02 Apr 2011, by Ted
Felix Hernandez recovered from an early homer ceded to Josh Willingham by shutting the A's down for the rest of the Seattle Mariners' first game, using his Cy Young curveball and the fastball that seems imbued with a little additional gravity when it leaves the King's hand.
Chone Figgins, Milton Bradley, Justin Smoak, and, yes, Ichiro, did their part by peppering Oakland with well-struck balls. "Put the ball in play and see what happens." Well, the A's made five errors is what happened. Beleaguered M's fans will take it.
Here's the day in Ichiro:
1. Ichiro took two Trevor Cahill strikes to start his 2011 season, then glanced several good pitches pitches foul and took a few more, enough to draw a walk. Then he stole second base. A patient if defensive debut.
2. A few low sinkers pushed the count to two balls and none, then Ichiro hit a slapshot at third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff, who would have done well to wear a goalie mask and leg pads for the series of shots Ichiro would send his way today. This one bounced once and glanced off his glove, and Ichiro notched his first hit of the season. Figgins singled to send him to second, and the trip to third and home was made easy by Cahill's control problems.
With each high five that he hosted in the dugout after scoring, Ichiro said, "thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
In the bottom of the third, Dave Sims said, in honor of the late Dave Niehaus, "now we're gonna lay off this half-inning and let you enjoy the natural sounds of baseball." Felix pitched against the background murmur of the crowd. I wasn't in Seattle long enough to feel Dave's loss as deeply as many, but I was misty.
3. With a long-time star like Ichiro, Opening Day is for remembering everything you love about a player. "He's so lean," was my wife's reaction to seeing Ichiro in high def again. Then, in the top of the 4th, he hit another ball at poor Kevin Kouzmanoff, who took it off of the chest. This one was called an error but Ichiro reached base, where Figgins stranded him.
4. With a man on second with an out, Ichiro saved Kouz another bruise by hitting a grounder past him. Ichiro's first RBI of the season was followed closely by a joyous home run from Chone Figgins.
5. Ichiro grounded into a double play in his final at bat, but he'd already spoken the first few lines of dialogue in the first act of his season. They were pointed, promising lines, pulsing with promise, foreshadowing a characteristically rich narrative.
References:
02 Apr 2011, by Ted
Francoeurganda is a Rogue's Baseball Index term coined by Craig Calcaterra at Hardball Talk, to refer to the annual Spring Training proclamations that on-base nightmare Jeff Francoeur has been working on his plate discipline and will be a new hitter this year. As yet, this form of optimistic propaganda has not preceded measurable improvement in any of the years before which it was broadcast.
According to Calcaterra, "No matter how poorly [Francoeur] does, someone is going to say that this, by gum, is the year he breaks out. No matter how little he progresses, Francoeur himself is going to say that he’s working on his plate discipline. You can set your watch by this alternate universe jive. And frankly, I’d miss it if we didn’t have it."
visit Francoeurganda in the RBI wiki
01 Apr 2011, by Ted
The Philadelphia Phillies' starting rotation looms in the distance like a monolith. Baseball fans talk about it the way the druids (fact check?) must have whispered about Stonehenge on the pilgrimage path. Last year I watched Cliff Lee eviscerate AL West hitters, Roy Oswalt is one of my all-time favorites, and Doc Halladay performed miracles last year.
But have you looked at their whole lineup? Ibanez, Polanco, and Rollins ring with the brass buzz of faded peaks; Valdez and Francisco who? That they even gave Luis Castillo a tryout shows some sweat under their collar. In the wake of the Utley injury news, that leaves Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, and Carlos Ruiz as the meat of the lineup. That's some Grade C beef.
This monolith has a shaky foundation.
Verdict: The Atlanta Braves will win the NL East!
Tim Hudson and Derek Lowe are like moonshine runners: high performance and low profile. Tommy Hanson is everything you want in a young starter, and if Jair Jurrjens and some other cat can hold the line at the butt end of the rotation, the lineup will pick up the slack. Maybe it's just the residual charm of my young days watching Sid Bream and David Justice on TBS, but the lineup with Heyward, Uggla, McCann, Prado seems robust to me, with the youthful energy to play strong ball all season and outlast the aging Phillies.
There are questions for the Braves like anybody else, with Nate McLouth needing to rebound and a very young first baseman in Freddie Freeman. What I believe most is that this will be a thrilling pennant race between two very sound teams. The team that loses out will be the Wild Card entrant.
Braves sleeper: Freddie Freeman. I just watched him hit a double to the wall in Spring Training and it reminded me of Lou Gehrig.
Phillies sleeper: John Mayberry. He is a big slugging kid who dives into his swing.
I can't keep the New York Mets' starting pitchers Jon Niese and Mike Pelfrey straight. They're like one composite decent Mets half-prospect pitcher. For the Mets to surprise, these guys will need to distinguish themselves. Ike Davis will need to put up big league first baseman numbers, and Jose Reyes will need to have one of his great years while David Wright maintains. Seems unlikely to happen all at once. Also, this outfield is suspect. Also, this team may be cursed.
Mets sleeper: Luis Castillo. Seriously, I think they'll find him sleeping in the broom closet somewhere around June.
The Washington Nationals have a few strong pieces in Zimmerman and Werth, but their dusty place-holders like Pudge and LaRoche and Ankiel will clog up the works. Livan Hernandez is a street magician who's always ten minutes ahead of the law, and Jordan Zimmerman may brush a Swiffer of hope across the top of the bookcase every fifth day. It sounds like I'm getting positive about this team, but I'm not.
Nats sleeper: Mike Morse. He's very large.
Of all NL teams, the Florida Marlins are the most volatile, the perennial wild card that the wise fan never rules out. They could stay in the hunt, with their young players, their surprisingly solid-looking rotation with the NL version of Javier Vazquez and good years from Nolasco and Sanchez who have shown the ability to throw in the big leagues. I rarely find much love for a team that starts Wes Helms, but the upside of this squad could be really remarkable.
Marlins sleeper: Jesus. See Coghlan, Chris.
01 Apr 2011, by Eric
In all the Opening Day hysteria and marathon liveblogging (my eyes still hurt), I failed to properly note that I wrote a couple of things elsewhere this week. Sorry if you've already seen these on Twitter:
You See What You See: An essay for FreeDarko about Nick Van Exel, Showtime, and my young basketball fandom. There's even a Raul Mondesi reference for those of you not into hoops.
Hails From Hollywood: An article for Seattle Weekly on Ken Levine, television writer and Mariners broadcaster and all-around hilarious mensch.