Resolving to remember what we learned in 2010

You vow to work out more. I vow to work out a way to remember that pitching wins.
You vow to clean the garage. I vow to clean from my mind all those things "everybody knows" about free agents.
You have your New Year's resolutions. I have mine.

Cliff Lee defied the predictions by going to one of the winter's winners, Philadelphia. (Getty Images)

And I promise not to hold you to yours if you'll do the same with mine.
Is that OK with you, Giants fans?
On to the five things I vow to remember in 2011:
1. Yes, pitching wins. How could we ever forget? How can we ever forget now, with the Giants as World Series champions despite a mediocre lineup that managed just 11 runs in four games in the first round against the Braves?
So the most significant transactions of the winter so far were the only two that involved premium pitchers, with Cliff Lee going to the Phillies and Zack Greinke going to the Brewers.
I promise not to forget that. But I also promise not to forget this:
2. Winning the winter doesn't count. The Phillies and Brewers are winter winners. So are the Red Sox, who already had a fine rotation and have added two significant hitters in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.
But it was Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein who told me a few years back that he doesn't worry about pleasing his fans in November, December or even July, because he knows that winning in October is the only thing that will really please them.
And if we've learned anything the last few years, it should be that the teams that win in November and December often aren't around at the end of October.
Who won last winter? The Mariners with Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee, and the Phillies with Roy Halladay.
What about the winter of 2007-08? That would be the Tigers, with Miguel Cabrera, and the Mets, with Johan Santana.
In between, the Yankees won the winter with CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett, and also won the 2009 World Series.
But that's just one year out of three, and it's also a reminder of something else we should never forget.
3. What "everyone knows" about free agency is often wrong. Everyone knew that Sabathia only wanted to be on the West Coast. Everyone knew that Lee was going to chase the last penny, which meant he was going to go to the Yankees.
And everyone knew that a premier free agent like Jayson Werth would never go to the sad-sack Nationals.
By "everyone," I don't just mean writers or bloggers or out-of-touch sports radio hosts. I heard the same things from executives, managers and agents, too.
Free agency is tough to predict, because teams increasingly try to hide their interest from other teams. Who can blame them?
Yes, it's true, top Phillies officials lied to anyone who asked about their stealth pursuit of Lee. But if the Phillies thought there was even a 1 percent chance admitting their interest would harm their pursuit of Lee, then what good would it have done them to tell the truth?
I'm not telling you to avoid all stories about free agency before a guy signs, because they can be fun to read and because we need the readership.
Just remember, as I vow to, that much of what you hear and read will turn out to not be totally true.
Which brings me to:
4. Injuries decide titles. The Red Sox are a better team with Gonzalez and Crawford (even with the loss of Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre). But the Red Sox would have been a better team in 2011, anyway, assuming just a normal number of injuries.
We'll never know if the Sox would have won in 2010 had Dustin Pedroia played more than 75 games, or if they'd finished the season with Pedroia and Youkilis on the roster, or if they'd ever had something close to a steadily healthy outfield. What we do know is that they won 89 games with all those injuries, and managed to give the Yankees a minor scare with a week to go in the season.
We'll never know what the Tigers could have done if Magglio Ordonez didn't break his ankle, or whether the White Sox would have won had Jake Peavy pitched a full season, or whether the Braves would have beaten the Giants if Chipper Jones, Martin Prado and Jair Jurrjens had stayed healthy (although we do know that Brooks Conrad then wouldn't have been a factor).
What we do know -- and what we should remember -- is that no matter how we handicap the pennant races when the year begins, injuries will throw off those predictions more than anything else.
Except:
5. Injuries shouldn't always be an excuse. You want injuries? The Phillies had injuries. Chase Utley was hurt. Jimmy Rollins played just 88 regular-season games. Ryan Howard, Placido Polanco, Shane Victorino and Carlos Ruiz missed time, too.
And the Phillies won 97 games, the first Phillies team ever to lead the major leagues in wins.
So yes, injuries can decide pennant races. But great teams can still overcome them.
That's why we watch. That's why we'll keep watching.
And that's why the most important thing I'll try to remember in 2011 is to enjoy the ride.
Here's hoping that you'll enjoy it with us.

extracted from cbssports.com