Baseball Weekly's panel of expert writers and editors will keep you informed, position by position. In 10 consecutive issues, we will analyze how the best in the business stack up, head to head. In addition, Baseball Weekly's staff will factor in age, health and all the intangibles to provide the most comprehensive analysis. Well, if he didn't say that last part, he should have.
Hitters are, by and large, predictable.
They come up young, improve until a certain point, and later go downhill, more or less steadily. Pitchers, on the other hand, are put on this earth to frustrate prognosticators. Or from 20 wins to Enron in a handbasket. Anyone who spends time predicting pitchers' performance might as well try to chart the weather over the next six years. But, on the other hand, we at Baseball Weekly refuse to yield to our better judgment.