Opening Day: A Closer Look

Is there a better day in baseball than Opening Day? Sure, for one team’s fans the last game of the World Series is tremendous, but Opening Day means a fresh start, a new hope, and the arrival of a new season for each and every one of the 30 teams. It’s the first time “Enter Sandman” blasts through the Yankee Stadium loudspeakers, “Hells Bells” through the Petco Park loudspeakers, and “Rape Me” through the Tampa Bay ones…OK, that last one was a joke. Although, we don’t really know if it is because about 27 people show up for the Devil Rays games regardless.

Anyway, almost every team got themselves off to a fresh start this past Monday, with the Mets and Cardinals doing business on Sunday and a few other teams saving the action for Tuesday. How much stake can we put in Opening Day? Not much, considering Adam Dunn isn’t even among the league leaders in strikeouts yet. Then again, there’s got to be something said for a day at which every team sends their ace to the mound…well, except for the Yankees. A quick review of the days that were to start off the baseball season, and how concerned everybody should be…

NY Mets 6 St Louis 1
The Good – Tom Glavine. The ageless wonder went 6 strong for the Mets and gave up just one run to pick up win #291. More starts like this and the rotation begins to become much less of a concern with an ace up front.
The Bad – Chris Carpenter. The Cardinals ace and last year’s Cy Young winner gave up 9 hits and 5 runs in 6 innings and will miss his next start due to an elbow inflammation. My friend Vinny is cursing himself already for making Carp the 8th pick overall in our fantasy league.
The Ugly – Preston Wilson in the #2 spot. A single was nice. The two strikeouts and a double-play ball out of a high contact spot in the lineup was not.
Thoughts: Cardinals fans shouldn’t get too concerned about Carpenter. The elbow shouldn’t be anything serious and lest we forget, he was pitching against the Mets and got no help from a bumbling So Taguchi in left field. But be concerned about Wilson, who strikes out a ton and won’t advance too many runners, if he’s in the #2 spot. Hopefully Tony La Russa was still drunk when he put him there. On the other hand, Mets fans can expect more of the same from the ageless wonder…or one of the team’s 17 ageless wonders, I mean.

NY Yankees 9 Tampa Bay 5
The Good – Carl Pavano didn’t get hurt. And A-Rod hit a HR and scored the go-ahead run.
The Bad - Carl Pavano blew up in the 5th, giving up 4 runs. And A-Rod struck out with two men on in the first.
The Ugly – Carl Pavano started Opening Day. And A-Rod dropped a pop-up.
Thoughts: The Devil Rays were in this game too? Oh right…I will say this, there’s reason to be excited for Tampa Bay fans. The youngest Opening Day lineup since the 1983 Twins showed some prowess, with Elijah Dukes’s first big-league HR and a multi-hit game for BJ Upton. A-Rod will be A-Rod, and Yankees fans should be more worried about Pavano and the bullpen. The pen did pitch spectacularly, but lest we forgot it was Tampa Bay, not exactly Murderer’s Row.

Oakland 0 Seattle 4
The Good – They call him King Felix for a reason…and it’s got nothing to do with that Burger King crown he found yesterday outside Richie Sexson’s locker. Felix Hernandez struck out 12 and gave up 0 runs in 8 innings. What more do you need to say about that? He’s the first Opening Day pitcher to strike out at least 12 and give up 0 runs since, oh…Bob Gibson in 1967. He was good.
The Bad – Dan Haren tweaked his hip flexor for the A’s after giving up 4 runs in the 6th. Just what they need…more injuries.
The Ugly – Jason Kendall was 0-4 with 3 strikeouts out of the leadoff spot. But hey, at least he put it in play once!
Thoughts: Mariners fans have reason to be excited right now. The flashes of potential he showed 2 years ago and at points last year look like they are ready to turn into brilliance after a great offseason and an even better first start. Oakland fans shouldn’t be too concerned. Sure, their team started like crap and has a bunch of injury issues, but let’s be honest…they’ll turn it on once midsummer hits as usual.

Toronto 5 Detroit 3
The Good – The Blue Jays bullpen. After a good but not great start by Roy Halladay, the Jays pen picked up with 4 innings of one hit, no runs, against a very potent Tigers lineup. If their pen can hold up, look for the Jays to spread their wings (bad joke alert) in 2007.
The Bad – To quote ESPN.com, “Famed Motown group The Four Tops did not sing the national anthem as scheduled because of travel problems.” Way to get off to a rough start, Tigers. Sheesh.
The Ugly – Matt Stairs went 0-1 as a pinch-hitter, but obviously Matt Stairs doesn’t know what a pinch-hitter is or should be since he needs to be the cleanup hitter. JOHN GIBBONS WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!?!?!?
Thoughts: Both teams should be optimistic about their seasons. Bonderman shook off some early rust and came back strong from innings 2 through 6, and Halladay didn’t pitch nearly that bad to elicit any concerns. Two teams to watch in 2007…and not just to see how long it is before Gary Sheffield pisses somebody off. But somebody please tell Carlos Guillen and Sheff not to leave 9 runners combined on base again if they want to do something this season.

Baltimore 4 Minnesota 7
The Good – The Twins offense - they knocked around Erik Bedard, who gave up 10 hits and 6 ER in 4 2/3 innings. AL MVP Justin Morneau picked up where he left off with 3 hits and a HR and Luis Castillo led off with 3 hits from the #1 spot.
The Bad – Johan Santana gave up…wait for it…wait for it…wait for it…4 runs in 6 innings. *GASP*
The Ugly – Jason Tyner came in as a pinch runner for the Twins. Why is Jason Tyner on a big league roster? Can there possibly be an explanation for this other than that he’s fast? And tell me this isn’t ugly…

ACK!
Thoughts: Santana will be fine, he’s a perennially slow starter anyway. And Jason Tyner has a career .622 OPS…Terry Ryan, please get this man off of your team IMMEDIATELY.

Cleveland 12 Chicago White Sox 5
The Good - Well, if the Indians were a sleeper coming into this year…there goes that. A barrage of runs against Jose Contreras and the White Sox were led by multi-hit games from Sizemore, Nixon, Hafner, Martinez, and Peralta. This is a team that has the potential to score as many runs as just about anybody in baseball. Plus David Aardsma, the first player in baseball history alphabetically, appeared in this one.
The Bad - C.C. Sabathia is still fat enough to play for the Cleveland Browns.
The Ugly - Jose Contreras…folks, he had a game score of 9. No, I am not missing a digit there, that number is in fact a NINE. One inning plus, 7 hits, 8 R, 7 of them earned…that is just brutal. And that also equates to an ERA of 63, a number that is higher than Sabathia’s cheeseburger to tofu ratio.
Thoughts: Oh White Sox fans...be afraid. Be very afraid. Contreras looked awful in this outing and the rest of the rotation is equally as shaky. In an extremely tough division this team could be headed straight for the bottom. It’s an encouraging day for Indians fans, but once we see more of the bullpen we can make a final judgment on them, so keep composed Tribe-sters.

Texas 1 LAAAAAAAAAAAAA Angels 4
The Good – Let’s check out the Angels pen: Darren Oliver came in and gave up a hit and walk. And then Speier, Shields, and K-Rod pitched four perfect innings after that. Another day at the park for these lights-out relievers.
The Bad – The Rangers hitters left 14 men on base combined and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Kids, here’s how not to win close games.
The Ugly – Sammy Sosa in a Rangers uniform. Not as ugly as in that ghastly Orioles garb, but seriously man, just put on the Cub unis even if you aren’t on the team! Bring us back to the good ol’ days. Plus he went 0-for-3.
Thoughts: This game was pretty boring in all honesty. Angels fans should be concerned about one thing: Shea Hillenbrand trying to steal bases. He was caught twice and is really not that fast. Somebody should tell Mike Scioscia to challenge him to a fight or something.

Boston 1 Kansas City 7
The Good - Gil “The $55 Million Dollar” Man Meche backed up his preposterous paycheck, at least for one day. 7 1/3 innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball against a powerful Sawx lineup was certainly enough to endear himself to the KC fans, all 12 of them. Kansas City is now tied for the best record in baseball. Break up the Royals!
The Bad - Curt “Bloody Sock” Schilling was just awful. 4 innings, 8 hits, 5 runs, and 2 walks including one with the bases loaded…Schilling showed signs of declining last year and this start does nothing to make anybody in Boston feel any better. Maybe somebody should stab him in the ankle or something.
The Ugly - The Red Sox lost by 6 runs to the Royals and were thoroughly dominated in every aspect of the game…do we need to get into any more details?
Thoughts: Boston fans should be slightly concerned about Schilling, who may in fact be showing signs of his age, although the bullpen should still be the biggest concern. The hitting will certainly come around however, so don’t expect many more 1-for-7 combined games from Big Papi and Manny, although Julio “The Violently Hacktastic” Lugo did strike out three times from the leadoff spot. Royals fans – they have a right to be hyped. This has been a pretty stagnant franchise for a while and although their playoff hopes are nothing to get excited about, this should be at least be an exciting young team to watch. And even Mike Sweeney is healthy (for now)!

[redsrbetter]

Well done once again brownie. Steadily proving your writing skills one article at a time. It is good to see a glimpse of everything that happened on Opening Day. You sure have a lot of insight on what is going on within each organization. I liked this article a lot.

DIGG, delicious, YB

[missionhockey21]

This is some great stuff here Browntown. I missed catching the highlights of Tuesday's games due to classwork, so it's nice to catch a few of the points the boxscores might of neglected to tell me.

I love the potential of the Indians offense. They already had such a good young core and one of those being a guy who could have a mega season at any moment (Sizemore), but then they supplement it with some really affordable (yet talented) bats.

As for Schill, I don't know if I would be that concerned. The fact that he has become so hittable lately is hard to overlook, but with his numbers being relatively close to get some HoF nods down the line, I think if his body will allow him to be healthy he'll turn out at least a decent effort. And if he has dollar signs in his eyes for his next contract, he'll take that to the next level.

With the Nationals, you totally forgot Nick Johnson who is the man. Of course he is on the DL, but he could still draw a walk with ease.

But in general, the first few games of the season has been tough for those who like to bust out the "I told you so's". A lot of the big contracts (pitching wise) performed in their debuts with the teams they financially took advantage of with their consent. But Soriano was pretty weak looking in the Cubbies debut, so it will be interesting to see if he can come close to matching those numbers from last season or if he was just playing with dollar signs dancing in his head in 2006.

Once again, very nice work.

[browntown653]

Originally Posted by missionhockey21 This is some great stuff here Browntown. I missed catching the highlights of Tuesday's games due to classwork, so it's nice to catch a few of the points the boxscores might of neglected to tell me. I love the potential of the Indians offense. They already had such a good young core and one of those being a guy who could have a mega season at any moment (Sizemore), but then they supplement it with some really affordable (yet talented) bats. As for Schill, I don't know if I would be that concerned. The fact that he has become so hittable lately is hard to overlook, but with his numbers being relatively close to get some HoF nods down the line, I think if his body will allow him to be healthy he'll turn out at least a decent effort. And if he has dollar signs in his eyes for his next contract, he'll take that to the next level. With the Nationals, you totally forgot Nick Johnson who is the man. Of course he is on the DL, but he could still draw a walk with ease. But in general, the first few games of the season has been tough for those who like to bust out the "I told you so's". A lot of the big contracts (pitching wise) performed in their debuts with the teams they financially took advantage of with their consent. But Soriano was pretty weak looking in the Cubbies debut, so it will be interesting to see if he can come close to matching those numbers from last season or if he was just playing with dollar signs dancing in his head in 2006. Once again, very nice work.

Thanks for the kind words.

Believe me, I didn't forget my boy Nick the Stick , but I did remember he was on the DL. And Soriano is playing awful so far.