Chad Billingsley 2009

It's fun to go back and look at old predictions we've made. Especially the really bad ones. Prior to the 2007 season I wrote the following in a post about Chad Billingsley: "He's got a shot to be an ok major league pitcher, but he won't be good this year, and if the Dodgers put him in their rotation ahead of Kuo, they're making a very big mistake." Ok...maybe they didn't make a very big mistake (although I still think Kuo is terrific and underutilized. On the other hand, Billingsley had a good 2007 (K/9: 8.8, BB/9: 4.0, GB%: 41%) and an even better 2008: (K/9: 9.1, BB/9: 3.6, GB%: 49%). Those numbers look an awful lot like A.J. Burnett (although Burnett has been doing it in the tougher league) and I think both pitchers have a good chance of being recognized as stars after this season.