Thursday, April 5, 2012

Opening Day Analysis


Opening Day Analysis

What an awesome day of baseball! It was a record setting opening day as the Blue Jays and Indians decided 9 innings wasn’t enough…and went on to play 16! Opening day 2012 wasn’t a day for the hitters. Today the average team only hit .187! With that being said, I think there were a couple of pitchers who got jipped this opening day. Those pitchers would be Ryan Dempster and Justin Masterson. These two combined for 20 strikeouts and a 1.15 ERA. I would add Cy Young Winner/MVP Justin Verlander to this list as his closer, Jose Valverde blew his first save in two years! However, the Tigers managed to beat the Red Sox in the bottom of the 9th off an Austin Jackson single. Masterson and Dempster both lost their decisions (and ultimately games) by their own bullpens blowing their saves. Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol may not be getting a Christmas card from Dempster this year, as the Cubs managed to be the Cubs on opening day. Chris Perez blew a save that lost Justin Masterson his decision that led to a sixteen inning marathon that ended on the Blue Jays’ JP Arencibia’s three-run blast.  Cy Young Winner Clayton Kershaw threw three scoreless innings before flu-like symptoms pulled him ,but the Dodgers still beat the Padres. Johan Santana showed us he still had his stuff as the Mets beat the Braves 1-0.  Johan only threw five scoreless innings only allowing two hits and striking out five.

The first half of opening day was exciting indeed! I can’t wait to see what Friday has in store for us as several great pitching matchups are on the books tomorrow:

CC Sabathia vs. James Shields as the Yankees battle the Rays.

Tim Lincecum vs. Ian Kennedy as the Giants battle the D-backs…would hate to be a hitter in this one!

Jaime Garcia vs. Gallardo as the Cards face the Brewers in an early division 1 v 2 matchup

Lots of good baseball today ,and plenty more to come tomorrow…as always if theres something you’d like me to discuss hit me up at JCGriffin13@yahoo.com or shoot me a tweet @griffaldo !

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