Earlier this baseball season, I shared some predictions with a few friends via e-mail regarding how the respective rotations of the Red Sox and Yankees would fare. Looking back at what I said, I was on the money with a few of my forecasts, but way off on some others. Here's what I said about the Red Sox projected starting pitchers:

I think Schilling's going to have a big year, and be a major Cy Young contender.

Pedro's going to stress out Sox fans all year (and miss more starts than Kevin Brown), but still be very, very good.

Lowe, however, is going to prove that he's nothing more than an above average pitcher, as he was last year despite his 17 wins.

Wakefield will continue to be a solid, durable, flexible guy, nice to have at #4, but only above average as well. Let's not forget that he really didn't have that good a regular season last year, just a real good postseason (with the exception of one at-bat). 2002 was his best year since his first with the Sox.

Red Sox fans began salivating over Arroyo way prematurely. He's nothing more than a decent spot starter/long reliever for a playoff contender, or a #4 or #5 for a below average team. Kim, on the other hand, has a big upside, but a ten-cent head. He could be the best fifth starter in baseball, but come playoff time, he may not see any action.

Nevertheless, still probably the best Red Sox rotation in a long time.

Obviously, I was right on about Schilling. Thursday we'll find out if he wins the Cy Young. He'll probably fall short, as Johan Santana is more deserving, but he certainly had a big year and was a major contender for the award.

Martinez had his healthiest year, and made his most starts (33), since 1998. Kevin Brown had an injury plagued year, culminating in his wall punching incident, and only made 22 starts. So, I was way off on that part of the prediction, but otherwise, I couldn't have been more accurate in my assessment of how Pedro would fare. He had a very good year (16-9, 3.90 ERA, 227 K's), but was much more inconsistent than he'd been in previous years, including a sub-par month of September, which certainly had Sox fans worrying about him entering the playoffs.

Derek Lowe remains an enigma. His statistics (14-12, 5.42 ERA) certainly prove my point. In fact, the 5.42 ERA, and his baserunners per inning ratio of 1.61, seem to indicate that calling him above average was an overestimation of his ability. However, his clutch performances in the postseason whistle a different tune. The potential is certainly there, and the execution does not appear to be held back by an inability to handle the pressure, but the inconsistency is the reason he is still an unknown.

Wakefield again proved to be solid, durable, flexible, but most of all, inconsistent. Overall, basically an above average pitcher, period.

Arroyo is better than I gave him credit for. How good still remains to be seen, but he certainly proved himself to be a capable 4th or 5th starter for a championship ballclub. Nothing to scoff at there.

Kim...maybe he can play elsewhere, but he's done as far as the Red Sox are concerned.

Overall, my predictions for the Red Sox staff were pretty good. The Yankees staff is another story, but I'll get to that in my next post.