Pearls of Wisdom; Nuggets of Poop

Records are made to be broken. Promises are made to be kept. Herewith, the fulfillment of a promise to scavenge the last third of the 2013 blogging year for pearls of wisdom and nuggets of poop.

The review begins with this instructive assertion from May: Cleveland and Pittsburgh would both maintain their mojo and win 85 games, but let's not order any confetti for these perennial sad sacks. In fact, both teams kept their lightning bottled and played into October. So that one goes into the loss column. At the same time, the 85-win suggestion was reasonable; neither really had the talent for their final positions. As evidence, neither shapes up to repeat that performance despite their youth and the general trend towards assuming talented young squads will improve.

Put this caution from July in the win column: don't count on Hall of Famer Derek Jeter ever returning to star form. in fact, the post was pretty prescient about Jeter's immediate future, which amounted to zero. The same caveats are in order for the upcoming season.

The post about the Phillies a week later also puts Braindrizzling on the victory stand again, though it's a pretty hollow victory. Projecting trouble for the franchise in Philadelphia is as shocking as the troubles of a government website. Still, Ruben Amaro would have been well-served to have read the post and followed its recommendations. Alas for lovers of brothers, he didn't.

Complaining about All-Star selections is as easy and fulfilling as kicking newborn puppies, so you won't read much of that here. But the following statement got lost amid the minutae in this compilation of groovy mid-season observations:
 
Three-time All-Star Evan Longoria's .870 OPS and superb defense have been worth four wins already this year. He's not an All-Star. He wasn't even in the final fan vote. That's gonna look awfully silly in October.

Here's the October version: Longoria hit 34% above average with 32 homers and 42 doubles/triples, added superb defense for 6.3 wins against replacement and finished sixth in the MVP voting. Not an All-Star. Silly.

You might use the same word to describe this August post suggesting that despite the general conviction that the Braves were not designed for the playoffs, they could in fact make some noise in the post-season. Oh, they made noise all right: the thud of a boulder hitting a wall. They lost again in the first round to the Dodgers.

But if silly is the word of the day, consider the silliest idea of all: you're reading this dreck! I predict that you're a sucker. 

Right again!