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BRADENTON, Fla. - This spring featured a little bit of everything. We played well at times. We played terrible at times.

That's what spring training is for, to make improvements before the start of the season, and I think we did that. Toward the end, we played better than we did in the beginning, and that's what you want to see.

Some fans may be concerned about the pitching staff because our starters gave up a lot of home runs down here. That has more to do with the windy weather conditions than anything else.

People have to remember that until a few days ago our offense led the majors in home runs during spring training. If you look at our lineup, we do have some home run hitters, but not to the point where we're going to lead the majors.

The point is, the wind blows out of here extremely hard to left and left-center at McKechnie Field. Not all of the home runs hit that way were wind-aided, but some were. Our guys have to pitch in that stuff, too. You get a fly ball and think it's an out, and all of a sudden it's a home run. Our pitchers know that and realize they have to get the ball down.

You can't lose sight of the fact, too, that pitchers are working on things down here and won't pitch the same way once the season starts. I would never let a spring training ERA, particularly at McKechnie Field, be an indicator of how our pitching staff is going to be.

I like our team going into the season. Pitching should carry us, and I like our staff. Kip Wells is healthy and Oliver Perez keeps getting better every time out. Mark Redman should help us, and I'm sure Josh Fogg will get double-digits in wins like he always does. Dave Williams is our fifth guy and it looks like he's healthy again.

The bullpen has a chance to be very good again and can take a lot of pressure off our rotation. If our starters can give us six innings, Mike Gonzalez, Salomon Torres and Jose Mesa can take it from there. Those are our three go-to guys. They remind me of what Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner did for the Astros a few years ago. I think they're that good.

Our defense should be all right. Last year, we tied the franchise record for fielding percentage in a season, so we'd like to break that.

How good can our team be? I really don't like making predictions, but I do think the key is going to be how this team reacts to slumps. I think we'll do fine, but that will be the biggest test we'll face.

In other years, when we were in a rut where we'd lost seven out of 10 games, you could tell by walking into the clubhouse that we were going to lose that day before the game even started. Guys were down, guys were used to losing. I don't think that's going to happen this year. I think this team is going to stay upbeat.

We can learn something from what the Red Sox did last year in the playoffs when they were down three games to none against the Yankees. Under normal circumstances, you're going to have no shot to win that series, you roll over and lose. But the Red Sox didn't do that.

Two years ago, the Marlins were the same way when they came back against the Cubs in the playoffs. They didn't care that they were down. They were a happy-go-lucky team, and that attitude paid off for them.

Not to say we're as good as the Red Sox last year or the Marlins two years ago, but we're going to have to have that type of attitude to be successful.

There are going to be times this year when we go through ruts. It's just like when someone is going through a slump. You have to pick up your teammate, pump him up and help him out. That's going to be the theme this year -- to stay positive.

And come hungry!

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