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April 3, 2007

Prospectus Today

Opening Day Observations

by Joe Sheehan

I watched baseball all day. You got a problem with that?

• All the games Monday seemed to be played much more quickly. The average time of game doesn’t really matter—you’d expect it to be lower due to the caliber of pitchers starting on Opening Day, and it’s a 13-game sample—but the games just felt faster. We’ll see if this continues, because pace of play—not length of games, but pace—is a factor in the enjoyment of the game for many fans. Now, if we could just do something about PA system sound levels that make it impossible to hold a conversation…

• The Nationals are in for a long, long season. After John Patterson was pounded in yesterday’s 9-2 loss to the Marlins, they’ll follow up with Shawn Hill (nine career starts, 6.90 ERA), Matt Chico (major league debut), Jerome Williams (practically a god among this crew with 65 starts and a 4.03 ERA) and Jason Bergmann (seven starts, 5.76 ERA). I think Williams will be something of a revelation; the rest of this group is just frightening. Sometimes, you have to have a year like this to get where you’re going, but the 2007 Nationals look to be extra scary.

  It's probably a little mean-spirited to bring this up, but it was notable that the lineup the Nats had at the end of the game was probably better than the one they started with, thanks to injuries suffered by Cristian Guzman and Nook Logan. Josh Wilson is approximately as good as Guzman, and Chris Snelling is definitely better than Logan.

• Cool new trend that I hope catches on: using non-traditional #2 hitters. The Blue Jays stuck Lyle Overbay in the #2 slot, the Reds returned Adam Dunn there, the Mariners elevated Adrian Beltre, and the Indians put Trot Nixon behind Grady Sizemore. The Dodgers, missing Rafael Furcal, even went with Russell Martin in the second spot. All of these are better solutions than a contact-hitting middle infielder with no discernible power or on-base ability.

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