Opening Day greetings from Minnesota, the land that spring forgot. Outside there are still two feet of snow on the ground and there's a winter storm watch until 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Game time conditions in Kansas City, though, should be more pleasant, about 68 degrees and breezy. There's a reason our home opener is never on actual Opening Day.
To say last season was disappointing for Twins fans would be an exercise in understatement. So many things that could have gone right went wrong, and it far too often involved severe bodily harm to key players. By most accounting, if not for a plethora of injuries late in the season the Twins would have won the division. But those are the vagaries of the game that make it so maddening and endearing, and keep us coming back for more year after year.
You generally put your ace starting pitcher on the mound for Opening Day. For Kansas City, that means Donald Zachary Greinke and his 223 career wins, 2882 strikeouts, and 3.42 ERA. It will be the seventh Opening Day start of his career. The Twins, I believe, selected their Opening Day starter by draw and Pablo Lopez pulled the short straw. He'll go to the mound for his first ever Opening Day start with 28 career wins, 489 strikeouts, and a lifetime 3.94 ERA under his belt.
I have no prognostications to offer for how this season will go for the Twins, my crystal ball is perpetually hazy these days. Conventional wisdom says don't be surprised to see the Twins and Guardians battling it out for the division title again come September, but every season starts with a big old question mark. If we're lucky along the way and enough things go right, we get to end it with a giant exclamation point.
Play ball!
I'm hoping Greinke can reach 3000 strikeouts. His 70 strikeouts last season says he will end up short.
WE HAVE AUDIO!
What's the over/under on Salvador Perez HRs today?
1.99
Im taking the over
Baseball!
Nice to kick the season off with Justin in the booth.
Pop out on one pitch... GOSO?
Gallo couldn't have done much worse.
Left the bases loaded... GOSO?
Bases loaded, no runs. We're in midseason form already!
What's the record for Team LOB?
#SquadGoals
Missed the start of the game, had to deal with the squirrel that Marty and/or Lily just killed.
Hopefully the baseball gods accept the sacrifice
good puppy!
I LOVE THE PITCH CLOCK
Yeah, it's great. I see it like baseball is the stuffing in an Oreo cookie, and now we get 5 double-stuff Oreos instead of 6 regular Oreos.
We basically just rewound the clock to a time before Nomar and Knoblauch and other time-wasting pioneers started doing all kinds of fidgety shit between innings.
Watched the last 5 innings at the local brewery. The pitch clock was a little unsettling to me as I was out of my rhythm. It will take a while to adjust to when viewing somewhere in which I am easily distracted.
I suspect that we all had adjusted to the languid pace. We will adjust again as the pace gets back closer to the historical norms of yore.
Lopez lookin sharp.
3 full innings played in about 50 minutes, I love it.
Every year MLB Gameday page just gets hokier and hokier.
I think this Gameday is an improvement. I could do with less whitespace, but being able to see both rosters, the play-by-play, and the pitch location all at once is better.
Looks like the page is responsive too so that's nice.
True. I don't know about you, though, but I have the score blocking out most of the portion of the strike zone that isn't covered up by the top white space.
I have the page full screen and nothing is covered up. I edit live edit the HTML to get rid of the ad bar at the top. I can't replicate the score blocking the zone however. I can get close at very narrow widths to block out the head of the batter but never down to the zone.
Okay, at 240 pixels I can get the pitch identification to block part of the zone. Plays fully cover the zone.
#worklaptop
I'm appreciating the new uniforms in action. Looking forward to getting myself a new M hat this summer.
I still hate the new M. Too Marlinsy.
Disagree. I hated the old M. For this one, the fact that another team has a similarly awesome M isn't reason to dislike this one. Royals having baby blue wasn't a reason to dislike our baby blues, was jt?
Hard to like the M when the TC kicks butt already
I don't find it hard to like multiple great options. Beatles and Rolling Stones? Yes please.
The new M sucks. The new M looks like the Marlins.
And the old M was great. Two world championships. Bring back the old M!
Now you're just trolling. And re-asserting the very point I was responding to, which, I'd point out, is not a rebuttal. Flow that point across, I win the debate.
Also, by this logic, Target Field sucks. So... I think I win this point too.
No. I'm saying the new M sucks AND it looks like the Marlins. It doesn't suck just because it looks like the Marlins.
And the old M was great.
(And I'll admit the Metrodome had much more to do about those championships than the hats.)
Non-productive reply: IMHO, both M's suck.
I can tolerate this more than the other... That old script M was just ugly and unbalanced.
I agree compared to the old m, the star makes sure of that. But I'll still only ever get TC hats
Same here. I always go for the TC hats. Hated the old M. Holding off on an opinion on the new M for a few more weeks.
WIGGLE
Sid Bream special
TWINS BASEBALL!!
the Twingoish 3-2-4 double play!
3BUX
leadoff triples are sexy
Triples are Sexy.
noice
Depth is nice
Bases loaded, no runs. Drink.
Watched the first 5 innings with the Poissonnière while introducing her to play Iota. I’m not sure how much she will retain; I caught her sneaking a lot of looks at the broadcast.
I am now a Lopez fan
I’m sure the retired PO1 is a very nice gentleman, but this marks the annual first muting of “GBA.”
It was, blissfully, brief.
I joined you in muting that part of the broadcast.
The crowd in KC last summer was noticeably more annoyed that I didn't stand than anyone ever has been at Target Field
Rocco gonna use the whole bullpen.
That was quick.
Shmoke
smoke & puppies
On pace to outscore opponents 324-0!
Lotta shutouts in the early games
I'm glad the Twins got one of them!
Time of game: 2:32. Yes.
I was surprised that the last time the Twins shut out an opponent on an Opening Day was only 4 years ago when the Twins beat Cleveland 2-0
That was a very good regular season. And the opener finished in 2:18.
We're still on track for 162-0!