MLB Trade Rumors’ annual free agent prediction contest drew 6,135 entries this year, and as we hit Christmas Day, the leaderboard informs us of a five-way tie for first place. Vivek Patel, Tom Diesman, Alan Capellan, Michael Scriven, and Ryan Ohara each have correctly picked seven of the 19 top-50 free agents who have signed to date, based on our original Top 50 Free Agents list published on November 6. The leaders’ .368 average on their picks is sure to drop as the winter continues, yet there’s a chance the 2023-24 champ can remain ahead of last year’s pace, set by winner Steve Sacks and his .295 (13 of 44) average.
Thirty-nine entries are in a tie for sixth place, right behind the leaders with a .316 (6-for-19) average. This group includes MLBTR’s own Leo Morgenstern, who has burst onto the scene in his rookie year to thus far control the sub-contest between our site’s staffers. Morgenstern’s Julio Rodriguez-esque emergence has put him ahead Nick Deeds (4-for-19) and myself and Tim Dierkes (3-for-19).
I searched my legal name and my screen name and got a blank screen. Was I registered properly?
I remember when I signed up the software(?) was doing weird things.
Was it all for naught?
l
Yes I’ve definitely been more naughty then nice, but it’s not stoping me from wanting Jordan Montgomery back on the Yankees, for almost $195 million for 6 years. The Yankees should of never ever traded Monty in the lst place, I’ll never forget getting a player back in a walking boot. Smh. Another Cashman Classic. Ok time to bring Gumby back now.
*check that $192.5 million for 7 years for Monty.(27.5 million annually) I got the jet for him right here, this one has wings & wheels on it.(not like Ohtani’s jet)
I keep muting this fake Judge guy and all his alternate troll accounts he keeps making with different variations but it won’t let me mute him. So annoying. Fix your damn software MLBTR
Never mind. I had to enter my middle initial argh!
Ohtani might as well have been a free space
amk – Did you check out the Porsche he gave Joe Kelly’s wife?
Good thing Ohtani is on the same team as Joe, otherwise he’d be looking at one high and tight next season.
Fever, are you implying that Kelly’s wife has been quite “welcoming” to ohtani since joining the team, and/or Kelly didn’t only give ohtani his jersey number?
I’ve heard of college guys, especially in football, receiving benefits during recruiting, but, this would be a new one for the mlb level
GASox – It’s Christmas!! Haha!!
Actually knowing Joe, I was thinking he’s probably not thrilled that a teammate “outdid” him by giving his wife what could very well be the coolest and most expensive gift she received this holiday season. Ohtani kinda showed up Joe, ya know? $100K gifts tend to do that!
While the intentions were very honorable, I think it would have made more sense to give a gift to the both of them. Sure she made that great video, but he’s the one who gave the number – right?
I think the perfect response by Kelly would be if he made it his daily beater and drove it through LA every day. Anything less is a downgrade to his man card.
Alternative would be for Kelly to throw ohtani BP high and tight.
Bonus points to do both.
I feel like an idiot. I have 5 right and missed Ohtani. I thought he was going back to the Angels.
Yeah um about that I uh……
I’m reminded when thoughtsandprayers won the contest
Jeez just 3 correct, and one of them wasn’t Ohtani, I should have followed my brain and not my fanboy heart on that one lol
I picked Giants. Has to be one person who picked Ohtani going to the Blue Jays and felt like a baseball genius for a little bit.
I picked the Red Sox for Ohtani, because of their history of signing Japanese players and they had the money. So my pick was even worse in retrospect.
acoss – Nobody should beat themself up for missing Ohtani. The media made it seem like at least 9 different teams had a good chance of signing him, including the Red Sox. An argument could be made for each of the 9 teams.
Fever,
You’re right the media blew up the whole situation up, and a lot of misinformation was passed along as truth. But thank you for kind words!
Came across something odd while perusing the picks list…
Someone by the name Robert Morgan placed 4 different entries into the contest (while there is a very tiny chance that four different people with the same name happened to enter the contest, pretty sure it’s just the same guy)
What’s funny is 3 of the entries have zero correct and the other only has 1 right.
I myself only have 3 right on my lone ballot, but that still beats his total across 4.
Canuck – I’m just guessing here, but I think one entry is allowed per email address. So if Robert used 4 different emails, he could probably submit 4 different entries.
I’d like to know who the Corcoran guy is, never seen an article here with his name on it?
And why didn’t Tony participate?
I assumed the same about the emails. I wasn’t questioning the validity so much as just the notion of someone doing that and still almost completely striking out (thus far).
There is a Cliff Corcoran who wrote a bunch for Sports Illustrated up until the end of 2016, and also for the Athletic.
Here’s the blurb from the Athletic’s site:
Cliff Corcoran is a former lead baseball writer for SI.com. The co-author or editor of 13 baseball books, including seven Baseball Prospectus annuals, he has also written for USA Today, SB Nation, Sports on Earth, The Hardball Times, and Boston.com, among others. He can be seen as a semi-regular guest analyst on the MLB Network and heard slightly more often on The Infinite Inning podcast with Steven Goldman.
Canuck – Thank you, that is quite interesting!
Maybe he signed a one-day contract with MLBTR just to enter the contest as a staff member? Haha!
No, I remember his name on the list from last year.
Given his resume, I’m guessing he helps with analysis and research for the more in-depth articles they do.
Or he could just be a sounding board for Tim and the other guys.
1-for-19. Still good enough to play for the A’s.
I guessed right on Aaron Nola and it’s been downhill ever since. Maybe next year. Still one of the most fun baseball contests I can think of
16 – We’ve still got 31 more signings to go, way too soon to give up!