2005 Baseball Review

Per tradition, InstantReplay will revisit our preseason baseball predictions, posted March 29th. On the standings: AL West - 2 for 4, including division leader AL Central - 2 for 5 AL East - 0 for 5, but we correctly predicted the two playoff teams NL West - 3 for 5 NL Central - 1 for 6, only St. Louis NL East - 3 for 5, including division leader And none of my four predicted teams has made it to the championship series. On the eight Red Sox stats predictions, Parker, Thaddeus and I each posted predictions. Here's the score: 1. Number of games started by Jason Varitek: 131; tie between Parker and I. 2. Total home runs by "Manny Ortez": 92; Parker was closest with just 81. 3. Staff complete games: 6; Parker nailed it. 4. Bellhorn's walk-to-strikeout ratio: 1 to 2.22; Thaddeus with 1 to 2. 5. Record in one-run games: 26-14; Thaddeus with 24-14. 6. Date that Kevin Youkilis is traded: None; Thaddeus got it most right. 7. Damon's pitches per plate appearance: 3.72; Parker gets it with 3.8. 8. Number of players on post-season roster who are not on Opening Day roster or DL: 5; tie between Parker and I. So Parker wins it - congrats! And for the Red Sox... how about next year? (Is that a good substitute for the old, discarded "wait till next year"?)