Opening Day
Opening Day!
With a slate of three games starting at 12:05pmCST (STL @ PIT), MLB has opted to open with a Sunday triple-header, which is much preferred over the Cubs opener tomorrow at 9:05pmCST. (Sorry, east coasters.)
Meanwhile, Hendricks makes his last ST start today at 2:05pmCST, which will be live streaming on MLB.TV.
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It's Opening Day; I'm Going to Throw Out the First Hurricane Ike Reference
The Astros hate the Cubs. Everyone who is not a Cubs fan hates Carlos Zambrano. And the Houstons are opening the season at home with the best pitcher in team history on the mound. You'd think that would be enough to activate their adrenal glands. But of course, there's that other business left over from 2008:
King for a Day: the Cubs' One-Time Game #1 Starters
As noted here and everywhere else yesterday, Lou Piniella has decided to give Carlos Zambrano the Opening Day assignment at Houston. It will be the fifth time Zambrano has had the honor; the Cubs have gone 2-2 in Z's previous Opening Day outings.
Fergie Jenkins started seven openers for the Cubs, while Rick Sutcliffe started five, and Rick Reuschel, four. The real fun in looking over this list at Baseball-Reference.com is noting which Cub pitchers got to go in Game #1 once, but never again. Here are the last ten such Cub pitchers:
Recent comments
Arizona Phil (view)
I have had the pleasure of watching some of the young A's pitchers lately (first Joe Boyle the last day of Minor League Spring Training in March, and more recently Luis Morales last week and Steven Echavarria yesterday at Extended Spring Training), and it reminds me of the Miami Marlins a couple of years ago. A really nice collection of young pitchers. It will be interesting to see what the A's will get for two years of ex-Cub Paul Blackburn at the Trade Deadline (there should be a robust market for Blackburn).
Childersb3 (view)
Good deal
MB needs some talent infusion!
Arizona Phil (view)
Childersb3: Very possible. Suriel, too.
Arizona Phil (view)
DJL: if a pitcher is recalled to be the 27th man for a doubleheader and then is optioned back to the minors the next day, the 15-day "clock" does NOT reset. The one day call-up for the doubleheader is treated like it never happened with respect to a pitcher having to spend at least 15 days on optional assignment before he can be recalled.
Arizona Phil (view)
Probably the only reason David Peralta is still in the organization (he is at AAA Iowa) is to be available in case anything bad were to happen to Ian Happ (which it just did). So if Happ needs to go on the IL, the Cubs can select Peralta to play LF, DFA Wisdom (and hope he and what remains of his $2.725M salary gets claimed off waivers), and recall Mervis to platoon at DH with Cooper (with Canario / Tauchman sharing RF), at least until Suzuki and Happ are back...
crunch (view)
i'd just like to take a moment to express to the world i'm still pissed willson contreras is not a cub when the pricetag was 5/87m (17.5m/yr).
it would be nice to have a legacy-type player to stick around, especially one with his leadership and the respect he gets from his peers. cubs fans deserved more than 1 season of contreras + morel...that was gold.
crunch (view)
happ, right hamstring tightness, day-to-day (hopefully 0 days).
he will be reevaluated tomorrow.
Childersb3 (view)
I guess I'm not looking for that type of AB
Just a difference of opinion
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
I don’t see Tauchman as a weak link in any position. He simply adds his value in a different way.
I don’t know that we gain much by putting him in the outfield - Happ, Bellinger and Suzuki and Tauchman all field their positions well. If you’re looking for Taucnman’s kind of AB in a particular game I don’t see why it can’t come from DH.
Childersb3 (view)
Tauchman gets a pinch hit RBI single with a liner to RF. This is his spot. He's a solid 4th OF. But he isn't a DH.
He takes pitches. Useful. I still believe in having good hitters.
You don't want your DH to be your weak link (other than your C maybe)