Important Update: you don't need a Gmail account, just a Google account. Once you have that you can email us from whatever address you want.
Yeah, they're finally back. And with a twist! Or with several twists, actually, some of them more exciting than others.
Many of you may remember last year's series of projections (here's an example), the results of which are posted in comparison to those of other major forecasters in the Community Projections section along the left-hand menu. Those were good; these will be better.
Why is that, exactly? Because, as you may have read already, this time around we're going to be joining forces with USSM in an effort to substantially increase the sample size of data input from knowledgeable readers. The more people, the better the projection (at least in theory), and this year we're looking for at least a five- or ten-fold increase in participation. So, yay.
Here's another difference - due to the expected reader response, we've decided to go ahead and use Google Spreadsheets to collect data for the project, since none of us want to sit down and manually insert hundreds or thousands of projections into an Excel file. This is mildly annoying for two reasons: one, you need to sign up for a Google account in order to be able to edit Google files, and two, you need to send us an email so that we can add you to the list of acceptable collaborators. Of course, you should already have a Google account anyway, since Google is totally awesome, but still.
The final change is that instead of collecting BA/OBP/SLG lines for hitters and FIP/IP numbers for pitchers, we're going to be looking for counting stats instead so that we can ideally put together some sort of sum total projection at the end (we'll explain that better when the time comes). Here are the categories that'll be listed on the spreadsheets:
Hitters: AB, H, 2B, 3B, HR, BB, HBP, K
Pitchers: IP, H, 2B, 3B, HR, BB, HBP, K
BA, OBP, SLG, ERA, and FIP will be automatically calculated so you can sort of double-check your work and make sure it's sensible. This is going to take a little more time than last year's, but in the end it's also going to be better.
Community projections are going to kick off with Kenji Johjima on Monday, and then we'll work our way around the roster every other day or so for the next few months until we're through. So sign up now and don't get left behind.
In short:
(1) Sign up for a Google account
(2) Send an email to communityprojections@gmail.com
(3) Check your email every other day or so - beginning on Monday - to get a link to the current spreadsheet
(4) Open the file and start guesstimating. They'll auto-save, so don't worry about any of that kind of stuff.
Here's to a good series of projections. So sign up! Right the hell now.