Random Thoughts from Opening Day

[deansdaddy]

If you were like me you caught as much baseball as you could today. The pre-season work is done and the real games begin. Some things that caught my eye today.

From the Yanks/Det game
-Mark Teixeira had the big hit off Justin Verlander - a three run homer and delivered the quote of the day when the perennial slow starter said "I've been petitioning the league to start in March for years. "Finally they let us start in March because everybody knows my Aprils," Teixeira said. "It's great to start this way. ... Last year was awful, it was embarrassing."

-I'm not sure if the Yankees have enough starting pitching to take full advantage of their new bullpen - but they will win a lot of games they are leading after the 7th inning. Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera gave a glimpse of what we could see a lot this year. They each pitched perfect innings and the game was over. Joba particularly looked very good to me today.

-Russell Martin had a hit, stole a base and scored two runs from the 9th place in the order.

-Don't you just love it when your Opening Day Fantasy Ace throws 114 pitches in cold, rainy, crappy conditions . Verlander hit that number in the 6th and if the umpire hadn't bailed him out on a terrible called strike three to Nick Swisher with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd, his line could have looked a lot worse than it did. C.C. threw 106 pitches himself.

LAD/SF

-Clayton Kershaw and Tim Lincecum put on a show worthy of Opening Day. If you didn't catch any of it tonight - you missed some great pitching. Kershaw was simply dominant and now I almost wished I had drafted him ahead of C.C. for my DP team. Lincecum matched him - but his defense let him down. I own both of them - one in the JBL league and the other in the PBY league - and I'm glad I do. Face it, we follow and root for our players and these two guys will be battling it out all season until one of them wins the NL Cy Young.

-Jon Broxton gave up a HR to Pat Burrell in the 9th, but hung on for the save. I own HC Kuo all over, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't like that.

LAA/KC

-You know it must be the regular season because Alex Gordon went 0-5 with 3 K's. He was a popular pick of mine and a MB fav, but he looked lost today in the AB's I watched.

-Jered Weaver is a P I don't own anywhere this season. Just didn't work out for me to get him. He picked right up where he left off last year. The Angels bullpen almost blew the game and they could give Sciosia headaches this year.

-I was happy to see Peter Bourjos go 2-4 today. I actually started him in the league I own him in, since the Angels have a 4 game slate. Hoping for some SB's next time.

ATL/WAS

-Todd Zola gave me the faith to take a chance on Chipper Jones in my most important league this year. He had drafted him a couple of times late, always making the case that Chipper will produce when he plays and you just sub him out when he can't. In a DP draft that I had no CI late into the draft I saw Chipper sitting there like an ole pal, and I grabbed him. Playing for the first time since last August- he got the first hit (a double) and scored the first run of the season.

-KFFL's Nick Minnix saw something interesting in how Gonzalez used supposed co-closers Kimbrel and Venters tonight. http://networkedblogs.com/g72Xc

STL/SD

-Flipped on and caught the beginning of the game and was shocked to see Orlando Hudson come up to the plate as the No 3 hitter. This can't continue, can it?

-Ryan Franklin blew his first save of the year. I own Jason Motte in more than a few leagues, and might grab him in the couple I don't this weekend.

MIL/CIN

-This was the game to watch for offense and of course the is the game I saw nothing of today. There were plenty of happy owners out there except for John Axford's. He blew his first save today, giving up 4 ER in 0.2 IP. Others said he wasn't as bad as it looked, but your ERA will be tomorrow if you own him.


PLAYER OF THE DAY:

Clayton Kershaw

[SteveB]

Add a couple of comments from the Sf/lad game.....Tejada did not look good at all. At the plate he killed several potential rallies and his defense led to Timmy's only run. Like tejada burrell looked slow at the plate and in the field. A solo hr in the 9th is no biggie when he stranded runners in every other ab

A bright spot was Brandon Belt who was on base twice out of four trips and had a 13 pitch Ab against kuo for one of those ABs. I really like this kids patience at the plate and he looked good in the field. I hope he hangs with Sandoval because Panda didn't see a pitch he didn't like. In his first two Ab's he never swung at a strike.


Kershaw and kemp both looked very good. I have my final nl draft this weekend and kemp moved up my list a few notches.

[deansdaddy]

Agree that Kemp looked very good today.

Panda was his old self - but he did take a pitch in one of his AB's.

[Bodhizefa]

Kershaw for Cy Young!

[CubFan]

I'm still scratching my head as to why Yost placed Gordon in the 3 hole. IMO part of Gordon's problem is between his ears as he has had to try and live up to the extraordinarily high expectations that fans and media placed on him early on....i.e. the next George Brett. Well, now that all of the hype has been turned towards their minor league system expectations are low on Gordon now.....and he promptly turned that into an excellent ST. So what does Yost do.....put him back into the spotlight!!! A recipe for disaster. IMO, let Gordon establish himself at #6.

Royals defense is not much better than last year. Three errors!!! Also saw Aviles misjudge a foul pop-up along the edge of the stands. He let it drop without making much of an attempt to catch. The boos cascaded down on him. Abreu promptly hits the next pitch for a single.

Hochevar looked fair. No walks but 9 hits and 2 HRs in a park where the ball does not carry very well. Yost thought he threw well. Not a good sign when your pitcher has a 6+ ERA for the game and your manager is pleased with the way you threw. Sounds like low expectations.

[special k]

You guys helped talk me into Gordon despite my two years of earlier crappy ownership.
But I did not despair on Opening Day, when he also missed a walkoff homer off Rodney by a couple feet. Weaver will make a lot of guys look bad this year. And then Gordon drilled two hits yesterday, one a double.
Agree with the six-hole suggestion, though.
And as the proud $3 owner of Walden, I'm liking the early returns in the Angels bullpen. Only a matter of time?