and I competed every day this year ... I'm very proud of that...." (I paraphrase, of course, but that's the gist of it.)

    Wow, great Yankee winners like Joe DiMaggio must be rollin' over in their graves. If Rodon said that to Joe D's face, I think Joe would knife him in the locker room, or at least punch him in the face.

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    Replies
    1. He competed. Little League Participation Trophy.

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  17. And after the press conference and his magnificent speech, word has it that Rodon took out a mannikin's hand from his pocket and proceeded to pat himself on the back and butt with it. Finally, he took out a tiny brown Teddy Bear from his other pocket and announced that his smiling friend "Little Buddy" should get much of the credit for his success this year.

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  18. I am truly humbled. To have made a lucky guess, and snagged this dubious crown from all those on here who clearly know WAY more than me. Wow! But hey, I'll take it. Go Bombers!

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  19. And...Pete Rose is dead, age 83. RIP—but I always thought he was a jerk.

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