Clem Fandango

Your Mat Latos pitching line for the night: 0.2 IP 6 H 7 ER 2 BB 0 K 94.50 ERA 12.00 WHIP

Just tell him it's been one game and send him this:

This. Opening Day 2009 against Colorado was played in a 38 degree constant drizzle, miserable to sit through, although Ted Lilly taking a no-no into the 8th softened the blow. The Fukudome game in 2008 against Milwaukee was pretty bad too if I remember right. Fukudome game in 2008 was humid and a little drizzly but temperature was nice...was overcast but warmish by opening day standards, iirc. Wow. It looked drearily miserable and freezing on TV.

I don't even know who the Padres have in their system any more besides Hedges.

Donaldson, Harrison, Chirinos, and Valbuena alone combined for 16.5 fWAR last season. That entire roster of ex-Cubs combined for 30.1 fWAR last season. In fact it would've been the 3rd best in all of baseball if that roster actually existed. The #1 offense last season was the Dodgers with a 31.1 fWAR. I'd say that's more than a "Serviceable and crappy offense"

I completely forgot Barret Loux was in our system

Was really nice to see Motte come out and just shut things down. The bullpen's kickassness last night was definitely the biggest positive to come from the evening. This. I missed the first three innings so all i saw was bad Soler defense and RISP inadequacies. The bullpen was [expletive] excellent.

Meh. It's opening night. It's all just semantics today. Things will flesh out more appropriately after.

Perhaps Maddon is valuing Olt's contributions with his glove more than his bat for this game. Also, Olt did kind of earn the starting 3B job out of ST. Mostly by default because of Bryant's situation, but he had a really good spring and showed improved plate patience and discipline in the process. Not starting Olt after sending Bryant down after all the "It will be exciting to see what Olt can do during his time with the role" type stuff might also look sketchy, not that the FO really cares about that, but honestly I think Maddon just liked Olt at 3B more, and we can expect to see him start there most games, regardless of pitcher, while Bryant is down in Iowa. They need Olt to perform well so they can move him if they need to, so they should probably squeeze the most out of him that they can while he's got the job. Also I don't think Alcantara would do THAT much better against Wainwright than Olt that it's a travesty they're starting Olt.

Olt is the best 3B on the roster right now. Ross is basically Lester's personal catcher. It's not rocket science.

http://i.imgur.com/NhpNHA9.png?1

Large gallery of gifs featuring windups and swings of famous historical players: http://imgur.com/a/r1JnH

Tropicana Field

StanozoLOLOLOLOL

I couldn't give a [expletive] about the gorgeous views of ancient apartment buildings the video board will block. BUT DON'T TAKE MY CLEAR BLUE SKIES RICKETS YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!

sweaty construction workers

And that obvious thing too that I totally caught when I was looking at them

The nice difference between this and what Theriot did is that I don't remember Theriot ever hitting one like the one Szcur hit today. Crushed out beyond the berm, somewhat on a line, with a nice level swing. Its tough to look at that video and believe the spring power is a complete mirage. For review purposes, Here's video of all the Matt Szczur HR's that are available, plus some other hits... http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/0/v58317683/chctex-szczur-hits-a-long-solo-homer-in-the-5th http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/69972428/v57285883/chckc-szczur-lifts-tworun-homer-to-center-field/?player_id=519333 http://m.mlb.com/video/v46548383/chcmil-szczur-blasts-a-linedrive-homer-to-left/?player_id=519333 GR Double: http://m.mlb.com/video/v44013383/chccle-szczers-groundrule-double-keeps-cubs-alive/?player_id=519333 Triple: http://m.mlb.com/video/v54269183/chcsea-szczur-drives-in-alcantara-with-rbi-triple/?player_id=519333 And for reference, here's his HR's from last season: http://m.mlb.com/video/v36532003/stlchc-matt-szczur-drills-a-solo-dinger-to-left/?player_id=519333 http://m.mlb.com/video/v36229565/chcpit-szczur-clubs-his-first-major-league-home-run/?player_id=519333 He appears to be a little lower in his stance this spring than he was last season. Spring | 2014 http://i.imgur.com/ZfbPykc.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/UpUZ5aL.png

Gotcha. Well to make it more difficult I chose both Sands and Caratini, lol.

Not to be nitpicky, but don't runoffs usually result in the loser automatically being selected as the next round's prospect choice? Or is that only when the two runoffs were chosen in a landslide compared to all others in the previous round?

Pump the brakes there, buddy. LET ME DREAM DAMNIT To be fair, I had not realized just how little power Gomez had displayed pre-2012. Wow. Yeah, basically Gomez was brought up and groomed to be a speedy lead off slap hitter. IIRC, he asked Milwaukee management if he could make an adjustment and start swinging how he wanted to swing so they let him, and now what you see is what Gomez apparently had always been able to do, he just didn't because he was mismanaged and told to be something else.

Pump the brakes there, buddy. LET ME DREAM DAMNIT

If this swing adjustment does indeed allow him to tap into his power, could we have a Carlos Gomez 2.0 situation on our hands? Fun Fact: Matt Szczur has more home runs this spring in less than 50 PA's than he has had in his previous 1,031 plate appearances over the past two seasons.