Hear ye, Hear ye! The Soothsayer has spoken!
That’s right! Bruce Norlander, who has been making predictions of APBA baseball cards for years, has released this year’s predictions. They’re not official of course but those familiar with Bruce know he gets it pretty close.
These days, Bruce is posting his grade predictions on his website Archrivals Baseball. Here are the direct links:
Bruce predicts Master Game pitching grades as well as strikeout and control ratings and MG Homerun ratings.
Of course, the first thing I’m looking at with these predictions are my Twin City Thunderchickens. I decided to compare Bruce’s with those done by Illowa APBA League commissioner Mike Bunch.
Hoping to find some differences between the two for a source of discussion, I found none. While they disagreed a bit on the strikeout ratings, Bruce and Mike agreed on all the pitchers’ letter grades for my team.
- Roark, T. B (Z)
- Strasburg, S. B (XY) (Z)
- Ryu, H. B (Y) (Z)
- Niese, J. B (Z)
- Bailey, H. C (Y)
- Papelbon, J. A* (X) (Z)
- Torres, A. B* (Y) (W)
Perhaps I’ll re-visit this later when the disk comes out. I have no real disagreements with any of these though Bruce’s prediction Roark to be a 14Z pains me. Gosh, one more point would be nice.
Thanks Bruce!
