as they say on all of the investing forums: past performance is not an indication of future results (or something to that effect).
having said that, those of us who had optimistic projections of last year's record, were certainly closer to the results than those who projected 8-8, 9-7, or 10-6. i'm still optimistic about this year's chances, but i have to agree with those people who point out the fact that we have done nothing in the draft or free agency to improve the team, and in fact we lost a couple of valuable players. so we have to count solely on improvement from within.