Ah, Opening Day. I hope you had as much fun as we did (full report at Ducksnorts). Beyond the thrill of a packed house at Petco Park watching Jake Peavy spin a shutout, here are a few items from Monday that caught my eye:

The Mets beat the Marlins, 7-2. The planet’s best pitcher against a Triple-A squad — who could’ve have anticipated such a result? Uh, everyone.
The Pittsburgh/Atlanta game was insane. The Pirates took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Braves tied. Then the Bucs jumped ahead in the 12th, 12-9, before allowing two runs …read more

Right-hander Don Cardwell, who pitched for the Phillies, Cubs, Pirates, Mets, and Braves from 1957 to 1970, died Monday at age 72. Cardwell owned a 102-138 career record and is perhaps best known for his role on the 1969 “Miracle” Mets. Another member of that team, Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, had kind words for Cardwell:
He was a tremendous mentor to the young guys on our staff. When he said something, you listened. He was the ultimate professional on and off the field. Just a tremendous, tremendous guy — and a big part of everything we accomplished that year.
Cardwell also …read more

The St. Louis Cardinals have signed right-hander Matt Clement to a 1-year, $1.5 million deal with a club option for 2009. He was pretty darned good for the Cubs from 2002 to 2004, but hasn’t done much since.
Clement made just 12 starts in 2006 with Boston and missed all of last season while recovering from shoulder surgery. Maybe he has something left, but I wouldn’t count on it.

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.

Congrats to the Cleveland Indians for beating the Yankees in their house Monday night to take their ALDS, three games to one. In three of four series so far, the team with the much smaller payroll has won (salaries in millions; source, Cot’s Baseball Contracts):
Red Sox: $143.0
Angels: $109.3
Indians: $61.7
Yankees: $189.6
Diamondbacks: $52.1
Cubs: $99.7
Rockies: $54.4
Phillies: $89.4
If you’d seeded the playoff teams by money spent on salary, here’s what it would have looked like:

Yankees
Red Sox
Angels
Cubs
Phillies
Indians
Rockies
Diamondbacks

Three of the four teams from the bottom half have advanced the LCS. One of the two smallest salaried teams in the dance is guaranteed to reach the World …read more

{democracy:25}

Happy Monday, and welcome to our latest poll. Manager of the Year is always a tricky one for me. What criteria should we use to determine the winner? If we look only at total victories, we ignore factors such as improvement from one season to the next. If we consider improvement from one season to the next, but overlook the fact that management spent an obscene amount of money to put itself in that position, we still miss a big part of the picture.

More Polls
Talk to me…

AL MVP
NL MVP
AL Cy Young
NL Cy Young
AL Rookie
NL Rookie

I usually try to balance overall …read more

How are the playoffs working for you so far? I expected the Rockies to beat up on Philadelphia, and that’s exactly what has happened. Going to Coors Field down 2-0 is not a good thing. Those fans in Denver have been waiting a long time and they’re pretty nuts about their team.
I thought the Cubs would be giving Arizona a better fight, but that’s been the story with the Diamondbacks all year. As a Padres fan, I take some pleasure in knowing that only teams from our division have won so far on the NL side. Not much, mind you, …read more

San Diego Padres outfielder Scott Hairston, who hit a walkoff homer Wednesday night against the Pirates, takes a mighty cut.
Teams are running out of time to make their move. The AL West and Central have been decided — if not mathematically, then practically speaking. The AL East is still up for grabs, but unless you’re a fan of the Red Sox or Yankees, that’s not a particularly compelling story line seeing that the runner-up almost certainly will win the wild card.
In the National League, things are a little more interesting. The Mets continue their free fall and now are just …read more

Fish Stripes reports that Wednesday’s game between the Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins drew 375 people. Both teams are pulling up the rear of the National League East, so low attendance should come as no surprise, but triple digits?
Two aspects of this story fascinate me:

The announced attendance was 10,121, but a photo from the game tells a very different story. Er, forget steroids for a moment; someone is cheating here, and it ain’t the players.
The Marlins are a great case study in the difficulties of promoting a team that has no identity. This is a franchise that came into existence …read more

I don’t even know what that headline means. Anyway, here are some of the more interesting games for Friday:
American League

Mariners at Tigers, 4:05 p.m. PT — Both teams are three games back of the Yankees in the AL wild card race. Miguel “Don’t Let the Career-High 13 Wins Fool You” Batista faces Justin Verlander. Whatever happened to Brandon Inge, anyway? That guy was good for, like, 5 minutes.
Indians at Angels, 7:05 p.m. PT — First off, we should rename these teams “Europeans” and “Animal Spirits.” Second, why did Cleveland sign Jake Westbrook to a huge contract extension in April? The …read more