Fourteen games are on tap for Opening Day 2008. Sure, the Red Sox and A’s played some games in Japan, but nobody on this side of the pond watched, and the Nationals opened their new ballpark in the made-for-ESPN Sunday night game, but today is when the season really begins.
Ordinarily in this space I would tell you which games are most worth watching, but on Opening Day, they’re all worth watching. The first games (Blue Jays at Yankees, Royals at Tigers) start at 10:05 a.m. PT, while the last (Astros at Padres; of course, I’ll be there!) gets going at …read more

The Texas Rangers have signed right-hander Jason Jennings to a 1-year deal worth $4 million. The story to date: Jennings was pretty good as a rookie with Colorado in 2002. Then he had three seasons of extreme blahness, followed by a terrific showing in 2006, after which the Rockies shipped him to Houston, where he pitched poorly and got hurt.
Jennings went 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA for the Astros in 2007. He underwent elbow surgery in August and is expected to be ready by Opening Day.
Jennings owns a career record of 60-65 with a 4.91 ERA; he spent much of …read more

Still catching up on old stuff…

Rob at Cub Reporter hooks us up with footage from a 1981 game between the Cubs and Reds.
Dan at Get Up, Baby laments the continued decline of Scott Rolen.
Pat at FanHouse muses on the Pirates motives behind hiring John Russell as their new skipper.
Lisa at Astros Dugout discusses the (relatively) recent trade with Philadelphia that netted Michael Bourn.

Pardon me as I catch up from my time in Vegas. This deal happened a while back, but it’s still worth mentioning: The Philadelphia Phillies traded outfielder Michael Bourn, right-hander Geoff Geary, and third baseman Mike Costanzo to the Houston Astros for right-hander Brad Lidge and infielder Eric Bruntlett.
What This Means for the Astros
Lidge lost his job as closer at one point during the 2007 season, and although he finished with respectable numbers, the Astros didn’t seem to have a lot of confidence in him. Among other things, this means that Houston’s closer situation is unsettled, but for a team …read more

Curt Schilling himself says, “it’s looking good” (have I mentioned lately that I love the fact that Schilling has a blog?), where “it” is the prospect of nailing down a 1-year deal that will keep him in Boston. I don’t have much to add in the way of analysis, so I thought I’d look back a little. This is from Bill Mazeroski’s Baseball ‘92:
In April [Astros manager Art] Howe handed the ball to Curt Schilling, who responded by converting five of his first six save opportunities. Hitters, though, eventually caught up to Schilling. His fastball has movement, but he overthrows …read more

Preseason Picks Revisited
The story so far:

AL West
AL Central
AL East
NL West

Ladies and gentlemen, the least interesting division in Major League Baseball:

Cubs – Somebody had to win the division; it might as well be the team that spent $300 million on free agents.
Astros – Why did I like this team so much? Perhaps their recent track record fooled me? I’d expected more out of Morgan Ensberg and Jason Jennings. Instead, everyone got fired.
Cardinals – Hey, I got one right. Everything about their 2006 season seemed like a fluke to me. The Cards deserve credit for winning the World Series, but this was …read more

Super lightning quick, here are your games for Friday:

Yankees at Tigers, 4:05 p.m. PT — It seems like these two teams are always playing each other. Anyway, Roger Clemens and Andrew Miller makes for an interesting matchup. Aside from the fact that Clemens is twice as old as Miller, it’s also worth noting that lefties are hitting just .140/.241/.180 against the young southpaw. Granted, it’s in all of 60 plate appearances, but yikes.
Blue Jays at Angels, 7:05 p.m. PT — Roy Halladay and Jered Weaver hook up at Anaheim. If I didn’t have a softball game, I’d make the drive …read more

Three free agents were signed for $100 million or more this past winter. Presumably if they’re worth that much money, they must be helping their new teams in a big way, right?

Six-Figure Free Agents, Class of 2007

Player
Team
2006
2007
Diff

Statistics courtesy of ESPN and Baseball-Reference.

Alfonso Soriano
Cubs
66-96
.407
58-52
.527
+.120

Barry Zito
Giants
76-85
.472
47-62
.431
-.041

Carlos Lee
Astros
82-80
.506
48-63
.432
-.074

Soriano has done a nice job (.297/.336/.511) so far, although he’s now out 2-4 weeks with a strained right quadriceps. Of course, the Cubs signed a few other high-profile free agents (Aramis Ramirez, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis) to the tune of nearly $300 million, so it’s not like Soriano is solely responsible for the Cubs’ improvement …read more