Notes From Around My League

Wow, was it a bad first day for my offense.  

Our final line: 7/40 - 6 Runs - 1 HR - 3 RBI - 0 SB

My best player today was Matt Kemp, who went 1/3 with a solo home run.  Magglio Ordonez was my only player to have multiple hits.  

The worst offenders on my team today: Mark Teixiera 0/4, Mark DeRosa 0/3, and Jhonny Peralta 0/3.

On the pitching side for me, Paul Maholm turned in a solid start against the Cardinals with a 1.35 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP in 6.2 innings, and Kevin Gregg converted his first save of the season despite a shaky ninth.

Dissect Yourself, my opponent this week, started the day almost as poorly as I did, but he was able to rebound with good performances from Brian Roberts, Alfonso Soriano, and Michael Bourn.  We are now tied in HR, RBI, and Steals.

Around My League

As we'll see, almost every team in our league has suffered from a slow start to the season.

 - The Balls were nearly as bad as I was today, hitting .194; the lone bright spot was Hanley Ramirez's 2/1/5 line.  The Balls were able to put up strong strikeout totals because of Jake Peavy and Ricky Nolasco's efforts, though neither pitcher was especially sharp.  

- Cliff Lee was destroyed by Rangers' hitting, marring an otherwise strong pitching day for the Tossers.  Lee's outing has put the Tossers in early hole in the ERA and WHIP categories.

- Order of the Phoenix has to be happy that Hank Blalock is starting the season healthy; Blalock and Ryan Ludwick combined for 2 HR and 5 RBI to pull the Phoenix into an early lead over Summer Fox in every offenensive category.  It's a good thing that this team is doing well offensively as their pitching line stands at a 12.46 ERA and a 1.69 WHIP in 13 innings (not counting any stats that Brian Fuentes might provide later tonight) due to awful outings by Aaron Cook and Justin Verlander.

- Summer Fox was without Jason Bay's and Kevin Youkilis's bats today because their game was postponed due to poor weather.  This set the tone for the Fox's team as five other players from their team also watched Opening Day from the bench.

- How about the 2 HR from Felipe Lopez against the Rockies, where did those come from?  The Macafeys have to love that performance almost as much as the 4 hit, 6 RBI day that Adam Lind produced.  We can't expect much power from Lopez the rest of the year, but Lind is a forgotten prospect who could be finally figuring out major league pitching.  

- Probably the best pitching performance of the night was Felix Hernandez's 8 inning gem with 6 K's and 1 ER.  Hernandez's stellar outing was marred by 3 walks, but he keeps Naterade ahead of the Macafeys in ERA and WHIP.

- Emilio Bonifacio has made Orc Mischief look like a genius for picking him up, putting up probably the best hitting line of the night - 4 hits, 4 Runs, 1 HR, 2 RBI, and 3 SB.  Steals were tough to come by in our league today, and Bonifacio has given the Butt Admirals an early challenge in the steals category.  

-  Though the Admirals did not steal any bases today, they could have one of the fastest lineups in the league and they may still have a chance to overtake the Mischief in that category.

Best Team Hitting Performance

Screaming Lemurs - .412/6 Runs/4 HR/12 RBI/1 SB

Best Team Pitching Performance

Orc Mischief - 12.1 Innings/1 Win/0 Saves/9 K/0.73 ERA/0.97 WHIP (Joe Saunders is in line for the win with the Angels game in the 8th inning at the time of this writing.