reflections on Opening Weekend

What a sports weekend. And yeah, Bubba Watson won a mostly uneventful Masters and the Knicks won a couple big games, but baseball was all that truly mattered. My wife, even my 14-month old son sat with daddy and watched America's great ball game. What's better than that?

1. Gotta start with my Yankees. A lot to say after an 0-3 start, something from each pathetic game. First game, first inning, ace on the hill. Let CC pitch! Joe Girardi's afraid of Sean Rodriguez in the first game of the season? Over-coaching all ready. Let him pitch!

1b. Hiroki Kuroka can't get out lefties. No secrets in his scouting report. Coming from the soft-slugging NL West to the nightmarish AL East, what was Cashman thinking would happen?

1c. Raul Ibanez was brought here to be the DH. So in the 3rd game of the year Girardi has him in right field, and in the first inning the first ball hit to him gets by him and costs the Yankees a run. Is Nick Swisher so exhausted after two games that he can only DH?

2. Lest my heckling Red Sox fan friends feel any justification in heckling, the worst bullpen in baseball is stationed in Boston. Add to that the fact that Beckett and Buchholz each allowed 7 earned runs in their starts, and things aren't looking so good in Beantown.

3. Toronto won their first game in 16 innings, the second game in 12 innings, and in the third game they had the bases loaded in the 9th down by one. Let's see how well the bullpen holds up.

4. It probably says more about the Twins than the Orioles, but after the 3 game series the O's team ERA is 1.00.

5. Andrew McCutchen had walk-off hits in back-to-back games for the Pirates. He is a stud.

6. The Phillies have a weak lineup, below average even for the NL. Only Philly fans will recognize half the names in the starting lineup, and the other half are past their prime. That being said, a season with Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels will cover some of those offensive shortcomings.

7. The Giants are praised for also having one of the best top of the rotations. Lincecum, Cain and Bumgarner have a collective ERA over 8.2.

8. The first series of the season is open season for overreactions. But the one team that looks much better than I expected is the St Louis Cardinals. The starting rotation is still strong without Carpenter and the hitters are showing some pop, too.