The Year's Predictions and When I was Right.

Well, not bad for an arm chair baseball fan who got cut from his High School Team. (I didn't even get to play Junior Varsity!) Well, here's how my big predictions have broken down.

1) My beloved Sox will be plagued by pitching troubles this year.

I addressed it back in March 14, before the season started. At that time, my biggest concern was Curt Schilling, who was rehabbing from surgery at the time and David Wells, who has had lots of injuries in recent history.

These two were slated to be the aces of the team. As we saw, Curt Schilling never regained his form and missed much of the season before spending a short stint as closer then a mostly unsuccessful return to the rotation to finish 8-8 for the year.

The starting rotation and the bullpen struggled all year. In each half of the year, one pitcher pitched pretty well. In the first half it was Matt Clement until he got hit with a comebacker and never quite recovered. He said that he would change his mechanics in the offseason to prevent a repeated incident but I have a felling that his mechanics were on his mind the rest of the season. In the second half, Wells was pretty good but he struggled in the fist half. The Sox never had more than one consistent pitcher and the bullpen got tore up all year. And let's not even talk about Keith Foulke!

Prediction one: Dead on!

2) "This could be the Cardinals' year"

On June 9, I said that "this may be the Cardinals year" and called them "the team to beat this year." That was one of the few entries that anyone read and commented on at my Sox blog, mainly angry Cards fans commenting on other stuff I said.

Well, the cards did become the team to beat in the NL but it wasn't their year as we now know. Because the Astros climbed from 15 back into the wildcard slot, then beat the cards in the NLCS.

Prediction 2: Not quite. Dare I say...Wrong.

3) A White Sox/ Astros World Series

This prediction doesn't carry any real weight because I made it at the beginning of the playoffs when I knew who all the teams were. I also never wrote it down. So there. When people asked me who I thought would be there I said, "White Sox and Astros."

I temper the prediction by saying that the Astros were my "hopeful prediction." I wanted them there, thought they could be there but fully expected the Cardinals to be there. But hey, I said it so it looks like I'm not bad luck and also that I was right.

Prediction three: reluctantly correct

4) White Sox Win the Series Four Games to One.

I'm making this prediction now. This is going to be a sweeeeeeet pitcher's duel with each team having the best pitchers in the respective leagues. But the Astros have had problems with offensive production all year. I think the Astros squeak out a game against the White Sox but against the Sox good pitching, the Astros lumbering offense gets beat in five games.