I said the openers would feature great pitching matchups, but I’m not sure I expected a grand total of 14 runs between the three games. Wow.
Let’s see what in store for Thursday, shall we?

Rockies at Phillies, 12 noon PT — Dropping Game 1 at home with Cole Hamels puts Philadelphia in a very uncomfortable position. Rookie Kyle Kendrick put up a nice ERA and win totals, but his complete inability to throw the ball past hitters could present a serious problem against the Rockies, who tend to hit the ball hard when they make contact. Another rookie, the even younger …read more

Hello, playoffs! Should be some good games on Wednesday:

Rockies at Phillies, 12 noon PT — I’ve rambled at length about this series over at Hardball Times. Cole Hamels starts the opener against Jeff Francis. It’s hard to call Game 1 of any series a must-win, but the Phillies need to win behind Hamels to have any shot; the rest of their pitching staff is very suspect, and even their high-octane offense might not be able to overcome a loss today.
Angels at Red Sox, 3:30 p.m. PT — John Lackey goes up against Josh Beckett in this one. Two legitimate Cy …read more

Preseason Picks Revisited
The story so far:

AL West
AL Central
AL East
NL West
NL Central

And now for our latest installment…

Mets – Only a historic collapse kept me from getting this one right. They were supposed to be the strongest team in the National League, and I had them losing to the Angels in the World Series.
Braves – You wonder what might have been if they hadn’t traded away Adam LaRoche for Mike Gonzalez and if Andruw Jones had shown up to play.
Phillies – At the beginning of the season, I didn’t think they had enough pitching. I still don’t, but it appears not to …read more

So many games to choose from on a Friday. What to do…
American League

Red Sox at Orioles, 4:05 p.m. PT — Not that the Red Sox need my help in the hype department, but a battle between Daisuke Matsuzaka and Erik Bedard could be a lot of fun to watch. Bedard has emerged in a big way this season. He’s fourth in the American League in ERA, first in H/9, first in K/9 (11.20!), and first in strikeouts. With all due respect to perennial favorite Johan Santana, Bedard and Oakland’s Dan Haren have to be the front-runners for this year’s Cy …read more

At the risk of straining something while patting myself on the back, I called Wednesday’s Jake Peavy/Brandon Webb matchup the one to watch. Although the outcome wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, the game was tremendous. Peavy fanned 16 batters and nearly tied Tom Seaver’s record of 10 straight strikeouts. Only a questionable call on a check swing to start the fourth fifth inning kept that from happening. Still, it was fun to watch, and Webb pitched a fine game himself.
But that’s in the past now. What do we have going on today? If you’re a fan of offense, I’ve …read more

Hello there, and welcome to the first Wednesday of the 2007 regular season. Really, we need to mark these momentous occasions.
Okay, then, what are we watching today? Funny you should ask…