SOXAPALOOZA 2005

As the clock at PatSox ticks down to Opening Day, InstantReplay is getting its sox on for the new season. Anyone in the DC area is welcome at InstantReplayCentral on Sunday to catch the game on ESPN. With cherry blossoms beginning to bloom in DC, it's time to bone up on America's Pastime. Here are some resources for the coming season:

• Red Sox schedule
• Red Sox roster (to which it looks like they're about to add Mike Myers)
• Diamond Angle's player-by-player preview
• SI's team-by-team profiles
• ESPN's featured search of "steriod jokes"

Not to be outdone by Thadeus, InstantReplay's own predictions for the 2005 season are as follows:

AL WEST	AL CENTRAL	AL EAST
Anaheim	Minnesota	Boston
Texas	Cleveland	New York (wild)
Oakland	Detroit	Baltimore
Seattle	Chicago	Tampa Bay
	Kansas City	Toronto
	AL Championship:	Boston over New York
NL WEST	NL CENTRAL	NL EAST
Los Angeles	St. Louis	Atlanta
Arizona	Chicago	New York (wild)
San Francisco	Pittsburgh	Florida
San Diego	Cincinatti	Philadelphia
Colorado	Houston	Washington
	Milwaukee
	NL Championship:	Los Angeles over Atlanta
	World Series:	Boston over Los Angeles

InstantReplay will stick with it's tradition of predicting some seemingly random Red Sox stats that will likely be key indicators of how well the Olde Towne Team fares. Please add your predictions for these same stats in the comments...

1. Number of games started by Jason Varitek: 132
2. Total home runs by "Manny Ortez": 78
3. Staff complete games: 5
4. Bellhorn's walk-to-strikeout ratio: 1 to 1.81
5. Record in one-run games: 19-16
6. Date that Kevin Youkilis is traded: July 28
7. Damon's pitches per plate appearance: 4.10
8. Number of players on post-season roster who are not on Opening Day roster or DL: 4

Post your predictions below!

UPDATE

Now that Blogger is working properly, I've given the blogroll its spring makeover.
New features: All-Baseball, Call of the Green Monster (aka "Call"), and Over the Monster
Returning feature: Soxaholix
Coming soon: Invincible Summer (aka post-metamorphosis "Bambino's Curse")

Please visit these fine purveyors of baseball and Red Sox knowledge.

Update II

Here are predictions made by commenters:

Thaddeus McMonster:
1. 144
2. 69
3. 10
4. 1 to 2
5. 24-14
6. Youkilis will not be traded.
7. 3.85
8. 3, one star (Ben Sheets, who will be the person with most of the complete games) and 2 random relief pitchers

Parker:
Number of games started by Jason Varitek: 130 (140 appearances)
Total home runs by "Manny Ortez": 81
Staff complete games: 6
Bellhorn's walk-to-strikeout ratio: 1 to 1.5
Record in one-run games: 21-11
Date that Hanley Ramirez is traded: July 28 (for ben sheets)
Damon's pitches per plate appearance: 3.8
Number of players on post-season roster who are not on Opening Day roster or DL: 4