This Week in Baseball 4/1 - 4/8

[Mik]

How good is the MLBTV? I'm going to have to use that since we're not allowed Directv at my apartment complex.

 

Flat rate? By month? Also, has anyone hooked up their computer to a big screen to watch MLBTV? Good quality?

 

It gets better every year. I haven't used it yet this year but I ordered the premium which offers higher quality. I can stretch it full on a widescreen monitor and it looks good but no idea about tv.

 

And has Diamond Cutter officially replaced Web Gem on BBTN? Not sure what I think about that.

 

Admittedly, Web Gem is corny and a little stupid but I got familiar with it.

[The Man in Blak]

Lineups for Opening Night:

 

METS:

Reyes, ss

Lo Duca, c

Beltran, cf

Delgado, 1b

Wright, 3b

Alou, lf

Green, rf

Jo. Valentin, 2b

Glavine, p

 

CARDINALS:

Eckstein, ss

Wilson, rf

Pujols, 1b

Rolen, 3b

Y. Molina, c

Edmonds, cf

Taguchi, lf

Kennedy, 2b

Carpenter, p

 

BANZAI in left field, Yaddy hitting fifth, and Kennedy buried in the no. 8 hole? We haven't even started the season and I already want to ring TLR's neck.

[Guest Queen Leelee]

Boo, where's Duncan. I love players like him.

 

Molina at 5th. What the fuck is that. Hey, even though Edmonds is 90 years old, he can still hit.

[Bored]

Hey two mintues in and we get Morgan's first shot at statistics.

[The Man in Blak]

I can understand Edmonds being down in the order (about a 200 point dip against lefties in his career) and I can even understand Duncan being held out of the lineup, but sliding Preston Wilson: Professional Strikeout Artist in the no. 2 slot and putting 216/.274/.321 in the heart of the order is space madness, October heroics be damned.

 

And there's Kennedy with the keystone yips. Let's get through eight more, little d00d.

[Matt Young]

And there's our first triple of the year, from Adam Kennedy......................... Kennedy.

[vivalaultra]

And we follow that up with the first unsuccessful squeeze attempt of the year. Geeze, Tony...first time you get a guy in scoring position and you go for the squeeze. You so crazy!

[Guest Queen Leelee]

Squeeze attempt... I'm guessing Eckstein.

[vivalaultra]

Nah, it was Carpenter. He bunted too close to the batter's box and it went to Hell from there. I know it's only the first game of the season, but Carp's looking bad. Really bad. Like...might be cause for concern bad. Hey!!!! There'srussspringerinthebullpenalriterussyoukickass!!!!

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Travis Buck has made the A's opening day roster.

[vivalaultra]

Woo-hoo! The 'Stros are tied for first place in the NL Central! Take that snobby sportswriters!!!!!

 

...so, did Vince McMahon get his head shaved?

[Guest]

Matt Kemp made the Opening Day roster ahead of James Loney, and Juan Pierre will be batting leadoff tomorrow, with Russell Martin behind him.

 

Yuck

[Guest Queen Leelee]

Why do you hate Russell Martin?

[Mik]

But didn't you know that he'll be on the grounds a few hours before the game rolling balls down the lines to see if they roll fair or foul.

 

+10 chemistry points.

 

 

Gonna take the laptop to school tomorrow and watch the Marlins game at the library while "working". Should be fun.

[Guest]

Why do you hate Russell Martin?

Pierre will try to bunt every time he comes up to the plate when leading off an inning, essentially making Martin the leadoff hitter.

 

My yuck was mostly in response to my finding out the entire lineup, and for those interested (nobody)...

 

Pierre, CF

Martin, C

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzalez, LF

Betemit, 3B

Ethier, RF

Martinez, SS

Lowe, P

 

I love Russell Martin though, I had him av'd up all season.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Gotta give my hat off to the good defense the Mets played tonight to shut down any momentum the Cardinals had. This was especially prevalent in the eighth when the Cards had the bases loaded with one out and Heilman was able to induce a ground ball fielded excellently by Valentin and getting a 4-6-3 double play.

 

Also, I think the Mets did a fantastic job wearing down Carpenter by getting his pitch count up early as just four innings in he had 74 pitches versus 43 for Glavine. Of course this was helped by the Mets forcing Carpenter to throw 27 pitches in that fourth inning that decided the game where the Mets scored three runs and got four hits.

 

The funny thing for St. Louis is that this game could've been much worse on the scoreboard early on as the Mets stranded six runners in the first five innings and three of those runners were in scoring position when the final out of the inning was made.

 

I was also surprised at how poorly the Cards moved runners tonight with Carpenter messing up the squeeze play, Eckstein getting gunned down at home, and then having the bases loaded twice and not being able to convert.

 

Good eyes + good D = opening night win for the Mets.

[devo]

I'm really surprised that the Mets got to Carpenter as well as they did - before the game, I fully expected him to go six or seven innings and not give up more than a couple runs. And I admit that a few spectacular plays prevented this game from possibly going the other way, but still, a very satisfying win tonight for the Mets. It's going to be a while before another play made this season tops Beltran gunning Eckstein down. That throw was perfect.

[treble]

A little bit of overkill, as the Detroit FOX affiliate has a 3 hour pre-game show before today's game. I realize they were a great story last year, but has there ever been such a big deal made about the team that lost the World Series?

[lomasmoney]

Well going from one of the worst teams ever to an American League Champion in three years, is a huge accomplishment, and Detroit is a sports crazy town

[snuffbox]

I see the Brewers have a new play-by-play guy but Bill Schroeder is still doing color/analysis.

[CanadianChris]

Stop the season, Royce Clayton is batting 1.000.

[Brett Favre]

Pavano alright after one inning. The Yankees up 2-0.

[Guest Queen Leelee]

Only 1 inning to start the Alexander hate. Good.

[Guest]

Trade him for Matt Kemp and James Loney plz.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Is anyone else getting a blank picture for the Cubs-Reds game on ESPN2 or am I being blacked out?

[devo]

You're probably being blacked out. I've got ESPNEWS on ESPN2's normal channel right now, myself. I'm watching Cubs/Reds on FSN Ohio - if you've got WGN, you can watch it on that channel, too.

[Danville_Wrestling]

Thanks Devo. I dunno why I didn't think of turning to WGN. I wish I got the FSN Ohio network but my college dorm doesn't offer it in the package.

 

I just saw on the bottom of the ESPN ticker that the Tribune company will be selling the Cubs for over $8 billion at the end of this season to a real estate investor.

 

Edit: Why is Adam Dunn batting in the #2 slot?

 

Edit #2: Well since he just hit a 2 run homer on a 1-2 pitch I guess that answers that question.

[Mik]

Miguel Cabrera just christened the season with a monster upper deck shot off John Patterson. Add that to a bases loaded ground rule double earlier. Nice.

[Guest Queen Leelee]

Edit: Why is Adam Dunn batting in the #2 slot?

Because he gets on base a lot.

 

Unlike Brandon Phillips, and basically everyone else on that team.

[Guest]

I have never seen a worse throwing arm than the one that Juan Pierre currently possesses.

 

But Jeff Kent hit a HR, so yay.