Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Contest Results
I’m declaring a winner! The 2016 Over/Under contest was stranger than ever before, but we will show you the results and put a wrap on it this morning.
It’s the Atlanta Braves‘ fault, of course.
The contest questions had answers that came out just about right, but only after a tumultuous, tortuous season that ultimately made most of us happy to finish… 68-93.
To repeat from yesterday, the goal for setting the answers up was to try and guess points at which participants would be 50% on one side and 50% on the other. That part turned out to be a tough chore, as you’ll see.
But let’s see how this went down…
Team Questions
T1: How many games will the Braves win?
The correct answer was 69 or fewer – an option selected by only 25.7% of respondents. Frankly, I’m glad that most were more optimistic. But over that last 2 week stretch, 70 seemed almost attainable!
>> Our winner did not get this one correct… one of only 2 incorrect answers out of the 15 questions.
T2: How many players on the Opening Day 25-man roster will also be on the 25-man list on August 31st
Again, a definite minority got this right: 28.7% guessed 17 or better… which was a rough question since that number was exactly 17.
T3: Total team stolen bases (was 69 in 2015).
The right answer was “79 or fewer” with 75 being the actual number. 43.4% got this right… and as I suggested yesterday, I think Replay Review played a big factor in keeping this from being right at that 79/80 point.
T4: Total Team Runs Scored in 2016.
The Braves put 76 more runs on the board in 2016 than 2015 – and of course much of that increase came in the season’s second half. 77.9% of you thought (correctly) that they’d break the 600 mark. That looked in danger early on, but the final tally was 649.
T5: How many International free agents will be signed between July 2nd and October 1st?
We knew back in the Spring that the Braves intended to go big and bust the budget Internationally. The question was just ‘how big’? I feel comfortable in declaring that the team signed 16 sixteen-year-olds this Summer (with the explanatory note from yesterday).
That 16th signee flipped the answer to this question: only 21.3% guessed that the Braves would sign this many players – but congratulations to Gordon Blakeley and his staff for digging hard and landing an impressive array of talent.
>> This was the only other question that our winner missed!