Baseball, Baseball, Baseball

Before anything else, I must speak about Dice-K. He was amazing yesterday. he didn't even look like he was trying against the Royals. He actually looked bored.

I'm not going to argue that he was nothing short of what we all expected of him, but to quote The Wolf from Pulp Fiction, "Let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet." Remember, Dice-K isn't the first player to strike out 10 or more in his MLB debut. Hell, he's not even the first Japanese pitcher to do it! Since 1999, the list looks like:

D. Matsuzaka, 2007, Boston-Kansas City	Career just starting ...
A. Harang, 2002, Oakland-Tampa Bay	48-43 career W-L; led NL in K in '06
M. Prior, 2002, Chi. Cubs-Pittsburgh	42-29 career, 1-6 in '06 and not on Cubs' Opening Day roster
K. Ishii, 2002, L.A. Dodgers-Colorado	39-34 career, last pitched in MLB for Mets in '05
T. Hudson, 1999, Oakland-San Diego	119-60 career, 8 straight winning seasons

That's good company, but not great company. Look, nothing would make me happier than Matsuzaka going 23-2 this year or something like that. But let's not anoint him as the second coming of Pedro just yet.

Ok, on to the regularly scheduled babble...

Sure, Opening Day is great. But for me, the real baseball season starts today.

Opening Day isn't really Opening Day anymore, because it's actually split into 3 days: Sunday night, the first game is played, Monday is when most of the other teams play their first games, and Tuesday has a handful of openers as well. This entire week has been filled with half-days and travel days.

Not anymore.

Finally, every single MLB team is going to be in action today. There's something satisfying about looking at the roster of my fantasy baseball team and seeing that they're all going to have a chance at helping me out tonight and this weekend.

Speaking of fantasy baseball, some of you may know that it's been a hobby of mine for almost a decade. I've always loved playing, but for some reason, it's worse this year. Each team has only played 3 games, but I'm already scouring the box scores after every single game, trying to find the next breakthrough star. When there are games on while I'm at work, I have to force myself to not check the scoreboards every 3 minutes and actually concentrate on my work.

Every year I've played fantasy baseball, I've played on Yahoo. This year, the league I'm in with my usual friends is on ESPN because it's easier to use and they let you select keepers, which is something I want to pitch to our league before the end of the season. But for the sake of tradition (and because one team is NEVER enough), I signed up for a Yahoo public league as well. I didn't take it too seriously, and Comedy Central was showing I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka! while I was drafting, and before you know it, I had a terrible draft. My players were decent, but they weren't "my guys". So I guess I'm going to have to work the waiver wire a bit to get back in the swing of things.

To help those fellow fantasy-philes out there, here's a list of players that have gotten off to a hot start that I think will keep it up:

John Maine: I'm very impressed by this kid and I think he really has a chance to break through this year. Maine was basically a throw-in in the Kris Benson-for-Rodrigo Lopez deal, but he pitched pretty well last year. Check out his stats:

Regular Season: 90.0 IP, 3.60 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 71 K, 33 BB
Postseason: 13.7 IP, 2.63 ERA

He started great this past week, and pitching half his games in Shea for that Mets offense will keep his wins up and his ERA down. Verdict: Grab him if you can.

Rich Harden: I've always been a fan of Harden, but the guy is the AL's Mark Prior. He always gets hurt, so why should this year be any different? I have no reasons to think so...except that I do. Call it a hunch, but I really believe that this is going to be the breakout year that Harden owners have been waiting for. The fact that he plays half his games in a very pitcher-friendly park is great. The fact that he has a lockdown bullpen and a closer that's on his own comeback trail helps even more. Still not enough for you? How about this: Oakland has won 11 consecutive regular-season games started by Harden since Aug. 14, 2005, and he's 6-0 in those starts. Verdict: Cy Young contender.

Curtis Granderson: The good: Granderson sits on top of one of the best offenses in the league. He hits for power, steals a few bases, and makes good decisions on the basepaths. The Bad: .218 lifetime average against lefties. The Ugly: Check out his K rate...brutal. The Verdict: He's a very poor man's Grady Sizemore. If your league doesn't count OBP and you can sit him versus lefties, he's worth a shot.

By the way, I have a newly-forming man-crush on Grady Sizemore. Not only did I have him on one team last year, I have him again this year and he's an incredible player. He led the league with 53 doubles last year, and it seems like some of those doubles are now clearing the wall (3 HR in 3 games this year). And it's a double bonus because Claire owns him in her league team, and so she'll develop a deep love for him too, if she hasn't already.

(Yes, my girlfriend plays fantasy baseball. If you can think of anything cooler than that, feel free to leave a comment. Good luck with that.)

"The Man"