Opening Day Lineup!

Today is Baseball Opening Day! And, you know what that means…

It’s the start of Fantasy Baseball!

I realized that I haven’t shared with you the results of my draft, held on Tuesday. So, for those of you waiting for it, you’ll find it below! Just as a reminder, this is a ten team 5x5 league, with 27 roster spots. You have three keepers, and they take the place of your draft pick in whatever round you originally drafted the player. (I love that detail.) I had the seventh pick in a wraparound draft, so technically I got Mike Trout with that pick. My other keepers ere Bogaerts in the fourteenth round, and Nola in the sixteenth. Got that?

C Vazquez – Red Sox

1B Santana – Phillies

2B Baez – Cubs

3B Bregman – Astros

SS Bogaerts – Red Sox

CI Devers – Red Sox

MI Villar – Brewers

OF Trout – Angels

OF Pham – Cardinals

OF Inciarte – Braves

OF Eaton – Nationals

U Carpenter – Cardinals

U Anderson – White Sox

U Arcia – Brewers

Bench Bradley, Jr – Red Sox

SP Ray – Diamondbacks

SP Castillo – Reds

SP Arrieta – Phillies

RP Kimbrel – Red Sox

RP Rivero – Pirates

P Hand – Padres

P Iglesias – Reds

P Miller – Indians

Bench Nola – Phillies

Bench Parker – Angels

Bench Pomeranz – Red Sox

Bench Kuhl – Pirates

I didn't get as many Red Sox players as I usually do. But, I think lots of that is because most of the Sox were good enough to be kept by other teams. Betts, Benintendi, Sale, and Price never saw the light of day. I was able to add Kimbrel after deciding not to "keep" him. I also picked up Devers, probably too early. Bradley, Vazquez, and Pomeranz were three of my last four picks. So, I showed a lot more restraint than I often do.

According to projections from the league, I should finish second thanks to an elite pitching staff. (Another oddity. I sometimes don't even draft a closer. This year, not only did I draft Kimbrel in the second round, but I drafter so many closers that I can't even play them all at once.)

Can't see how the season plays out!

Drew Pomeranz, or Greg Maddux?

I'm not a major league pitcher. That should be pretty clear. I don't have a deep understanding of pitching nuances. So, I don't feel too bad about being a little confused.

I've always said that dominance from a power pitcher was easy to recognize. I knew when Pedro was having a good game. (That was easy, if he was on the mound he was having a good game.) You could tell when Josh Beckett was on fire. You know that Chris Sale is as dominant as they come. I can tell that Craig Kimbrel is on a roll. Those are easy. You watch the batter look completely overmatched. You see them flail about wildly. You see them walk back to the dugout dejectedly. You don't have to understand baseball to see how good they are.

It's different with the "pitch to contact" dominance. I've always said that I didn't realize that Derek Lowe had a no-hitter going until around the sixth inning. It's hard to pick up dominance from a series of ground balls to third. Or Koji. How was he dominating by inducing all those popups? Or Greg Maddux?

I understand the concept. If you throw the ball right down the middle, the hitters will hit it a long way. If you paint the corners, and keep them off balance, they'll still hit the ball, but it will be a weak grounder or soft pop-up. 

But, then, what do you do with Drew Pomeranz?

He had a game last night that I wouldn't call dominating. After all, he threw 120 pitches in 5 innings. But, he only gave up the one earned run. He struck out seven, and walked two. A pretty good line, actually. But, 120 pitches in five innings??

He threw a lot a pitches. He had a lot of long at-bat, which is why he had so few walks. So, the batters were fouling the ball off a lot. Which means, he was pitching to contact...but not enough contact?

Where is that middle ground? Does he need to throw the ball more towards the middle so the batters can hit it into fair territory? Does he actually need to be less effective? Does he need to put the ball closer to the plate? Is it fooling batters too much?

Because, like I said, he wasn't exactly wild. His strike percentage was better than Joe Kelly's. About the same a Craig Kimbrel. He was just throwing a lot of strikes. A lot of pitches.

So how does he find that line? Seven strikeouts is actually damn good for five innings. So, it's not like that's a problem. It's the other pitches. The ones that are too good to hit fair but not good enough to swing and miss. How does he fix that? How does he get them to ground out on the third pitch instead of the thirteenth? Does he need a better "out" pitch so that he's striking out more than 12.6 batters per nine innings? That seems like a lot to ask. Would a better out pitch get him to that point sooner? Do we want him striking out more batters than that? I don't know what the answer is.

So I really hope he does.

List of 36: Things I'm Thankful For

1. Mookie Betts

2. Playoff Baseball

3. Hanley's return

4. Papi's Farewell Tour

5. Pictures with Section 36

6. Division Championships

7. Prospects

8. Facebook likes

9. Drew Pomeranz

10. San Diego All-Star uniforms

11. David Ortiz bling necklaces

12. Xander Bogaerts

13. Pictures with signs

14. Star Wars Night

15. Wally gnomes

16. Instagram followers

17. BB-8 baseball statues

18. Cy Porcello

19. Visitors

20. Pictures in tank tops

21. Papi's Ceremony

22. Pictures with Logos

23. Releasing the Kimbrel

24. An expansion

25. Singing Dirty Water

26. Scoring

27. Andrew Benintendi's future

28. Twitter followers

29. Panda getting healthy

30. Pictures in Section 36

31. Jackie Bradley's glove

32. Sandy Leon

33. A good book

34. Ortiz's career

35. 2017's potential

36. Readers!

How about you?