Today's Fantasy Rx

After spending upward of a dozen hours watching much of nine different games, I've compiled the following notes from Opening Day 2004:

12pm(CDT): Detroit Tigers @ Toronto Blue Jays

The first of MLB's nine contests today, this game proceeded mostly as expected through five innings, aside from the obvious exception of Carlos Pena homering instead of Carlos Delgado. However, with Halladay still under 100 pitches, he faltered in the sixth inning as IRod homered, and then a Toronto error allowed two more runs. Carlos Tosca left him in the game to start the ninth, whereupon Halladay allowed his third homer of the day; the Rondell White shot opened the Tigers' lead to 7-0, and Toronto's offense never rallied.

Situational hitting doomed a sabermetrically-focused team for the second straight night, although Toronto's 10 LOB paled in comparison to Boston's 14 stranded runners Sunday night.

With both Javy Lopez and IRod homering in their first games of the year, strong performances from Benito Santiago, Ramon Hernandez, and A.J. Pierzynski appear likely.

1pm(CDT): Chicago Cubs @ Cincinnati Reds

Given our loyalty to the Cubs, we paid more attention to this game than the other eight of the day. While the broadcast started on a weak note with Nick Lachey singing the anthem sans Jessica Simpson and Dick Cheney throwing out the first pitch, a 1st inning homer from Corey Patterson on his first pitch he saw of the season set the game on the right course.

D'Angelo Jimenez bounced a single off the second base bag in the bottom of the 1st. Around this time we also noticed that the picture quality didn't compare favorably to the Jays' game.

In the bottom of the second, Alex S. Gonzalez booted a slow roller to short, bringing up unpleasant memories of Game 6 of last year's NLCS.

Rather than give Patterson a chance to repeat his Opening Day heroics of 2003, Cory Lidle plunked him in the 3rd on a pitch than ricocheted off Jason LaRue. Following a Sosa walk, Moises Alou then launched a 3-run homer on a 3-2 pitch with two outs, giving the Cubs an apparently comfortable 4-0 lead.

With Kerry Wood's control erratic as usual, a couple of walks and groundballs cut the lead in half in the bottom of the 3rd.

After compiling a 6:3 K:BB in 5 IP with 5 H, a 7-3 G-F, and 4 ER, Kerry departed after five innings. Dusty Baker inserted Mike Wuertz, a 12th man on the staff, and he immediately recalled Todd Wellemeyer's debut last summer by recording two strikeouts and a weak groundout.

The Cubs' win almost fell apart in the ninth inning. With runners on first and second and only one out, a single to CF Ryan Freel prompted Waving Wendell Kim to send Mark Grudzielanek home even after Grudz got a slow start from second base. Freel gunned down Grudz, and then LaRue rifled a throw to third base, nailing Corey Patterson for the third out of the inning.

With Chicago only up by three, and closer Joe Borowski's diminished velocity a popular concern among newspaper writers this spring, Baker nevertheless pulled Kyle Farnsworth in favor of Borowski, who promptly walked two batters. Fortunately, two strikeouts and a flyout allowed the Cubs to end the day with a perfect record, a welcome accomplishment despite their inconsistent play.

2pm(CDT): Chicago White Sox @ Kansas City Royals

We didn't even realize this game was televised until after 3pm. All the other games appeared either on Direct TV's Extra Innings package or ESPN2, whereas the White Sox played on WGN. By the time we flipped over here, a Paul Konerko double and Sandy Alomar homer left the Sox with a 4-1 lead, a worrisome score in the third inning given we expected less runs at Kauffman Stadium this year after the Royals returned the fences to their pre-1996 dimensions.

The other five simultaneous games kept us from flipping to this channel too often, so we missed three more Sox runs and the Benito Santiago homer that maintained the trend of free agent catchers homering in their AL debuts.

Of course, the ninth inning here contained more drama than the rest of the day combined. Despite a 7-3 lead and a spring training pattern of only bringing Billy Koch into games at the beginning of innings, rookie manager Ozzie Guillen let Cliff Politte begin the bottom of the ninth.

Politte walked Joe Randa and Ken Harvey, forcing Guillen finally to summon Koch. He promptly have up a one-run double to Santiago, although a strikeout of Aaron Guiel at least gave the Sox one out.

Tony Graffanino replaced Desi Relaford early in the game when Relaford pulled a hammy. Tony Pena replaced the right-handed Graffanino at this point with the lefty Matt Stairs.

Fearing a 3-run game-tying homer from the powerful Stairs, Guillen played the percentages by inserting Damaso Marte to face Stairs. Pena pulled Stairs in favor of Mendy Lopez.

Lopez hit the three-run bomb everyone expected from Stairs.

Marte then walked Angel Berroa, which caused me to turn to Jess, recalling the Royals' impressive start last season and their penchant for walk-off shots, as well as suggesting that a Beltran homer here would be the perfect start to this season for Kansas City, not to mention give the Sox a backbreaking defeat.

Beltran homered.

Now the White Sox must sit in their Kansas City hotel rooms for two days, face presumptive Royals' ace Darrell May Wednesday afternoon, and then jet to New York in time for the Yankees' home opener and Javier Vazquez's AL debut Thursday afternoon. While Kansas City appears nicely positioned to open another season with several wins, the White Sox appear fairly likely to leave New York with no better than a 2-4 record. Fortunately, Ozzie Guillen has two days to rally the team before Tuesday's home opener against KC, and a weekend series against Tampa provides a nice buffer, however we still don't envision a strong first half from the White Sox.

3pm(CDT): Philadelphia Phillies @ Pittsburgh Pirates

Unfortunately, this game mostly slipped under our radar with the first three games finishing and a couple of fascinating contests out west. Of course, these teams also combined for less than half the run total of the other eight games. Kevin Millwood and Kip Wells compiled an 11:3 K:BB in 12 IP with 12 H, 1 HR, a 14-11 G-F, and only two earned runs.

In a nice Opening Day irony, Jose Mesa, who Philadelphia essentially benched last September rather than give him enough games finished to exercise an automatic option, retired the site in the ninth innings to record his first save for Pittsburgh.

3pm(CDT): San Diego Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers

Brian Lawrence held the Dodgers to only one run in five innings, suggesting spring training struggles mean nothing. Hideo Nomo allowed seven earned run, including a Phil Nevin grand slam, in his five innings, suggesting spring training struggles mean a lot.

Despite employing five relievers to protect Lawrence's win, San Diego didn't use the two most interesting pitchers on their team, Japanese free agent Akinori Otsuka and Rule 5 pick Jason Szuminski, who will be the first MIT graduate to the play in the majors.

Milton Bradley walked twice and smacked two singles in his five plate appearances, yet failed to score a run or drive home anybody.

Continuing the depressing LOB totals among the teams of young, stat-friendly General Managers, Los Angeles stranded 15 baserunners, losing the game 8-2 even though five more Dodgers reached base successfully than Padres.

3pm(CDT): Milwaukee Brewers @ St. Louis Cardinals

Extended Opening Day ceremonies, which included President Bush throwing out the first pitch in a Cardinals' jacket, delayed the start of the game significantly. Matt Morris and the Cardinals' defense never appeared comfortable as errors by Pujols and Renteria negated strong performances by Mike Matheny and Tony Womack, who stole 3 bases in his Cardinals' debut.

Of course, Milwaukee starter Ben Sheets also struggled, leaving the game in the fourth inning. Only the last two innings features decent pitching performances as Luis Vizcaino, Danny Kolb, Mike Lincoln, and Julian Tavarez allows a total of three baserunners while strikeout out even batters. Scott Podedsnik and Ben Grieve homers highlighted the Brewers' 8-6 win.

6pm(CDT): San Francisco Giants @ Houston Astros

Felipe Alou's dumb decision to bat Barry Bonds 4th backfired quickly as Roy Oswalt set down the first three Giants in order. In the second inning, rather than try for homer 659 immediately, Bonds instead took advantage of the Astros' defensive shift, slapping Oswalt's first offering down the left field line for a double. Of course, the Giants then strand him on third base.

Bonds again doubles in the top of the fourth, scoring on an A.J. Pierzynski single. San Francisco's offense then grounds to halt for a few innings while Houston adds three more runs, leaving the score 4-1 heading into the top of the 8th inning.

An obviously laboring Roy Oswalt allows two baserunners, bringing Bonds to the plate with a chance to tie the game with one swing. Jimy Williams bounds toward the mound and appears to gesture with his left hand. Unfortunately for Astros' fans, he's only asking for time as Houston didn't bother to take a single lefty reliever. Perhaps Jared Fernandez would give Bonds trouble, yet the only pitcher warming up is the groundball-challenged Brad Lidge.

Yet to the amazement of Chris Berman, Tony Gwynn, and Rick Sutcliffe, Williams allows Oswalt to throw his 98th pitch of the evening.

The pitch travels about 59 feet towards home, and then Bonds redirects the ball on a line arc that deposits the offering in the first row of the right field stands for his 659th career home run and tie game.

Brad Lidge then enters the game and at least stops the bleeding with two strikeouts, but he also allows a hit and a walk, and Williams doesn't hesitate to pinch-hit Jose Vizcaino.

Octavio Dotel then enters the game in his old role, and promptly hits pinch-hitter Tony Torcato. Cody Ransom pinch-runs for Torcato, advances on a wild pitch and a Ray Durham sacrifice, and then scores on a J.T. Snow sac fly.

Matt Herges, replacing Tim Worrell and Robb Nen as San Francisco's closer, retires the Astros in order for his first save of the year. Go get Herges in any league where he remains available as he should tally at least 20 saves.

We strongly recommend watching the Giants/Astros game tonight at 7(CDT) on ESPN2 since Barry Bonds almost certainly should hit his 660th homer, moving him into a tie with his godfather, Willie Mays, for 3rd place on the all-time home run list.

7pm(CDT): Cleveland Indians @ Minnesota Twins

Two teams enter new eras as Cleveland rebounds from dealing Milton Bradley and Joe Mauer's reign behind the plate begins in Minnesota. Mauer impressed us to a ridiculous extent. He took a four-pitch walk from C.C. Sabathia in the third, struck out swinging on a 3-2 count in the fifth, walked on a 3-2 count in the 8th, and stroked his first base hit on a 1-2 count in the ninth inning.

Despite two homers from Travis Hafner and another shot from Jody Gerut that glanced off Shannon Stewart's glove into the left field seats, Jose Jimenez and Scott Stewart allowed Minnesota to reach a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the eighth after Mauer's walk ignited a rally.

Cleveland nearly took the lead in the top of the tenth. With two outs, Vizquel doubled to right, however perfect throws from Jacque Jones and Mike Cuddyer, manning second base in place of Luis Rivas, allowed Mauer to first block Matt Lawton from the plate and then tag him out.

Mauer again singled in the bottom of the eleventh, pushing pinch-runner Nick Punto to second base, and then Stewart crushed a Chad Durbin offering into left field to give Minnesota a 7-4 win. Mauer matched Milton Bradley's LA debut by going 2-for-3 with 2 walks, however Mauer's two runs scored keyed his team's victory.

9pm(CDT): Texas Rangers @ Oakland Athletics

The final games of the evening dragged past midnight, and after fantastic finishes in Kansas City and Minnesota, not to mention a Cubs' win and another record homer by Bonds, we didn't pay particularly close attention here.

However, Tim Hudson's struggles caught our collective eye as he walked in a run in the third. Kenny Rogers then returned the favor in the bottom of the inning. Mike Young, who signed a four-year extension earlier in the day, singled home Laynce Nix the following half inning, and then Jermaine Dye then drove home his second run of the day in the bottom of the fifth.

Mark Teixeira launched a two-run shot off Chris Hammond in the 7th, and then Texas finally replaced Kenny Rogers in the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately, Jeff Nelson only retired two batters while allowing Erubiel Durazo to reach third and Bobby Crosby first base.

Oakland pinch-hit Billy McMillon for Damian Miller, Texas summoned Ron Mahay, and then pinch-hitter Eric Byrnes stroked a two-run double, giving the Athletics a 5-4 lead.

New closer Arthur Rhodes allows a Herb Perry single but otherwise saved the win unscathed.

Byrnes' double also allowed Oakland to break the double-digit LOB trend. The Athletics only stranded eight runners, and unlike Boston, Toronto, and Los Angeles, they won their opener.

Today's Fantasy Rx: Normally pitching tends to dominate in spring, yet for whatever reason, possibly the friendly weather conditions around the country, offenses impressed yesterday everywhere except Pittsburgh. Halladay, Wood, Oswalt, and Hudson all struggled at times, and only Kip Wells and C.C. Sabathia posted truly strong numbers. If your league allows to reserve pitchers at your leisure, consider keeping your questionable pitchers on the bench until you see them compile a couple of strong appearances.