Let's take a look back to a few predictions that I had made prior to the season. Looks like when I am optimistic, I am overly so, but seem to be pessimisticly correct, when I want to be.
Five Players to Be Hopeful For
1. Lastings Milledge - Still hopeful, but not as hopeful as once was.
2. Bobby Crosby - I should have said hopeful that he would get traded/released as soon as possible.
3. Charlie Morton - Hopeful he could still throw a baseball after the season.
4. Evan Meek - On the money here. Meek, the All-Star, was solid all season in the bullpen.
5. Pedro Alvarez - He provides hope all the time, even with all the strikeouts.
Five Players to Be Concerned About
1. Jeff Clement - I still cannot believe that he was handed the starting job. Thankfully it was taken away in short order.
2. Zach Duke - With him about ready to be DFA'd this off-season, there was plenty of reason to be concerned.
3. Ronny Cedeno - For most of the season, it looked like he could be concern, but at some point he turned into a little more of a valulable player. He is not totally out of the woods yet, but looks like a slightly better ballplayer.
4. Brendan Donnelly - I had concerns about age and effectiveness and well those turned out to be true.
5. Garrett Jones - The team thinks he is a platoon player. His numbers seem to show that, but still good to have around.
Five Stories to Watch
1. Callups from Indy - Of course this was a nice stretch in May/June when these guys all came up.
2. Growth of the Team - The younger guys got a lot of playing time, but did the team grow? That remains to be seen.
3. Payroll - I had no idea that this would turn into a national story with the release of internal financial documents.
4. The Draft - I had written that the Bucs should take the best player and they did that, twice actually. The draft was a shining moment during the season.
5. The Steak - With the team falling off a cliff, it is not so much the streak but 100+ losses.
Five Predictions
1. The team will be better than many think. I had predicted 72 wins, that was entirely too optimistic.
2. Akinora Iwamura will resign with the Pirates. Again rosey colored glasses. Signing him longer term would have been a disaster.
3. Lastings Milledge will make people remember why he was such a highly thought of prospect. Still waiting for this to happen.
4. If available, the Pirates will take Bryce Harper. They never had a chance, but still nabbed the best guy on the board that remained.
5. Meaningful or at least somewhat meaningful baseball will be played after July in Pittsburgh. Hopefully this will happen next year.
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