Opening Day Wishes

Here are some random things I'm hoping for this season:

1. That Jason Giambi has a great year. I didn't expect to, but I was rooting for him last night.
2. That Andruw Jones hits 50 homers and wins another Gold Glove.
3. That the White Sox are more competitive than I fear they will be this year.
4. That Juan Pierre steals 75 bases.
5. That Dontrelle Willis wins 15 games, hits three home runs, and is a legitimate pinch hitter for the Marlins when needed (hey - he had the highest average of all Marlins pinch hitters last year)
6. That Barry Bonds comes back earlier than most people think and gets at least thirty home runs this year.
7. That the financing for the new Marlins stadium doesn't go through.
8. That someone wakes up and decides to put this stadium funding in front of the people for a vote.
9. That if those two previous things don't happen, someone asks to see the justification for the numbers that are being bandied about.
10. That the Devil Rays finish higher than last place.
11. That the Devil Rays don't ruin Justin Upton.
12. That two Miami Hurricanes are taken in the first round of the MLB draft (Ryan Braun and Cesar Carillo) and that the Marlins or White Sox get at least one of them.
13. That the green seats they added at New Comiskey Park look as cool as I think they will
14. That the Nationals aren't ruined permanently from the ownership issues of the past few years (their international scouting department has been literally non-existent - down the road that means no more Orlando Cabrera's or Vladimir Guerrero's in the pipeline).
15. That the great division races that seem probable really shape up - particularly in the AL and NL East and West.
16. That the tight division races don't give us some flukey Wild Card team (i.e. the AL West and East teams beat each other up so much that a less deserving team from the Central sneaks in).
17. That the Cubs suffer from another inglorious choke job.
18. That the White Sox drought of championships gets some recognition.
19. That Carlos Beltran doesn't become the next Mo Vaughn just because he went to the Mets
20. That Carlos Delgado gets credit for being a stand-up guy (for things like choosing the Marlins because they treated him like a man and a ballplayer and not just a Latino) and not for knee-jerk reactions to his failure to participate in "God Bless America". You might not agree with his stance, but at least he has one.
21. That the steroid issue goes away. We don't need to hear about it every inning from everyone like during ESPN's Opening Night broadcast. Yes, fix it, get them out of the game - but don't detract from the game for them.
22. That if the Tigers are going to make a move for the AL Central that they do it this year, when it won't affect the White Sox playoff chances too significantly.
23. That more people start to get the point about Moneyball. It wasn't about OBP and stats. It was about finding what's undervalued and buying that. Think of it like the stock market.
24. That more people start to get what Bill James meant about closers. He wasn't against the role of a closer. He was against how a closer is used. With the bases loaded in a one-run game in the 7th, you might be better off using your closer than when you're consequently down two runs in the ninth with no one on.
25. That Tony LaRussa, who I used to think very highly of, gets called to task on a number of things. For one, his stance on steroids. Backing up Mark McGwire and attacking Jose Canseco because of personal preference isn't right. The assertions made in his book (written with Buzz Bissinger) are sometimes laughable. He knocks sabermetricians left-and-right, but at the same time also thinks it's "playing the numbers" to make a pitching change or move your lineup around because one player is 3 for 6 or 2 for 11 against a particular pitcher. That, Tony, is a small sample size and not really everything you should be considering. Maybe a sabermetrician could explain it to you one day.