April 04, 2008
Games of the Day
Arizona attends the Rockies home opener. I'm told, however, Colorado is stretching the NL Championship celebration over the weekend, so they won't raise the pennant nor give out rings today. They hope that drives attendance higher for all three games. I would think playing the team they beat for the flag would be enough. Micah Owings faces Mark Redman. Owings hit better than he pitched last season, blasting four home runs for a .683 slugging percentage. Redman pitched well for Colorado down the stretch last season, posting a 3.20 ERA. Earlier in the season, he went 0-4 with an 11.63 ERA for Atlanta. My guess is he'll end up somewhere in between this season.
Tampa Bay gets their first real challenge of the season as they travel to New York to face the Yankees. Two young pitchers take the mound tonight as Andy Sonnanstine faces Ian Kennedy. I'm very curious to see what Sonnanstine does with a better defense behind him. He only walked 26 batters in 130 2/3 innings last season, and induced 20 double plays. He allowed a lot of hits, however and I wonder if Bartlett will make a big difference in that area. Kennedy, in his brief stint with the Yankees was the opposite. He walked close to a batter every other inning, but was very tough to hit. That led to a 1.89 ERA.
Someone other than Matsuzaka or Lester gets to start a game for the Red Sox as Tim Wakefield takes the mound for Boston against Shaun Marcum in Toronto. It's the third country of the Red Sox opening season tour. The Red Sox catcher will received some scrutiny:
The burden of catching Wakefield, who makes his first start of 2008 tonight against the Toronto Blue Jays in Rogers Centre, now falls on Kevin Cash, who is seven years younger than Mirabelli. Cash showed last season after Mirabelli strained a calf muscle that he could handle the knuckleball, but has yet to prove he can hit big league pitching, as his .167 career average in limited time with the Blue Jays, Devil Rays, and Sox would attest.
It does seem more important to stop the knuckleball than to hit for average. The rest of the lineup is pretty good at putting runs on the board.
Marcum is one of the three young but experience starters on the Blue Jays. He posts good strikeout and walk numbers, but the long ball really hurts him. If he can keep his home runs limited to solo shots, he'll be okay.
The Mets are working their way north and play Atlanta. Both staffs are facing a depleted rotation as old starters Smoltz, Hampton, Martinez and Hernandez all work on healing from injuries. Nonetheless, the teams present a good matchup tonight as John Maine takes on Tim Hudson. Since joining the Mets after a high ERA in Baltimore, Maine's posted a 3.81 ERA in 281 innings for New York, striking out 8 per nine innings. Hudson is the only one of Oakland's big three to keep his value since leaving the team, pitching well enough to earn a .581 winning percentage with Atlanta.
Finally, the Angels come home to face Texas in a battle of youngsters. Injuries forced Dustin Moseley into the rotation. He's a pitcher who needs a good defense behind him as he keeps the ball in the strike zone, but records few strikeouts. Gabbard was impressive with the Red Sox in 2007, not so much with Texas. The difference was that a lot more hits fell in when he played for the Rangers, once again showing the value of the defense behind the starter.
Enjoy!
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Posted by David Pinto at
10:50 AM
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Cash caught wake last year and in spring training and has yet to have a pb.