As it was in the end, so it shall be in the beginning: The Rays walked off winners against the Yankees today, putting themselves six games ahead of last year’s pace. Carlos Pena celebrated his return to the Trop by bookending the pinstripe aces, with a “take-that!” slam off Sabathia in the 1st and a sacks-full bingle in the 9th off Mariano Rivera.
The first season of the rest of Adam Dunn’s life begins today. Following a year of historic struggles where he hit .159 with an OPS+ of 56, Dunn and his Chicago White Sox start a new season today against the Texas Rangers. By all accounts, the embattled first baseman looks to have a new lease on his baseball life. Dunn played well through spring training, and rookie manager Robin Ventura told the Chicago Tribune that Dunn will hit third thanks to his ability to get on base.
Seemingly, there’s no direction but up for Adam Dunn in 2012, though whether he can rebound at the plate remains to be seen. If history is any judge, though, Dunn’s best course of action might be to swing away. Throughout baseball history, many great hitters walked less than their lifetime rates among their top five OPS+ seasons.
Four players have homered in their team’s first game in both 2011 and 2012:
| Rk | Player | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cameron Maybin | 2 | Ind. Games |
| 2 | Jack Hannahan | 2 | Ind. Games |
| 3 | Jose Bautista | 2 | Ind. Games |
| 4 | J.P. Arencibia | 2 | Ind. Games |
J.P. Arencibia made the most of his homers, especially with that 16th-inning 3-run job last night.
Going back to 1918, here are the guys with the most Opening Day homers:
| Rk | Player | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Robinson | 8 | Ind. Games |
| 2 | Ken Griffey | 7 | Ind. Games |
| 3 | Dave Winfield | 6 | Ind. Games |
| 4 | Babe Ruth | 6 | Ind. Games |
| 5 | Scott Rolen | 6 | Ind. Games |
| 6 | Willie Mays | 6 | Ind. Games |
| 7 | Gary Carter | 6 | Ind. Games |
| 8 | Carl Yastrzemski | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 9 | Mike Schmidt | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 10 | Brooks Robinson | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 11 | Eddie Mathews | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 12 | Tino Martinez | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 13 | Jeff Kent | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 14 | Todd Hundley | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 15 | Richie Hebner | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 16 | Dwight Evans | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 17 | Adam Dunn | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 18 | Orlando Cepeda | 5 | Ind. Games |
| 19 | Barry Bonds | 5 | Ind. Games |
Scott Rolen is the active leader, with Adam Dunn right behind him.
What were the most notable baseball trades to happen on this day?
With the luxury of hindsight, it’s fun to look back and see what transactions worked out or didn’t, or maybe even changed baseball history.
– The Mets had a nice pre-game tribute to the late Gary Carter. The video included his game-winning HR in his Mets debut back in ’85. It was a moving moment, then and now, but tell me this: Have you ever seen worse footwork on a home-run swing? Watch his back foot step away from the plate as his body lurches forward to jerk the slow curve over the LF fence. (And is there a term for such back foot movement? Every source I’ve found says that “stepping in the bucket” refers to the front foot only.)
In 2011, Jose Valverde converted all 49 save tries in the regular season (allowing just 3 runs in the process), and added 3 more without fail in the postseason.
But in his first outing of the new campaign, he blew Justin Verlander‘s 2-0 lead in the 9th, allowing Ryan Sweeney‘s 2-out tying triple.
And this: The number of times during his magical march to the Cy Young & MVP Awards that Verlander left with a lead but didn’t cash a win? Yep, that would be zero.
Still, the Tigers and their fans walked off happy in the 9th on Austin Jackson‘s 3rd hit.
UPDATE: I’ve created a new free challenge here for tomorrow.
Those of you who’d like a quick stat challenge, click here to join a FanDuel league I set up. This is a one-day league (just today) and is free to enter. Draft a team and see if you can beat my team.
You have only a couple more hours to enter, so hop to it!
The Cardinals opened their championship defense Wednesday night, along with the New World portion of the 2012 MLB schedule, landing the “Marlins 2.0” by a score of 4-1. While everyone was gaping at the kaleidoscopic new ballpark (and maybe wondering if there’d ever be another game with the roof open), here’s what I found in the box score:
(1) The Cards’ win over the Marlins was the first Opening Day game since 2008 in which neither team had a homer or a triple. In ’08, both the Angels/Twins and Padres/Astros Opening Day games saw no triples or homers.
(2) Yoenes Cespedes had an extra-base hit in each of his first two major league games this past week. Going back to 1918, the record for most games with an extra-base hit from the beginning of a career is held by — I’ll tell you after the jump — Continue reading
Those tuned in to ESPN for the almost-opener in Miami heard Dan Shulman say that the 2011 Cardinals had 9 different pitchers record at least 1 save.
What’s your gut sense — was that an all-time record? The point here is not to look it up (that’s my job!), but just to say what you think.
(By the way, Shulman was mistaken; only 8 different Cardinals got a save last year, and that includes the postseason, where Jason Motte got all 5 saves. But for the sake of discussion, let’s pretend he was right.)