2008 Game 1: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim @ Minnesota Twins
Posted by ubelmann on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Despite following the team on a daily basis, I must admit that opening day kind of snuck up on me. The explanation is both easy and obvious--life got in the way of baseball, but in a good way. Opening day's not really my thing anyway. It's fun because it means baseball is back (and no more pretend games!), but I like the grind of mid-season better when the stories of the season are unfolding.
Jered Weaver vs. Livan Hernandez
Best And Worst Opening Day Starters by PECOTA-projected EqERA:
3.28 - Santana
3.44 - Webb
3.45 - Sabathia
3.46 - Bedard
3.58 - Peavy
...
4.58 - Wainwright
4.81 - Hendrickson
4.90 - Guthrie
5.33 - Perez (Odalis)
5.68 - Hernandez (Livan)
The Angels are starting a right-handed pitcher. There is no reason whatsoever for Kubel to be on the bench for this game, but I"m sure that Craig Monroe will battle his tail off and hustle like crazy for all of his weak pop-ups and lame fly outs. Kubel's PECOTA-projected EQA is .284 to Craig Monroe's .258, and the gap gets wider when we start to consider platoon advantage.
I'm not amongst those expecting great leaps forward on offense this season. OpenOffice ate my spring training stats spreadsheet, but the Twins basically had the worst team OPS in the Grapefruit League, and were something like 3rd-worst in runs/game. On top of that, if you take a bunch of the best projection systems, a copy of Diamond Mind Baseball, combine them and serve, the Twins look like the worst offense in the AL--basically in a dead heat with the Mariners. Even bad offenses have their moments (for that matter, even bad hitters have their moments), so I'll be cheering for those moments. I'll also be cheering like hell against the likelihood of a losing season. Go Twins.
[SBG] It's opening day and I'm looking forward to another season of Twins baseball. I'll admit that my expectations are much lower than before, and I'm okay with that. What I want to see is development of young players and pitchers. I want to see what Delmon Young can do. I want to see the Joe Mauer of 2006 and the Justin Morneau of 2006. I'd like to see a couple of our young pitchers, Baker, Slowey, and maybe even Blackburn develop into good quality starting pitchers. If that happens and the Twins win 75 games, I'll be happy. Oh, and if Nick Punto has <300 PAs, that wouldn't hurt either.
I had hoped to improve the game log even further, but you'll note that I have the ESPN scoreboard width in place and have added some key vault contents below. I'd love to see even more participation in the game logs this year. Let's start it out right with a huge participation on opening day. [/SBG]
Wow, gamelogs are back!! It's the next best thing to watching the game with my Pops. Let the fun begin.
What I'm looking forward to most is hearing Dick and Bert call the game. I mean, it's such a step up from Hanny and Pete!
Sad but true!
I'm trying not to let Gardy's lineup decisions drive me crazy for game one...but that's a challenge.
I beg to differ.
We'll see if this ESPN Scoreboard is drag on the page or not. It should show up at the bottom of the page. Eventually, I'm going to put the vault below the comments. Ran out of time to tinker with two trips out of town the last two weekends.
The big drama for me right now is whether or not ESPN will actually get me the first pitch. Brewers with a leadoff double in the 10th. Go Brewers!
S for Kendall, Weeks HBP, Jr. Gwynn SF puts the Brewers ahead. Now sit down and retire the Cubs in order, please.
I'm wondering if I'll even get the ESPN broadcast. Stupid baseball and its blackout rules.
OK...just watched a half inning of Santana in the Mets uni. I'm gonna miss those Sunday day games when you could buzz down and watch him in person.
Johan today: 7IP 3H 2R 2ER 2BB 8K 1HR
FIP: 3.63
The homerun was a two run shot in the bottom of the fourth and accounted for all of the scoring. It also came after the Mets gave him a 6 spot in the top of the inning.
I can't even get gameday audio to work right now. I want your content, MLB, it shouldn't be this hard to make it work.
LA Angels
C. Figgins 3b
G. Matthews Jr. dh
V. Guerrero rf
G. Anderson lf
T. Hunter cf
C. Kotchman 1b
H. Kendrick 2b
M. Napoli c
M. Izturis ss
Minnesota
C. Gomez cf
J. Mauer c
M. Cuddyer rf
J. Morneau 1b
D. Young lf
C. Monroe dh
M. Lamb 3b
B. Harris 2b
A. Everett ss
LA Angels
J. Weaver
Minnesota
L. Hernandez
Maybe Kubel needed to rest his knees. Eh? Eh???
Aw nuts.
Hey now. Gardy is the best manager in the league, or so I read earlier this week.
No, no, Gardy looked at the numbers and made his decision.
Hey, Gardy says we've got a foundation of offense and defense! Special Teams always gets short shrift.
Looks like I got the mime version of mlb.com audio.
I'm not liking the new Gameday so far. And the format doesn't lend itself well to Greatest Moments archiving, either.
Drat.
Nothing a bit of battling our tails off won't handle.
That George Will intro was exceptionally lame.
I won't be able stay- got kid duty- but wanted to pop in for opening day. Now I'm going out to shovel snow. Go Twins!
Hello everyone. Tonight finds me in Texas on business (I have a contract negotiation with Dell tomorrow) catching the game in my Holiday Inn Express.
GO TWINS!
Geoff! LTNS!
2 girls (and BIG announcement - child #3 due in November!!!) plus being promoted to VP of Operations with my company = little time to post on the internet.
I hope to catch a few games each month and not be such a stranger though.
Congrats, buddy!
Is Torii Hunter still playing for the Twins? I haven't been told 1000 times in the last 0.6 seconds about what happened with him, and I'm worried if I'm not reminded at least every other second about his status that I might forget.
What will get the most coverage tonight -
Its snowing in Minneapolis.
Torii Hunter is no longer a Twin.
The game is availiable on HD just in case you spent $1,000's on an HD set, the extra $20/month for the HD feed but youre still too stupid to tune into the HD channel.
I have HD, but ESPN isn't in our basic HP package.
Hey Geoff, welcome back!!!!
Thanks SBG. Good to be back. Still stinging from what your TWolves did to my Jazz yesterday tho......
No sound for me even if I want it. I'm not sure if I like that or not.
First pitch strike.
It's gonna be a good year.
Brendan Harris didn't stuff up the first play! Rejoice!
"Guerrero takes a fastball on the outside corner." Won't hear that too often.
Did Joe Morgan just refer to Minnesota as Montreal?
Has Torii changed his name to "The Great Torii Hunter"? So far, that's the name they're using...constantly.
nice 1-2-3 guys
Small Sample Size Theater Update: Livan's on pace for a WHIP of 0.00!!!!!
1 Inning Consumed, 0 Runs Allowed
too quick for me.
I've been watching hockey all winter, and I always struggle with the change of pace for baseball, but with Livan on the mound the effect is multiplied.
1 inning eaten so far.
Nice first inning for El Gordo.
220 more innings just like that one, please!
Lost it in the roof?
I wish Joe Morgan would stop worrying about his bunting and take some broadcasting advice for now.
Gomez already pissing me off with bunting nonsense. And now Joe Morgan is saying that if he had anything to do over again, he would bunt more. Now he's clearly trying to piss us off.
Take a stress pill, ubes. We don't like how he looks, but we like the results.
They make pills for stress? I was thinking about grabbing myself some beer soon.
That's an acceptable alternative medicine, yes.
Self-medication is the cheapest medication!
Go Go Gomez 2 bagger.
Where's the game? I can't find it on TV! Both FSN and ESPN seem to be blacked out for me.
29
try ESPN2
Channel 29
Found it, was panicking for a minute until Gleeman set me straight.
nananananananana
thats the sound of speed
That's a good start for CarGo.
Psh, what are you guys worried about? We're gonna win 'em all.
GoGo!
D@MN! Gomez really wanted 3 on that. That's why you don't BERT around with bunting for hits.
Have you ever noticed that a lot of gogomez's hits are for extra bases?
Joe Mauer first pitch swinging.
damn you and your lightning fingers.
Don't worry, I've been saving up my speed for Opening Day, I'll wear down as the season progresses.
Joe Mauer has got to lay off those first pitches. When was the last time you saw him take one? Patience, young Mauer.
That'll do.
RBI king, Joe Mauer!!!!!! Woo hoo!
Mauer RBI. I like the way this is starting out.
Gomez+Mauer==Runs
SCORING MACHINE!
Mauer, like Chuck Norris, doesn't sleep...he waits.
Hi folks, Back for a new season. And look, I bring in a Gomez run.
Can you leave, and come back again the next time CarGo is up to bat?
Done Deal...So long folks
Hey thanks, Dragon. You gonna take in a game at that spiffy new park in DC?
Yea, We're cheap, we waited for FREE tickets. Will see the Brewers in May.
Nice. It looks like a beautiful venue.
Have to give them time to work out all the kinks. Little or no parking, Metro should be OK. It will be a couple of years before the related development adds Restuarants and clubs to make a TOTAL experience.
What, like the "development" next to the new Busch stadium? Good luck with that.
The new mayor, an opponent of the ballpark, is taking the $20million/per year surplus Real Estate taxes already in hand to build DC United (soccer team) a $275 mmillion stadium as an anchor to another $1.4 Billion development in Anacostia.
ah, Anacostia. Everyone's favorite address for the weekend getaway.
Well, this seems to be working out well. Twins up 1-0 before the first out.
i wouldn't mind seeing that 100 times or so this year.
No, that would take an infinite amount of time. But I like your thinking.
d'oh! move that comment down one. Opening Day jitters.
If this keeps up the Twins will score an infinite amount of runs this year.
Torii's arm needs to get warmed up, I guess.
Hunter wanted to double up Mauer in the worst way. No luck.
I think he nearly tore his rotator cuff on that throw.
I hope CarGo can give Torii a clinic on how to REALLY gun the ball.
SBG, I can see the rally cap and keys (and their location code) at the bottom of the page.
You can't be in a drought if you don't have to hit the ball.