Its the end of the first week of the season, and most teams have played at least 6 games. So, after this first week, how is your team doing? What have you seen that you like, and what don’t you like? Hows your offseason pickups doing, are they worth what you paid for them?
As for my team, the Atlanta Braves, I’m as happy as can be, starting the season 5-1, with a sweep of the Phillies and winning 2-1 against the Mets. Our pitching is everything we could hope at this time, and we have had some timly hitting from McCain and Renteria. Last year we had the worst bullpen in all of baseball, but so far this year it looks like we might have the best, and our starting pitching is doing a great job so far. If we keep playing like we’ve been playing, this just might be our year.
The Red Sox are 3 and 3. Not great, but not terrible, and it’s enough to put them in second in their division.
Best of all, Matsuzaka had a strong debut, getting 10 strikeouts and the win. After all the hype, speculation and money, he would have been brutally savaged by the sports press if his first appearance had fallen short of expectations, but he came through.
The Cardinals are 2 and 4 after getting swept by the Mets and winning 2 out of 3 at Houston.
Our pitching looks solid (assuming that Carpenter will be fine), but until yesterday the offence looked slugish.
The Dodgers are 4-2. Not the best, but not bad. They thrashed the Giants this weekend, which was very nice. The loss of Furcal at short is going to be an on-going problem. He’s close to coming back, but then they have to dump someone from the roster. My vote: Wilson Betemit, who hasn’t done crap this season or in pre-season. Jason Schmidt starts the Home Opener tonight.
My two teams are the Royals and the Nationals. (Gifts of condolence accepted by mail or in person.) The Nationals are looking every bit as bad as they are supposed to be. For them, I may soon shift into “If-we’re-going-to-suck-let’s-make-it-historic” mode – c’mon guys: 120 losses!
The Royals – dare I say it – could surprise! (By that, I mean lose fewer than 95 games.) Yeah, they’re 2-4, but Alex Gordon and Ryan Shealy will play professional-quality ball eventually, and the starting pitchers have looked … [gulp] … good?
Houston only won one. But at least we were there, freezing our asses off. It was 38°F and raining outside, they closed the roof, but they had the freakin’ AC on! It was probably 55° in our seats.
The only reason we won is because Roy Oswalt pitched the whole game. Our closers suck bigtime.
The good news is the offense appears to be there but the bad news is that AJ Burnett pitched terribly and BJ Ryan blew a save. Things are looking scary.
The most important thing is that my fantasy baseball team is in first place and only one of my position players has gotten going. Only 730 000 weeks to go (give or take).
The Yankee Starting staff has been awful and the defense has been poor. The Bullpen has been very good. The offense has been okay with a few very bright spots. Please see this thread for my thoughts on being at the Saturday game for A-Rod’s Grand Slam.
A-Rod is off to a great start. This is the best I can say for the Yanks.
The Giants . . . sigh. 1-5, including a sweep by the Dodgers. Our $126 million man, Barry Zito, is 0-2. Everything that was predicted to suck, has sucked. Bullpen sucks. Offense sucks. Starting rotation sucks. Lots of sucky suckyness.
Gonna be a long summer . . .
Well, the Pirates are in first place in the NL Central. It’s been nice while it lasts. They’re currently losing 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth to the Cardinals in their 40 degree home opener.
I don’t see what the problem is. So long as he gets like, 40 starts, he has a shot at being a 20-game winner. :smack:
Ohka didn’t look too good either, and Towers has yet to start. At least our bullpen has held up pretty well, although if our starters keep giving terrible performances that’ll change quickly.
Oh I don’t think he’ll go all Mike Timlin or anything but it wasn’t like the Yankees beat him in the bottom of the ninth; it was the Devil Rays. I’m just a touch troubled is all…Burnett is what is really troubling. I’ve never been sold on the other 3 starters but I figured that offense would help win a bunch of those games if the pitchers could even pitch half decently. This was the year I was hoping Burnett would earn his money. Maybe he still will as it is only the first week but that notion certainly took a hit.
Given that the only thing above my Padres sign on the living room wall is my Dodgers pennant, I can’t attack you too harshly for this minor, almost venial sin. But the name of this town is Dodger Town. All the way this year.
If we could just find a shortstop who didn’t have injury problems…
But at least we were there, freezing our asses off. It was 38°F and raining outside, they closed the roof, but they had the freakin’ AC on! It was probably 55° in our seats.