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The waiting is over. Time for the true contests to begin - and not a moment too soon too, since the Diamondbacks come in to Opening Day sporting a seven-game losing streak at the end of pre-season play. Let's hope they've got all those icky defeats out of their system for a bit. And who better to face than the Rockies, whom I need hardly remind you we totally pwned - as I believe the kids these days say - last season, winning 15 of the 18 contests between the teams.
The starting lineup has a couple of moderate surprises to be found. Chad Tracy replaces Mark Reynolds at third-base: that's not so much of a shock, with a tough righty going for the opposition, and Brandon Webb on the mound, we are getting as many southpaws in the line-up and shoring up the defense. This presumably also explains the presence of Tony Clark at 1B. Somewhat more surprising is the news that the Opening Day start in right goes to Eric Byrnes rather than Justin Upton. Eric has hit Cook a good deal better than J-Up - but if that's what Melvin is going on, then CoJack - hitless in his career - should be sitting. Here's the batting order:
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Lopez,2B -
Young, CF -
Drew, SS -
Tracy, 3B -
Byrnes, RF -
Clark, 1B -
Jackson, LF -
Snyder, C -
Webb, P
I think it'd be nice for the team to score early and settle those Opening Day nerves, especially after a spring where the results haven't been quite what we'd have hoped. Keeping Brad Hawpe in check will be helpful for Webb - he's had the best of our ace previously - and we need the defense, and the team in general, to play sound fundamental baseball, and start the season with a W. I'm pretty pumped, and am warming up the living-room for this afternoon's action. Just to end things on a positive note, Bleacher Report's projections have us winning the West by a game. I am certainly down with this. And, that said:
Play ball!