Thursday Night: My thoughts on the Brewers, and that WSJ poll listing the most hated teams in baseball and more

Well, its been a few days since i've written anything. Not the best stretch for the Crew as they lost 3 out of 4 with Trevor Hoffman single-handedly handing the Pirates a couple of games.......ouch.

Well it's another day, another series as the Brewers are spending the next 4 days playing the NL's surprise team, the San Diego Padres. The last series proved back-to-back losses, blown saves and a conflict of interest scenario between real and fantasy baseball (the same type that kept me away from fantasy ball for several years (Ryan Doumit pretty much owned owned Hoffman and I happen to own Doumit on one of my teams...grrhhhhhh.

Tonight has a NL West oriented theme as the Brewers playing in San Diego is firing away on my laptop and the Pirates-Dodgers game is going in the background.........ahhhh to live on the West Coast........it is weird to come home and have to wait an hour or so for the Brewers game to start.....the 2 normal scenarios are a) the played during the day and the game is long over by the time I get home or b) they play a night game and the game is in the middle innings by the time I come home from the gym.

Now would be a lovely time to congratulate Carlos Gomez for getting picked off and costing the Brewers a run....with the Brewers losing 5 of their last 6 and a closer that's singlehandedly dropped them into a tie for fourth.....not the best way to start a game.....

That base-running blunder not withstanding, it may be time to re-evaluate my take on the Gomez-Hardy trade. For pretty much the entire off-season, I was not feeling the trade at all. I saw Gomez as just another fast light-hitter along the lines of a Bourn, Taveras, etc. While 70 plate appearances isn't the greatest sample size, the early returns seem at least somewhat encouraging. So far his average is up 45 points his slugging average has gone from .337 to .468 and his OPS+ has gone from 64 to 108.....his BABIP is .319....so he's getting a little lucky but still leaves some proof that maybe his hitting game has turned a corner.

Speaking of off-season acquisitions, Doug Davis is in a bit of early trouble with runners on 1st and 2nd no outs and A-Gon at the plate, ouch. Not the best way to improve on an 8+ ERA. In Davis' case part of this high ERA can be explained by some extreme bad luck.......opposing hitters have a .450 BABIP against Davis.....there is no way that BABIP is sustainable and is going to remain at .450 all year and gives a silver lining of hope that Davis is not as bad as his current ERA indicates.

Not even an inning into the game, and the FS Wisconsin crew is having the mandatory conversation about Petco Park being a hitter's graveyard (it's almost like there was a law passed in 2004 making it mandatory for announcers to point this out within the first three innings).....or not.

Gotta give credit where credit is due....Doug Davis may have pitched his way into a sticky situation but he got out of it just as easily.

In terms of other stuff going on in the baseball world, this article from the Wall Street Journal is interesting. At first glance a bit surprising that the Yankees are only the fifth most hated team in baseball (somehow the Indians get this "honor") a bit surprising since the Indians probably haven't prompted any strong feelings one way or another since the late 1990s. But on second glance I can't escape the feeling that some New York bias is in there. Think about it, a newspaper based in NYC is trying to convince us that there are four other teams more hated than the Yankees.....it would seem given that the Red Sox would be high on this list considering the New York basis.....and the (possible) poor cover-up of said bias by placing a random AL Central team at the top of the list.......i'm probably horribly wrong about this assesment....maybe the Indians are really hated but nobody admits....but with the Yankees being hated by everyone outside of ESPN and New York City.....it does seem a bit odd to say the least......having a favorite team hanging out in the NL Central that happened to play in the AL Central against the Indians during their hey-day.........in 2010 i definitely have stronger negative feelings about the Yankees than the Indians

Could this be people that don't think the team name is PC? Maybe, maybe not........maybe they surveyed a bunch of people that don't like bloggers. This article from Walk Off Walk discusses the Indians reaching out to the Social Media world by inviting bloggers and local prominent twitter users to sit in the new section at Progressive Field. For reaching out to bloggers and that someone working for the Indians recognizing the existence of the blog/social media world as being relevant and here to stay. For that, the Indians do not get my vote for most hated team in baseball

And Doug Davis pitches himself out of trouble again........gotta say between his start against the Cubs and the first couple innings tonight, Doug Davis is looking pretty sharp and may be on the cusp of getting past his early struggles.

On the Padres side, Wade LeBlanc is also looking very impressive......looks like we could be in for an extended pitchers duel........while I like the results so far.....its a bit discomforting that Doug Davis' pitch count is in the 60s and its only the third innings.....with the bullpen being stretched out for 9 innings yesterday (5 of those after Hoffman failed to get a save).....this could make things interesting in a bad way towards the late innings.

Speaking of this closing situation, it seems reasonable to speculate on who should replace Hoffman as closer (assuming Macha ever notices that continuing to bring out Hoffman has the potential to derail the 2010 season. There has been some limited speculation about who should/would get a chance at closer usually involving Villaneuva, Hawkins and/or Coffey. While I see 2 of these 3 pitchers as relievers that can be relied on.......not sure what it is just a hunch i'm not sold on them being the best internal option.

I know i'm probably going outside the box a little bit.......i'm not sure if this option has been brought up elsewhere and I haven't read about it but my gut instinct says Manny Parra should be given a chance to pitch the 9th inning.

While Parra has been on the starting pitching path for most of his career, it seems as though the Brewers are planning not to place Parra in the rotation as he has been passed over for Jeff Suppan (bad decision) and Chris Narveson (defensible toss-up decision....Narveson had the better spring/better 2009.....Parra was off to a stronger start in 2010).

Beyond that I could see Parra having a good chance to excel in this role as a) thus far he has improved control-wise (11 2/3 innings is a small sample size but a BB/9 rate dropping from 5 to 1.5 indicates Parra deserves a chance at something beyond middle-relief and he's proven more than capable of ringing up strikeouts (7.9/9 IP for his career) that would make him an asset being handed the ball in the 9th inning.

As with the current game, Doug Davis is in another jam......the Brewers committing miscues with the glove and on the base-paths......this seems to not bode well for the next 5-plus innings, especially with the Padres getting on the board in the middle of typing this paragraph.

Ahh....Brewers down 2-0 and now for something that is a lot less depressing. I was stumbling around the internets and stumbled across a new website that is being rolled out on 5/1 that is blended the addictive powers of gambling and fantasy baseball. This new concoction, Rosterslots.com allows users to build a fantasy baseball team by spinning a slot machine........Just heard the words Jeff Suppan warming up in the bullpen from the FS Wisconsin crew.......not gonna lie those words don't do much for comfort.

Anyways, back to the Rosterslots....this thing gives you 20 spins in which to get a fantasy team to your liking (you can field a new team every day if you wanted to).....between probable starters, bullpens, middle infielders/catchers, corner infielders/dhs and outfielders.....the best part is you can get this done through your Facebook account as well........

Well....that time of the night....time to get some shut eye.

Early Look At Sunday's TBS/ESPN games

Cubs vs. Brewers TBS

Interest Level: 10

Wells vs. Bush

The I-94 rivalry is a bitter/intense match-up regardless of time of season & the teams respective places in the standings. In this case, probably good in the name of being interesting since we're not out of April yet and both teams find themselves on the wrong side of .500.

The Brewers find themselves at 8-9 and thus far have unable to hold teams not called the Pittsburgh Pirates to less than 5 runs in a ballgame. Speaking of that series, epic.......anytime you can outscore a team 36-1 in a 3 game stretch (20-0 in one of those games). Things are going good. Unfortunately, reality has struck the last 2 days as thus far they have been outscored 13-2. Still, they sit in 2nd place a couple games behind St. Louis. The Brewers are starting Dave Bush today who has pitched very well in his first 3 starts and would be 3-0 if not for some shoddy bullpen work. Bush is very familiar with a many of the Cubs hitters as he's faced several of them at least 10 times. Fukudome and Soriano tend to hit him pretty well while Lee, Nady and Soriano have struggled against him.

The Cubs, while playing well this weekend, haven't played very well in 2010. They come into todays game at 8-10, 2 1/2 games back and with an opportunity to get into second in the NL Central. The Cubs are starting Randy Wells who has been a bright spot for the Cubs since coming over. Like Bush, Wells is a pitcher who started his career with the Blue Jays before ending up in the NL Central.

Braves vs. Mets ESPN

Hanson vs. Pelfrey

Interest Level:6

Another early season divisional battle. The Braves are in the midst of a 4-game losing streak that has taken them down to last in the NL East. They still have the talent to make a playoff run but things aren't exactly trending in the right direction currently. The Braves start their talented second year pitcher Tommy Hanson in this game. In his 3 starts so far, it appears that he has a shot to have a nice follow up to his rookie year. Also worth looking forward to is seeing what Jason Heyward will do next.

Ah, the New York Mets. The team that can't stay off the disabled list. Well, at least they haven't completely embarrassed themselves so far. Currently, the Mets are at 9-9 and tied for the Zombie Expos for third place. Mike Pelfrey takes the hill for the Mets in tonight's match-up. The sponsor of his baseball-reference page (Section 518) asks the question of is 2010 the year Mike Pelfrey realizes his potential. So, far the answer of that question seems to be yes as he's rocking a 3-0 record with a .86 era. If the Mets are going to stay in contention despite all of their health problems, they are probably going to need to get a breakout season from Mike Pelfrey.

Friday/Early Saturday MLB National TV Preview

Well, the weekend is upon us. Things looking better baseball wise this week. I'm very happy that the Brewers rolled the Pirates 36-1 over a 3 day stretch including a 20-0 grand finale in today's game. Gloating time is over, on to the games.

Friday: Tigers vs. Rangers MLB Network

Scherzer vs. Feldman

Interest Level:4

It's too early to tell (as of this writing) what the Tigers record will be coming into this game as they are in the 3rd inning of their game with the Angels. The Tigers were I team that I thought was worse than most people thought but thus far that has been a wrong assessment. Max Scherzer takes the hill in Friday's game. He definitely has lots of potential which we've only seen parts of so far but he's looking good so far in 2010......a chance to see someone in the start of their breakout season perhaps?

The Rangers are off to a 6-9 start and with Seattle and LA of Anaheim of North America getting their acts together (plus Oakland playing better than expected) it may be in their best interest to get their act together. The Rangers bring Scott Feldman to the hill....sure he may have won 17 games last year but i'm not sold on him as an ace pitcher.

Saturday: Yankees vs. Angels FOX

Pettite vs. Pineiro

Interest Level: 6

If I want to watch the afternoon game this is probably the game i'm stuck with like it or not as both the Yankees and a team they show on TV all the time here (Angels) are both involved.

On a side note, this game involves the three players (Teixiera, Wood and Vasquez) who have struggled the most on my fantasy team.

The Yankees are currently battling the Rays for top positioning in the AL East. Andy Pettite looks to continue his strong start to the season in this game.

The Angels had a rough first week of the season but have battled back to .500 (for at least the next couple hours). Still, they are sitting 1 1/2 out at this point and look to be in the thick of things (while not in first) in the AL West. The Angels start Joel Pineiro who has pitched better than I expected so far. I thought his strong 2009 performance was only going to last as long as he had Dave Duncan as his pitching coach and I thought the Angels over-paid for him. Pineiro looks to keep proving detractors like myself wrong in this game.

Mariners vs. White Sox Saturday FOX

Fister vs. Garcia

Interest Level: 7

The Mariners have also started slowly but have gotten things together to get within 1/2 a game of overtaking Oakland for AL West Supremacy. The Mariners start Merced, California product Doug Fister in this game. Not knowing much about Fister other than he was in the back end of the M's rotation, I picked him up on my razzball team a couple weeks ago. This has not turned out to be a very smart decision. Doug Fister is on notice, one more strong start from him and he gets dropped from my Razzball team.

The White Sox counter with ex-Mariner pitcher Freddy Garcia. Garcia definitely isn't as strong of a pitcher as he was when he pitched for Seattle. In fact, he's actually pitched pretty poorly in his first couple starts and one of the many reasons the White Sox find themselves currently in the basement.

Wednesday Night:A No-No In Progress, No Support For Sheets & Whatever Else Come To Mind

Alright, it's a rainy night (despite the calender saying it is late April) I felt it was the right time to do a live-ish blog for part of the night. My original plan was to have the Angels-Tigers game running on the HD Background (this game appears to have been pre-empted for an LA Kings Playoff Game) but instead I'm "settling" for MLB Tonight.

On the MLB.tv feed, I was able to catch the last couple innings of the Brewers victory over the Pirates. It turns out LaTroy Hawkins is capable of holding a lead. Unfortunately, said lead has to be around 8 runs. Still, i'm happy that the Brewers have won 3 in a row and have managed to make it back to .500.

In terms of fantasy implications, plenty of games to keep me entertained (Yankees-A's, Angels-Tigers, Twins-Indians (Cuddyer just hit a 2-run triple) Rays-White Sox and Cardinals-D Backs).

So many places to go where I land nobody knows. I guess this should mean I shouldn't have to sit through too many commercials. Since theres only half an inning left with the Twins-Indians, i'll stay in this neighborhood for a few minutes.

Didn't get a chance to see Liriano pitch....i'm not sure what happened but it seems like this could be 2006 all over again (sans the injury). This is now his second straight start without surrendering a run....is it too early to put him in Cy Young consideration or the very least comeback player of the year (i know he played in 29 games last year but he didn't pitch that great).

Whoa.....i didn't know Mark Grudzielanek was still playing in the bigs. I thought he had retired but appearantly I had thought wrong. But hey when you get the chance to sign the player who finished 27th in 2003's MVP voting, you gotta go for it. I must be in the right place if the game i'm watching on MLB.tv is the same as the one on MLB Network as the Twins are on the verge of their 11th win...as the Indians are down to their last strike...which has been elusive the last couple of pitches.......game over......seems fitting that Joe Mauer gets the last out to finish it out.

Time to ask the question of What's Next? I would move on to the Rays-White Sox but that games pretty much a blow-out. I would go on to the Angels-Tigers but that's blacked out.

I guess i'll check out what the Yankees and A's are up to. Didn't know it but Ben Sheets is getting the start for the A's tonight. It's gotta be a good sign that Sheets has made it to his fourth start without missing anytime. It's gotta be a good thing that Sheets has done his part to justify his 2010 salary thus far.

The state of my team: 2-0 right now......things are going good so far this week as I have a 28 point lead (If/when Teixiera, Wood and Vasquez get things going) this team's solid play should continue. Just saw that Phil Hughes was pitching for the Yankees and decided to check out his baseball-reference page. Which happens to be sponsored by something called The Buffet Is Closed. With promises of bad Yankee journalism being skewered my mediocre journalism...hasn't been updated since last summer and it involves the Yankees and bloggers that don't like some guy named Peter Abraham.

So apparently, the Cubs have moved Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. I know he's struggled this year but it should be interesting to see how this move works out. I wonder if he'll get enough work to hold onto his NL lead in Wild Pitches. If nothing else, his strike outs haven't lagged 12.1 K/9 this year. Either way, i'd hate to be a gatorade machine right now.

The Yankees have pulled out to a 2-0 lead. Rumor has it if you watch a Yankees game for more than 20 minutes you get ESPN syndrome where what the Yankees do is more important than every other team combined....actually, I came up with this far-fetched legend off the top of my head.

Time to see what the Cardinals-D Backs are up to. With Carpenter on my team, this is one case where I don't mind if my player doesn't always have a great game (as they lead the Brewers by a couple games right now). So far its 3-2 Cardinals in the 5th. I'm reading an article by Jeff Passan from Yahoo where he argues that the concept of divisions should be eliminated.

Honestly, i'm not sure how I would feel about a set-up like this. In the article it says this would address inequality but i'm not sure how eradicating divisions would address the revenue inequalities between the top and bottom markets (I should make a sarcastic comment about this thing called a salary cap but the odds of this coming to MLB is slim and none.....and he acknowledges that would be the best idea but that would never happen so you can't really hold this against him)

Still, it's hard to see how this would change the chances and hopes of mid to small market teams in either a good or bad......the upside to his argument

So blow it up. Start over. Unalign. Allow teams to keep the current sharing agreement while addressing the balance problem. Sacrifice the bonanza of Yankees-Red Sox 18 times a year – sorry, ESPN – for a schedule that evenly spreads games against them and gives every AL team a substantive piece of the New York-Boston ticket spike

Anything that forces ESPN to show the other 28 teams more often can't be that bad of a thing.

Somewhere during that rant, the Cards-D Backs game went to the sixth and the Cards tacked another run to their lead but hey it's baseball, these things happen

Carpenter seems to be cruising along in Arizona. Still not feeling the rooting for a divisional rival thing......moving back to the Yankees-A's game.

At this point, the Yankees have held on to their 2-0 lead into the fifth. If it was tomorrow we would be seeing Sabathia pitch (i'm still slightly surprised he didn't sign with the Giants or Dodgers when he was a free-agent). Sure, the Yankees have the money but with Sabathia from NorCal I felt that those two NL West teams had a legit shot.

Could someone get Ben Sheets some run support here?! Or some base-runners. If I didn't dislike the Yankees I probably wouldn't mention the fact that Phil Hughes has a no-hitter going through 5 (is it just me or does it seem like a lot of pitchers have taken no-hitters fairly deep into the game this year). Either way, it's good to see that Ben Sheets still has it.

Wandering around aimlessley through ESPN.....checking out some excerpts of their 30 for 30 doc. about fantasy baseball.....sorta distracted by the 30 for 30....just noticed Hughes has a no-no through 6.

Looks like Ben Sheets' night is done. Good that he had a good start bad that he'll unfairly get tagged with a loss. Broadcasters said the magic words of his club is yet to get a hit. Which probably means the A's will lead off the 7th with one of these said hits.

So 9 outs away from a no-no, can Phil Hughes pull it off? At 77 pitches and 9 Ks....its an impressive outing either way. The announcers reference the no-hitter again (for the second time). For the second time the exact same broadcast is blaring from the laptop and MLB Network. With a pop-foul that would have gone into the stands in just about any other stadium, it's now a no-no through 6 1/3. No hitter reference count up to 3. Down to 7 outs which MLB Network has now deemed both a Developing Story AND Breaking News. If not for that pesky 1st inning walk....we could be talking about a wait for it.......perfect game.

Despite 7 innings.....hes only at 87 pitches..........Blevins is back to pitch in the 8th but this game is unlikely to be remembered for whatever Blevins does in his second inning of work......well it's that time of the night where my day is comin to an end.....does Hughes throw the no-no?....stay tuned to find out

Back From Vacation, Back To Previewing

So....i haven't written anything in a week. I was on vacation....had me a nice 4-day weekend. But now it's time to get back to business. With that......on to the games.

Phillies vs. Braves

Kendrick vs.Hanson Tuesday-MLB Network

TBD vs. Hudson- Wednesday ESPN

Interest Level: 7

This might be only the third week of the season, but this NL East match-up is still important. The Phillies have a razor-thin 1 game edge over the Braves. For the Phillies, they have Kendrick starting...he has been absolutely brutal in his first two starts.

The Braves are one of the more interesting teams in the league. Jason Heyward alone makes them worth watching as you never know what he's going to pull off. Both Hanson & Hudson are off to solid starts and if they keep it up....everyone's prediction of the Phillies running away with this division could turn out to be very wrong.

Royals vs. Blue Jays Wednesday MLB Network

Greinke vs. Marcum

Interest Level: 5

The Royals are off to a 5-7 start and considering the job their GM did in the off-season, this could pass as over-achieving. The Royals are giving reigning Cy Young award winner Zach Greinke the start. He is 0-2 this year but this can be attributed to the ineptness of the team around him and not Greinke himself as he has a respectable (though not 2009-level) 114 ERA+

The Blue Jays have gotten off to a better than expected 8-6 start. If they want to sustain this strong start or even stay above .500, they are going to need Shaun Marcum to stay healthy for throughout the season (having Vernon Wells continue to hit the cover off the ball wouldn't hurt either).

Indians vs. Twins Thursday MLB Network

Talbot vs. Baker

Interest Level: 7

A sneakingly interesting early AL Central Match-Up. The Twins have thus far taken their rightful place on top of the AL Central. This game gets extra points due to fantasy implications as J.J Hardy (hasn't done much since hitting a couple homers in the first week) and Michael Cuddyer (off to a nice start) are on my fantasy team. The Twins have Scott Baker starting...text-book definition of a solid but not great pitcher.

The Indians, expected to head straight to the cellar, have a fairly respectable 6-6 record. Speaking of my fantasy team, one player that has allowed the Indians to be respectable 6-6 and my team to be 2-0 is Shin-Soo Choo. Coming off a quietly strong 20-20 season....he's hit the ground running in 2010 and hit the cover off the ball (to the tune of a 240 OPS+!!!!). His last week was insane 11-19 3 Homers 11 RBIs 6 walks (that's a .680 OBP!!!!!!).....is it too early to talk MVP? Not according to this guy. But....one totally epic season does not win a division or allow you to be good (isn't that right Kansas City Royals?)...and some competency from the other 24 players is still needed.

The Indians start Mitch Talbot. He has 3 career starts under his belt. Two of them have come in 2010. So far, so good (1-1 3.21 era 120 ERA+). I'm not sure how sustainable this performance is but if he can continue to play fairly well and Shin-Soo Choo ends up breaking into the elite this year, the Indians could surprise some people this year.

Rangers vs. Red Sox Thursday MLB Network

Wilson vs. Bucholz

Interest Level:5

The Rangers have slogged to a 5-7 start thus far. Not too much about this team screams contender to me. The Rangers are starting C.J. Wilson in this one. Not sure how he will hold up the entire year as a starter (he spent the last 4 seasons exclusively in relief, 3 of them as a closer). One thing at least is for sure, you can't blame the Rangers slow start on Wilson (0-1 2.08 era 206 ERA+).....he even has a complete game under his belt....not bad for a player who has Ed Vosberg as his #1 comparable on baseball-reference.

I'm pretty sure not many people were expecting the Red Sox to start 4-9. Whether this is a sign of things to come or they are getting their worst stretch out of the way early, it is too early to tell. They have Clay Bucholz taking the hill for this game. Like Wilson, the Red Sox early struggles can't really be blamed on Bucholz as he has also started off well (1-1 1.80 era 242 ERA+). Are we in the middle of Clay Bucholz's breakout season? The Red Sox may need it if they want to be in contention.

Early Week National TV Baseball Preview

Time to see what's in store to start the second week of the season

Red Sox vs. Twins Monday ESPN

Lester vs. Pavano

Interest Level:6

The Twins finally get to open Target Field. It should be interesting to see how this stadium plays out in terms of whether it will be hitter friendly or not. The Red Sox come into this game at 3-3, the Twins have started 5-2 and at this point and appear to have not missed a beat despite not having Joe Nathan closing games out.

Reds vs. Marlins Monday MLB Network

Cueto vs. Nolasco

Interest Level: 4

The Reds were a lot of peoples pick to be a sleeper team in 2010. With a 3-3 start, they haven't really done anything to prove or disprove this notion. The Marlins had a nice first week going 4-2 and bring Ricky Nolasco (one of my picks to bounce back in 2010) to the hill.

Angels vs. Yankees Tuesday MLB Network

Santana vs. Pettite

Interest Level: 5

The Yankees started off pretty strong this week at a 4-2 clip. The Angels, well they have had better weeks. Hideki Matsui looks to be an excellent signing for the Angels early on as he came up clutch against the A's in last nights game. One of the few bright spots in their 2-5 week. Speaking of bright spots, Brandon Wood has been the exact opposite of this in his first week with a full time starting gig. Is this a sign of things to come or just the result of a bad week? We'll find out in due time.

D-Backs vs. Dodgers Tuesday MLB Network

Kennedy vs. Kershaw

Interest Level: 6

An early season NL West divisional battle. Not too much of a shock that one of these teams is sitting in second and one of them is sitting in fourth. The surprising thing is that the D-Backs are the team sitting in second and the Dodgers are the team sitting in 4th. One good reason to check this game out is that Clayton Kershaw is taking the hill for the Dodgers. Kershaw still struggles with bouts of wildness from time to time but has the talent/potential to be a Cy Young award caliber pitcher. Does this happen in 2010? Stay tuned to find out.

Nationals vs. Phillies Wednesday MLB Network

TBD vs. Kendrick

Interest Level: 4

The Phillies were expected by just about everyone to take the NL East so the fact that they are 5-1 and hanging out in 1st place shouldn't be shock to anyone. The Nationals were expected to drop straight down to the cellar but had a respectable 3-3 first week which was aided by random big games from the likes of Cristian Guzman and Willy Taveras (who did their part to place me in the basement of my Razzball league).

Astros vs. Cardinals

Myers vs. Penny

Interest Level:5

Another game where there isn't too many surprises about the teams respective places in the standings. No surprise at St. Louis at the top. No surprise that the Astros are at the bottom. The one surprise with the Astros is just the degree of ineptitude they have displayed in the first week of the season. They carry the title of being the only team to not win a game in 2010........ouch.

Random Rants Loosely Based Around Padres-Rockies Game

Alright......the blacked out you can only see 1 game portion of the Saturday MLB schedule and off to 5 PM Pacific Time on Saturday when you can watch several games at once. A few games tonight with fantasy implications for myself that will get primary focus (Padres-Rockies, Pirate-D-Backs, Angels-A's).

Still sorta waking up a bit as I took a lovely 2-hour nap that took me to about 15 minutes before first pitch.

Just realized Doumit is up right now....he's worked the count against Haren to a full 3-2. Showed lots of promise in 2008......off to a solid start....now its a matter of maintaining said start and staying healthy....and not striking out very often like he just did to end his teams half of the first.

Padres-Rockies game playing on the laptop right now. Gonzales is up right now, Blanks is on deck and Tony Gwynn Jr. is trying to argue his way out of a call that got him picked off from second. Gonzales strikes out to end Top of the first....looks like I have to wait a bit longer for Blanks to come up.

Blanks...sees ball....hits ball.....to short for a harmless groundout...the early season slump continues.

In other stuff going on in the bigs........Milton Bradley is in mid-season form as he flipped off some Rangers fans (c'mon Miton we aren't even a week into the season). Bradley has all the talent in the world but c'mon you can't be doing that stuff especially in your first week on a new team when you are 1 for 17. Even with this, he's still better for this team than Carlos Silva.

Speaking of Milton Bradley & The Rangers this reminds me of an incident back in September of 2008. I ended up taking in a Rangers-A's game towards the tail end of what has been Bradley's best season to date. Anyways, somewhere in the middle of the game (4th ish inning) Milton Bradley has one of his standard temper tantrums and gets himself ejected.

At this game, I happened to be sitting in the left field bleachers which gave me a straight view of the Rangers dugout which was on the first-base side and thus a clear view of the tunnel Bradley would be walking towards to get back to wherever ejected players go. The one thing that stuck out ion Bradley's walk was he knew exactly where he was going. This obviously wasn't the first time he got kicked out of a game and from the way he was walking it was obvious this was a walk he's taken mid-game many times before....it was almost like he went on auto-pilot when he got kicked out.

The Rockies-Padres game flashed back to a home run Ian Stewart launched off of Yovani Gallardo on opening day. If his series against the Crew is any indication, my prediction of him struggling this year could turn out to be horribly wrong.....at least the Brewers took 2 out of 3 in the series.

In the I guess it serves me right having a Yankee on my fantasy team department: In the random CBS League, I had been getting pretty good production from my starting pitchers.....then Vasquez made his start Friday....pitched bad enough to get negative points and was one of the catalysts from going from a 30 point cushion I had going into Friday to being down 20 points to my opponent for the week in one day...Seriously I got outscored by something along the lines of 60-8. Obviously it takes a whole team to fail epically like that but giving up 8 runs in 5 innings doesn't help that any......an early indication to not expect the crazy production he gave during 2009.

Just noticed Doumit is up and that he's behind 0-2 in the count. Again, Doumit strikes out to end the inning. A bit creepy how that sequence parallels the sequence from about half an hour ago in the first inning.

It took till the 3rd inning but Chris Ianetta ends Mat Latos' no-hit bid by taking him yard. Just stumbled across a Forbes special report about The Business of Baseball. My take on this, is time for me to give some input on the Randy Levine controversy going on right now. Mark Levine pretty much told Brewers owner Mark Attanasio to stop complaining about the salary mis-balance in baseball.

Needless to say, Randy Levine is not my favorite person right now. Taking a look at the Forbes make it even clearer that Levine is acting like a grown bully. The current value of the Yankees is almost twice as high as the next closest team (Red Sox) and about 5 times higher than the Brewers which obviously makes it a bigger deal for the Brewers to dish out an A-Rod/Jeter type salary than it would be for a team like the Brewers. It's also easier for the Yankees to do this when their revenue runs circles around teams like the Brewers (441 million to 171 million) and runs circles around the next closest team (Mets-268 million) ....To recap, teams from massive markets like New York are easily able to generate revenue and pay players to more lucrative contracts and Levine is ready to taunt anyone who calls out the mis-balances of this system.

Whew, that was a long rant. Time to watch Blanks go to the plate and hit. Blanks finally manages to get on base as he just got hit by a pitch. Will Venable: Clutch Hitter....first Padres at-bat with the bases juiced (according to their announcers) Venable turns a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead within seconds......also Angels-A's are underway as well....despite no fantasy implications, i'm anxious to see how Ben Sheets does in his start tonight.

I guess the Angels had seen enough out of Wood for now to not put him in tonight's line-up as Izturis gets the start tonight. The Ben Sheets era starts out good enough for Oakland as he has induced a harmless line out to second.

What in the name of Billy Beane is going on? The Fox Sports West broadcast just showed a brief capsule of the A's of Low Payroll (What else is new) Young deep pitching rotation (Hudson, Zito, Mulder: The Next Generation) and Small Ball (Small Ball ???!!!!!! your talking about small ball....dude your Billy Beane...the same Billy Beane that tought us about how small ball was a waste out of outs....i don't care how many bases Ricky Henderson thinks Rajai Davis can steal......Jack Cust is still a more valuable offensively player because hey hitting home runs leads to more runs than stealing bases (oh wait--that's right Jack Cust just got DFA'd right before opening day).

It looks like we have a potential Coors Field slugfest on our hands as Hawpe just went deep to pull the Rockies within 4-3. Your classic Coors Field home run as the Hawpe home run has initiated a discussion about how they thought it was just another fly ball that the ball park was going to contain.

Going to the 5th in the Padres-Rockies game...Gwynn, Eckstein, Gonzales due up......another chance for Blanks if one of the above gets on base. Get to see Ben Sheets try to pitch his way out of some trouble as the Angels have runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 gone and and Kendrick coming up the answer to that...so far so good as he induces a fielders choice....good to see Sheets off to a good start.

Tulowitzki is doing his part to postpone Blanks' next plate appearance to the 6th as he makes a nice catch. That's followed by David Eckstein getting the ball out of the infield (good) which led to a running catch by Gonzales (bad).....Padres go down in order......we play the waiting game for the next Kyle Blanks at bat.

Just looked at the interface for my CBS league team and saw Ryan Doumit struck out a 3rd time for the night. This week, my team has struck out 45 times in 171 At-Bats.

A sign that your team isn't contending this year: The broadcast team speculates about your team's chance of being respectable....not good...not contenders....but respectability.

Latos has a nice 1-2-3 fifth....induces a couple of strikeouts leaving us a commercial break away from Kyle Blanks next at-bat.......the cold stretch continues as he strikes out.

Off to the Pirates-D-Backs game as Doumit is on deck......Pirates looking in position to win as they have a comfy 6-0 lead aided by a Kelly Johnson falling asleep on defense....Hideki Matsui welcomes Ben Sheets to the American League by driving in a run to put the Angels up 1-0

Doumit.....racks up his 4th strikeout of the game....back to the Padres-Rockies game which has proven to be much more entertaining......wasn't on the Pirates-D-Backs game very long but long enough to get the quote of the night from one of the announcers "you can train a chimpanzee for 2 weeks to do this job"........classic.......it may have been said as a joke but sometimes it seems there is a kernel of truth considering the following situation has gone down several teams.....Cheddarhead is watching random baseball game on TV and the conversation turns to some observation about the game going on......only to hear the announcers say the EXACT SAME THING pretty much verbatim about an inning or two later

Hawpe just hit another homer to tie it at 4-all during the middle of the previous paragraph.

Sorta spacing in and out of these games Padres-Rockies go into the 7th inning stretch tied.....Angels just broke a tie with the A's---wandering around aimlessly through ballhype looking through what else is going on. Luke Gregerson coming into pitch for the Padres......appearantly the dude was awesome at Petco.....terrible outside of Petco (according to the graphic they just showed).

Tony Gwynn Jr. is doing his part to help Gregerson improve on the road as he just made a really good catch. Looks like Ben Sheets first A's start isn't looking as good as a couple innings ago as he has fallen behind 3-1 and has runners in scoring position.......but he manages to get out without digging into a deeper hole.

The Rockies end the 7th without going deep or scoring a run......bad news which means no free Whoppers for people in the Denver area.

Betancourt comes in for the Rockies. According to the graphic shown on TV, he's pretty good against the Padres. If anyone gets on base for the Padres, we'll get another Kyle Blanks plate appearance. David Eckstein just "grounded out" on a pitch that hit the bottom knob of his bat (below his choked up hands). So let me get this straight, in addition to not being very good at hitting he somehow manages to botch a routine HBP........wow.....

Gonzales rips a single to right.....can Blanks improve on his .062 average now.....stay tuned to find out.....while Blanks attempt to go yard was unsuccessful...he did rip a double to get runners in scoring position for Headley......i'll take it as progress. Headley strikes out.....on a pitch that goes in the dirt......the Padres have a 4th out to play with...bases loaded....Venable gets a chance to make a further dent in the game.....Venable drops to a .500 average with the bases juiced as he strikes out to end the inning......

Even though there are fantasy implications with the Pirates game and the Ben Sheets storyline in the A's game......at this point i've gotten heavily engaged in the Padres-Rockies game and the A's-Angels game has taken a background role.........Mike Adams now in the game for the Padres with Ben Sheets already pitching, Adams is the second injury-prone ex-Brewers player to pitch in a game in the last couple of hours.

Starts off strong as he strikes out Fowler. This shouldn't be shocking as the dude has struck out 9.1 batters per 9 innings in his career. According to the broadcasters, the Rockies are 0 for 16 against Adams so the fact that he's put down the first two hitters should not be a surprise. For a moment, it sounded like Tulowitzki changed that to a 1 for 17 with a homer......however, the ball harmlessly lands in Kyle Blanks' glove instead.

The Rockies are handing things over to Franklin Morales. The in my best interest scenario involves the Padres scoring 1-3 runs in the top of the 9th and Heath Bell coming in to get a save.....will this happen....we'll know for sure fairly soon. The Padres pinch-hit one junior (Tony Gwynn) for another (Jerry Hairston)......I wonder what the single season record for one junior pinch-hitting for another is........regardless the Rockies get out of the 9th and get an opportunity to win in their last At-Bat.

Cesar Ramos' turn to keep this game a 4-all affair. A tall order considering he is making his 8th career appearance. Appearantly Ramos is the Padres LOOGY as he strikes out a couple of lefties and is promptly pulled from the game. It may be the 1st week of the season but this game has a semi-epic intense feeling to it. With this change, it's up to Mujica to force some extra frames. He may not have the best body of work (career 83 ERA+) but he gets the job done.

EXTRA INNINGS!!!!!! Extra Innings De-neh-nuh-nuh-neh. Also, Blanks is due up 3rd....could he be the one to get a game winning hit here.....stay tuned to find out. It also looks like the 4K game by Doumit is official as the Pirates game ended with the Pirates winning 6-3

Matt Daley takes the hill to start the 10th. A couple quick ground outs bring us to another Kyle Blanks plate appearance..with my fantasy team down 22.5 points....a home run would help a lot. Gets a basehit.....that brings him to 2 for the game.....more encouraging in the long term that possibly the slump he's in is relatively short lived.....also has a chance to score the winning run as he moved to 3rd on a Headley single......only down by 21.5 points now.....speaking of right now.....another pitching change.....the Rockies counter with their LOOGY Randy Flores.....again Venable is up with a chance to do some serious damage.....for the second time in 3 innings....Venable is unable to replicate his 4th inning appearance as the Padres squander another opportunity for Blanks to score a run and Bell to come in and get a save.

Jason Giambi is up pinch-hitting.....just realized that he looks pretty old.......old enough to not bite on any pitches not even close to the strike zone.....and promptly gets pulled for a pinch runner.........Giambi getting some pretty intense high fives for standing there and drawing the walk...almost as if he had gotten a game winning hit.....the pinch-runner strategy turned out to be a pretty big fail/non-factor as an inning-ending double play was induced.......11th INNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt Belisle gets handed the task of keepin it at 4-all. I can't tell if the Padres are looking to score runs or if they're trying to engage Brad Hawpe in a game of pepper. Matt Stairs pinch-hitting....let me re-state that; Professional Hitter Matt Stairs.....Stairs penchant for going for the home run swing gets the best of him as he strikes out chasing a pitch out of the zone.........speaking of Matt Stairs....the Padres are team #12 he has played for........my take is that he should just go all in and try to play for all 30 teams before he retires....sure age isn't on his side (he's 42)....but c'mon for that shot of immortality it's worth the shot.

Tim Stauffer's turn to extend the game. Ouch, dude just got slammed by the broadcast team for not having the career of a 4th overall draft pick. File that under signs that things have not gone as planned. His career may not have gone well but he did his part to force a 12th inning.

For what seems like the umpteenth time tonight, Blanks is due up fourth in this inning. In all this focus on the Padres-Rockies game has completely obscured the fact that the Angels and A's are tied in the 9th. Gonzales is getting the intentional pass......Blanks gets a chance to hit with two runners on.....Yes!!!!!!

Kyle Blanks swung at 2 pitches outside the zone and racked up another K........No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not a fan of leaving things hanging like a Lost episode but the reality it's pushing 9 pm on a Saturday Night.....I got places to be................

Cardinals-Brewers Series Preview

The first series of the season turned out fairly well with the Crew taking 2 out of 3 from the Rockies. As it stands the Crew trails Pirates and Cardinals by 1/2 a game (they'll either be tied or a game back when the series actually starts.

Friday

Lohse vs. Bush

Chico, California product Kyle Lohse gets the start Friday night. Not a star but always finds a way on someones rotation. Historically, this hasn't been enough for him to be effective against Brewers hitters. Gerut, Braun and Counsell have all hit him fairly well....wouldn't be surprised if Gomez and/or Escobar end up getting the night off.

Dave Bush....well there's no way to go but up from his 2009 performance. The reigning NL leader of Hit Batsmen makes his 2010 debut on Friday. Like his counterpart, Bush hasn't exactly dominated the opposition. Pujols, Molina, Schumaker and Ludwick have all hit him around pretty good. In other words, don't be shocked if both terms score runs by the bunch.

Saturday

Carpenter vs. Gallardo

Well, Carpenter has made it through one start healthy. The health thing all about taking it one start at a time. The reigning 2009 NL Leader in ERA, ERA+, Win Pct. and HR/9 gets the start here. Counsell, Edmonds and Fielder have all hit him pretty well but in general Brewers hitters have struggled against Carpenter (then again who hasn't) to the tune of an .580 OPS

The last time (Monday) Gallardo went up against someone on one of my fantasy teams (Jiminez) he ended up coming away with a loss. Considering Carpenter is on one of my fantasy teams, this isn't a good omen. Another bad omen is that Pujols and Molina have hit him relatively well and current cards hitters have rocked him to the tune of a .846 OPS. Based on the past, this game isn't looking too good for the Crew.

Sunday

Garcia vs. Wolf

In this ESPN-televised Sunday night game, the Cardinals are giving Jaime Garcia his 2nd career start (and 11th appearance). The Brewers may struggle against pitchers making their big league debut but Garcia has started before (albeit once) which alone increases the Brewers hopes.

Sunday marks start number 2 of the Randy Wolf era. His start Tuesday didn't exactly go great but the Brewers did enough on offense for them to win (i.e. for this to not be that big of a deal). Wolf has historically struggled against Lopez, Pujols and Holliday. Wolf going against hitters that have hit him well versus a young inexperienced pitcher, we could be in for another high-scorer on Sunday.

Baseball On TV This Weekend

Braves vs. Giants Friday MLB Network

Hudson vs. Sanchez

Interest Level: 6

Will this be the beginning of Tim Hudson's bounce-back season? What will Jason Heyward do to help his team (As a side note, I am glad that the Braves bypassed the send him down for a couple months to bypass the arbitration rules, realized Heyward was their best option and let him start the season in Atlanta....I wouldn't be shocked to see the Braves awarded karmically with a post-season berth for not trying (poorly) to convince everyone that he needs time to "develop" his game say until late-May/early-June when he would "magically" be ready to face major-league pitching

The Giants counter with Jonathan Sanchez. Had an interesting '09 started poorly, threw a no-hitter, finished strong. Is this the start of a 2010 breakout season? On a side note, the Giants handled their prospect situation (Buster Posey) differently be sending him down to Triple-A despite a strong spring.

A's vs. Angels Saturday MLB Network

Sheets vs. Weaver

Interest Level: 9

This week has seen my first exposure to J.J Hardy in a non-Brewers uniform and it looks like our first exposure to Ben Sheets in a non-Brewers uniform. Of course, this is Sheets first big league appearance since 2008 and this step one of the journey to see whether Sheets is worth the investment and can he actually stay healthy for a full season. He has the talent, just a matter of staying healthy to make a full season worth of starts.

The Angels start Jered Weaver ( who happens to be the best MLB pitcher that I watched in-person while they were still in college---he was the starting pitcher for a Long Beach State vs. Cal Poly game I went to in 2003.....I don't know much about college baseball but I know that he DESTROYED Big West hitting)...and on a fantasy baseball note.....will Brandon Wood break out of his slump?

Yankees vs. Rays Saturday Fox, Sunday TBS

Sabathia vs. Davis Saturday

Burnett vs. Shields Sunday

Interest Level:4

Umpire Joe West made news this week by saying that the Yankees and Red Sox take too many timeouts and are making the length of games longer. Not sure how true that is but the Yankees and Rays took their sweet time determining who would be starting their games this weekend (single-handedly pushing back the posting of this post by a day)....Personally i'm more concerened with the Randy Levine vs.Mark Attanasio dispute over salary distribution. My take: once every team has their own network to run their games (YES Network) and a national network (ESPN) obsessed with their every move.....then he may have a point. Sure these things have nothing to do with the upcoming games but c'mon it's the Yankees, if you miss these games all you have to do is wait a couple of days.

Mariners vs. Rangers Saturday FOX

Hernandez vs. Harrison

Interest Level: 6

With FOX's regional coverage combined with living on the west coast....i'm probably stuck with this game and this game only regardless of personal preference. On the bright side, this should be my first chance to see this year's re-tooled Mariners team in action. Felix Hernandez, the reigning AL leader in Wins, Winning Percentage, Wild Pitches & Hits/9 Innnings gets start #2 of the season.

The Rangers counter with Matt Harrison who is making career start #27 but has yet to replicate the success of his Saturday counterpart. If nothing else, he has shown a high level of endurance as he threw 2 complete games in his 11 starts from '09 (good for 9th in the AL)

Brewers vs. Cardinals Saturday Fox, Sunday ESPN

See series preview post.

If Thursday is the New Friday than this is the preview for some televised early weekend games

So, originally I planned on previewing all of the weekend action (Thursday-Sunday) in one post but since TBD is tentatively scheduled to make several starts for several teams from Friday to Sunday, I decided to give Friday-Sunday its own post and break down what was left (tomorrow's MLB Network Triple-Header).

Dodgers vs. Pirates Thursday MLB Network

Billingsley vs. Malholm

Interest Level: 5

On paper this should be a mismatch in favor of the Dodgers but considering how the Pirates destroyed the Dodgers on Opening day, that isn't a given. Is this the start that allows Billingsley to bounce back from a weak 2009 season or do his struggles continue?

What to make of Malholm? He was a top-10 pick in 2003 but so far has been a fairly average pitcher. Is 2010 his breakout season? How long do the Pirates stay in first? Will Ryan Church stop driving in runs and allow me to rise above 11th place in a league with only 10 human teams?

Mariners vs. A's Thursday MLB Network

Fister vs. Anderson

Interest Level: 5

Doug Fister starts his first full season in the bigs (pitched in 11 games last year) against AL West Divisional Rival Oakland.

Brett Anderson is the main reason to pay attention to this game. He held his own in his rookie year last year and it's scary how good he could be within a couple of years (he's only 22). As good as he will be in a few years, the A's will be bad this year as they seem to replicate the as little offense as possible model as their neighbors on the other side of the bay, the Giants.

Not sure what Billy Beane was thinking when he DFA'd Jack Cust. He made his legacy/reputation on building a team around guys like Cust....sure other GMs eventually ripped off his strategies/methods making it harder for him to get the players he wanted. Seriously, this team was already power challenged before this DFA and getting rid of a player who's gone yard 84 times in the last 3 years is not going to help any.

Cubs vs. Braves Thursday MLB Network

Wells vs. Hanson

Interest Level: 6

A battle between a couple pitchers who had strong rookie years and are looking to avoid the sophomore slump. Hanson got the upper hand in the Rookie of the Year voting (3rd vs. 6th), came into the 2009 season with much more hype surrounding him......does he make this a clean sweep by ultimately producing more than Wells or will this 6-seed prevail in the end?

Random Thoughts Loosely Based Around The Twins-Angels while completely avoiding Tiger Woods and the NFC East

So today is the first day of baseball season......a rundown of how my teams have done

Razzball: Well for my Razzball team, today was a pretty epic failure...i have minus 15 points in a league where 2/3 of MLB hitters have positive value (thanks a lot Yuniesky Betancourt and Ryan Church and your combined minus 28 points) it would have been worse but Mike Jacobs did his part by going 0 for 4 and striking out twice....

Cheddarhead: Not sure exactly where we stand since we haven't figured out how to get 2 people to access the same team but Lowe won, Jiminez won (not happy at all about this one) Pujols went deep twice, Blanks went deep

Random CBSSports League that i'm in: Weekly H2H points.......Off to a nice start here....benefitted from solid starts by Halladay and Carpenter the first of several Kyle Blanks home runs and a big day by Ryan Doumit

Which brings me to right now (7:30 Pacific Time) and the current Twins-Angels game that's on my TV (On Fox Sports West)......a solid amount of fantasy implications for this one (Cuddyer starts for both Cheddarhead and Random CBS League) (Hardy starts for Random CBS League and he's a reserve for Chedderhead) and Brandon Wood is a starter in Random CBS League)...whew that's alot of information to regurgitate in a paragraph......also Brendan Harris is starting and Nick Punto is a reserve for the Razzball team

The broadcast team for the game is reminiscing about the Twins coming back against the Tigers last year and referred to the one-game playoff as a play-in game.......usually hear that phrase referred to for the play-in game 64/65 for the NCAA tournament which is about to be ruined in the name of the dollar.........The broadcast team is now talking smack about the Red Sox-Yankees game last night.....about how it's not really opening day.....did that game happen....but turn around and say you get your money's worth because you get 4 hours of baseball....not sure if they're endorsing the game or if they're hating......only the broadcasters know

Sorta spacing out on the Twins-Angels game currently.....the announcers were discussing the Twins off-season restructuring and then Delmon Young goes deep 30 seconds later........an omen that the Twins will be able to overcome not having Joe Nathan?

It's 7:46......time for J.J Hardy's first at bat as a twin....which ends with a harmless ground out to the pitcher........"bacon makes everything taste better even bacon" random Jack In The Box commercial that was on TV

7:48 time for Brandon Wood to hit......ouch Wood strikes out......fail.......why couldn't he be more like Jeff Mathis and go yard.......seriously dude has a 56 OPS+......just looked it up on Baseball-Reference.......anothe side effect of going there was looking at the 2010 standings and seeing the Yankees in last place....the person sponsoring his baseball reference page has a couple of sentences written one of them being "Scoscia says Mathis is one of the Angels most valuable players"

Looking at the data from last year's Angels team and a random sampling of players who had better years at the plate than Mathis:

Gary "got a fat contract off of one decent season and one crazy catch" Matthews

Robb Quinlan

Maicier Izturis

Erick Aybar

The game is cruising along into the 3rd inning...Orlando Hudson hit a double....they're interviewing Angels GM Tony Reagins....the interview with Reagins somehow moved to random Wikipediaing as Mauer strikes out to end the top of the 3rd.......

Random Wikipeida fun-fact of the Week of Monday of the 3rd inning of the 8'o clock hour. His GM predecessor Bill Stoneman, threw 2 no-hitters (both with the Expos) despite a pedestrian career record of 54-85

Another half of the 3rd another guest.....this time Tim Salmon who's talking about how he's able to enjoy opening day more now that he's no longer playing in the bigs....and fielding questions about his take on spring training........not every day that the 1993 AL Rookie of the Year is in tha studio......8:09 Fun Fact: Tim Salmon finished in the Top 10 in MVP voting twice but somehow never got selected to an All-Star game

4th inning....we know what this means....TRIVIA time.....tonight's question who holds the Angels record for most opening day starts.....dean chance and mike witt are the guesses given by the broadcast team.......not giving away the answer but one of those is right......

More importantly, Cuddyer is up right now.....struck out in the 2nd....they just flashed that he was the 9th pick in the 1997 draft....ground out to 3rd......fail.......what isn't a fail is that the Twins were able to get Cuddyer after the teams above them drafted future hall of famers such as Matt Anderson, Jason Grilli, and Geoff Getz.......

Going to the middle of the 4th....Wood due up 3rd in the inning...randomly checking SI.com to see how Butler-Duke is going (Butler down 1 with 5 minutes left) but in general couldn't care less about Basketball at this point....

Kendrick just grounded out to second...which means....time for Brandon Wood to step to the plate.....another strikeout for Wood........double fail

We're on Guest #3 of the night Rod Carew....just mentioned that he thinks Jeff Mathis is a great player......Counter-Point: Random Sampling of players Baseball-Reference finds similar to Mathis

Dann Bilardello

Bob Uecker

Ron Tingley

Tim Spher

Ned Yost

J.J Hardy is up......now if only "productive" outs were a fantasy baseball category.....as Hardy grounds out to second but moves the runner to third........Punto hits sac fly to tie game at 3-all

They just rolled the cameras into the crowd.......to show someone in an Angels hat and Cubs jacket.......awkward/just plain wrong......just showed some footage of Target Field......I wonder if they'll break any single-season records for Snowout Induced Double-Headers.....I could see a retractable roof stadium up in Minnesota but no protection from the weather......fail

Briefly flipped to CBS to see that the Duke Vitales won the national championship.........is anyone outside of CBS, ESPN or Tobacco Road happy about this? I highly doubt it

Things could get a bit interesting.....Hunter just walked 2 on 2 out for Hideki...came within a few feet of making this a 6-3 game.....hooks a bit too far to the right....just another foul ball....but settles for a go-ahead RBI Single...and with that Scott Baker's night is over...just did some image thing listing some of his accomplishments showing Matsui with crazy Godzilla eyes......weird

Jesse Crain is brought in to clean up what Baker left behind.....what can be said about him? He's from canada been in both World Baseball Classics and he was 8th in 2005's Rookie Of The Year voting....oh and he induced a ground ball to get the Twins out of the 5th

Morneau walks...Cuddyer's up......knocks a base hit to center 1st and 2nd 2 out......can this be the catalyst to tying up the game?

Well.....it's 9 o'clock.....as fun as it has been to give whatever thoughts/insight about tonight's Angels/Twins game....the reality is i'm getting sleepy, i'm mis-spelling words every other sentence (and correcting them of course).......

Brewers-Rockies Preview: First Series of the Decade

With the 2010 season rearing and ready to go, we finally begin to get the questions answered such as can the Brewers return to the playoffs, can their pitching staff actually get anyone out this year so on and so forth.

Monday

Jiminez vs. Gallardo

For several years, I was reluctant to play Fantasy Baseball because of the situations where I would have to pick between the Brewers and the fantasy team. I can't even get past the first game of the season without getting into this situation as Jiminez is a key member of Cheddarhead. I have decided to rationalize this by thinking "it's ok if he pitches well all season but he can feel free to give up 8 runs in 2 1/3 against the Brewers, he has 30-plus starts to actually pitch well"

For the Brewers, Yovani Gallardo will be making the 1st of what should be several opening day starts. If nothing else, at least theres no way he could be worse than last years opening day starter (Jeff Suppan). As the only Brewer pitcher to pitch well last year, it's good to see him leading off the season, now if only he can lay off on the walks.........

Tuesday

Smith vs. Wolf

The Rockies are giving Greg Smith the start on Tuesday. He pitched fairly well in '08 but didn't see any big league action last year. The most interesting things that can be said about him is he's good at picking off runners and he ended up being one of the players that went to Colorado for Matt Holliday.

This is an important game for the Brewers as this is Randy Wolf's first start as a Brewer. On Tuesday, we begin to find out whether Randy Wolf is a good investment or if he is Jeff Suppan Version 2.0. Since Wolf has spent time pitching in the NL West, he should be fairly familiar with most of the Rockies hitters. A few positive indicators here:

1) Some of the Rockies projected regulars have struggled against Wolf (Helton, Tulowitzki and Barmes).

2) In the glass half empty/glass half full line of thinking: He's given up plenty of homers to current Rockies players (9 in 122 at bats) but at the same time they've hit .205 off him.

Wednesday

Cook vs. Davis

The Rockies are bringing Aaron Cook to the hill for Wednesday's MLB Network national broadcast. A fairly steady-slightly above average pitcher--pitching half the games at Coors, no small feat. Out of current Brewers, Counsell, Gerut & Fielder have struggled pretty bad against him but Jim Edmonds has pretty much owned him. If Edmonds is getting any starts this year, Wednesday should be one of those games. Despite Edmonds strong track record, it could be a long day for the Brewers as Cook has pitched fairly well against the current Brewers.

Another day, another first start for a Brewers off-season acquisition. Doug Davis starts his second stint as a Brewer with this start on Wednesday. Doug Davis is the reigning National League leader in Games Started and Walks. Looking at his past performance against the Rockies does give some cause for concern. Both Tulowitzki and Helton have hit him well and amongst current Rockies, they have tagged Davis to the tune of an .880 OPS....ouch.