A new year dawns, and gloom and doom shall spare none! Take heed, Big Onionians, as the following shall come to pass, or so sayeth this fine Review of Sporting Events, Pertinent to the White Stockings Baseball Club and Non-Pertinent to Them Alike:
1. Attendance drops for both teams, by a lower percentage but a larger figure for the Cubs.
2. At least two big-name local sports media figures are out of a job by June.
3. At least three more are unemployed by December.
4. Carlos Quentin has a good season, but one also less impressive than his shortened 2008.
5. The Sox rotation, regardless of what they do about the #4 and #5 slots, will not be very good.
6. The White Sox will not lead the AL in home runs, due largely to continued decline in output from both Jim Thome and Paul Konerko – although six Sox players will still hit over 20 home runs.
7. Despite #5 and #6, the Sox will still contend in an AL Central weak even by the AL Central’s usually weak standards.
8. The Cubs are sold to the Tom Ricketts-led group, but not until after the end of the 2009 season.
9. Alexei Ramirez puts up an MVP-caliber season.
10. At least two of the Sox’ pre-Opening Day additions have abysmal seasons while a third offers tremendous hope for the future.
So what of it? We’ve been wrong before, but does that mean we will again? Actually, yes it does, and that’s why these types of columns are generally useless. But we’ve had our fun looking into the future and now it’s your turn: what do you see going down this year?
I’d like to add that we’ll be doing a 2009 season preview closer to Opening Day, so anything too specific might want to be held onto until then.
Pessimistic much? You give no hope, other than slim hopes of contending in a mediocre AL Central.
Thank you for nothing!
@Jeff: That sounds about right, but what can you do? The ALC’s only been good once (2006), and it’s not impossible for even this not that great Sox team to take it.
@Andrew: I disagree about Quentin. If he doesn’t bust himself up again, there’s no reason he can’t repeat or improve on last year – especially if (as you say) the ALC is going to be so lousy.
I also see the Sox signing a solid veteran fourth starter before the start of the season, and I really don’t see how any rotation under Don Cooper can’t be at least 3/5 good.
Prediction: June 27th, 2009, Milton Bradley attacks a heckling fan who has had too many to drink. At Comiskey. That fan is me.
Some of these predictions aren’t way off. WGN just announced the cubs will announce a new owner pretty soon. It’ll probably be the Ricketts group.
The rotation is probably going to falter through the beginning, and Ozzie will blow his lid again due to losing streaks
It’ll be a race at the beginning of the season, the Indians will be closer to contending, the Twins are going to be another pain in the ass
Fields is probably going to crap out and another unknown is going to get the chance to be a starter
1. I second Fields tanking, but I think the guy he is traded for becomes the one who will be a star down the stretch.
2. Ozzie isn’t fired even though on at least two occassions he deserves to be.
3. A major superstar comes to the central before the trade deadline – major, like Ichiro or some other player usually seen as untoucahble – the reason being they want to win and the central is still winnable by at least 3 teams in mid-July.