Thoughts on What We Learned This Year

Now that the Yankees have won the World Series, let's take a look back at what we've learned looking back at the entire year.

1.) Money is a huge advantage in the game right now. In a year where dozens of teams expressed concern over the economy, the Yankees spent, spent, spent. They acquired the best starting pitcher, the best hitter, and the 2nd best starting pitcher in last year's free agent market (although A.J. Burnett isn't exactly a stellar pitcher. He's good, but he was closer to the rest of the pack of free agent hurlers then he was to CC Sabathia).

2.) Logic and reason have very little place in predicting how the baseball season plays out. Logic said the Rockies were the best team entering the NL playoffs. Huston Street turns into Luis Ayala, and all of a sudden the Rockies lose to the Phillies. Logic said the Cubs were virtually the same team as last year, and then everyone except Derrek Lee essentially forgot how to hit. The Mets fix the one reason they fell short the year before, by adding not one, but two closers, and then end up with almost the entire payroll on the disabled list. The Tampa Bay Rays change almost nothing from the year before, where they were clearly the most talented team in the league, but their pitching is surprisingly inconsistent all year and they fail to get back to the playoffs.

3.) Jeffrey Loria's an idiot. Joe Girardi is a terriffic manager, and Loria should be kicking himself for firing him. All of his teams overachieve. This Yankees team did not have the best starting pitchers, it didn't have the best bullpen (Rivera's only one guy), and their offensive dominance was clearly a result of the field they played on. He got the Yankees to play loose (Nick Swisher might be team MVP there, and A.J. Burnett also helped in that department). Hell he even got A-Rod playing like Alex Rodriguez in the postseason.

4.) Cliff Lee might be the best pitcher in baseball. Or at least top 5.

5.) Mark Teixeira is an incredible player. Bobby Cox didn't like him. Mike Scioscia didn't like him. Thought he was more a stat machine than an impact player. Good thing the Steinbrenners didn't listen.

6.) The Phillies aren't built to beat AL teams. They wouldn't win any of AL divisions. They don't play NL ball, evident from everything from their inability to steal beyond two guys, their lack of depth, their poor bullpen, their starting pitchers not having great raw stuff (Cliff Lee being the exception, and Hamels is ordinary with out the curve), and their necessity to play on raw emotion. They play AL ball in a league which they can easily beat up on weaker clubs. But in the end, they don't match up well with the great NL teams. The should have lost to the Rockies, and they would have lost to the Cardinals, they luckily got to face a Dodgers team that wasn't that good, and when they ran out of luck against the Yankees, well we all saw what happened.

7.) The Pirates have no idea how to win. They just don't know what they're doing. They've successfully gathered many of the best prospects from 2006, ones that haven't exactly made a big splash in the bigs thus far.

8.) Mets fans are destined to suffer.

9.) Say what you want about Jeter's fielding, but he doesn't let that carry over to his hitting.

Thoughts on poor predictions

Honestly, when I predicted my playoff choices, I felt pretty damn confident. I knew they weren't going to be perfect, but never in my mind was I thinking that I'd only correctly predict one of the division series winners (Yankees swept Twins, which I did predict).

But the Phillies got a few lucky breaks in Game 3, and then Huston Street reverted to 2008 form and looked more like Brad Lidge than Brad Lidge has. Every Rockie did what they needed to do except Street. He took 2 of the 3 losses, blew one save, and quite frankly lost the Rockies the series.

The Dodgers starters proved up to snuff, and showed some late game magic to beat St. Louis in both games started by Carpenter and Wainwright, which is impossible to predict. Maybe they have the drive and magic to take it all.

And the Angels swept the Sox in what I called the most evenly matched division series this year. Well the Angels starters stepped up, slaying both Beckett and Lester. Lackey probably just added another year to his deal in free agency this offseason with that dominating start.

So far, heroes of the playoffs: Alex Rodriguez (playing A-rod like in the playoffs finally), and Cliff Lee (if they don't take Game 1, they probably lose this series). Honorable mention to Carlos Gonzalez, who played terrific despite the series loss, and John Lackey, for winning Game 1 when everyone thought Lester would make him look inferior as a pitcher.

Goats: Street, and Brian Duensing. I don't care that he was overmatched, if you expect to win, your Game 1 starter can't give up more earned runs than innings pitched.