Plenty of Opening Day observations
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry
Bliss could be described thusly: Opening Day, a television, and a whole bunch of games beginning at about 1:15 Eastern time and going on past midnight, a long day of first impressions.
1. Francisco Rodriguez doesn't throw as hard as he used to, and although he is still just 27 years old, he has already reached the stage of his career when his breaking ball sets up his fastball, rather than the other way around. Despite hand-numbing temperatures in the high 30s in Cincinnati on Monday, his first pitch was some kind of breaking ball at 75 mph, to Jay Bruce, and then he threw another breaking ball, and another.
And with the Reds' hitters looking for his breaking stuff, he mixed in just three fastballs among his 10 pitches -- one at 91 mph and two others at 93 mph -- though he might as well have been throwing 110 mph because of his ability to throw his breaking ball for strikes.
This makes him very, very unusual among closers. Mariano Rivera still relies on his cut fastball, which has ranged in velocity from 90 to 95 mph in his career. Billy Wagner's fastball was his primary weapon, often hitting 100 mph. Trevor Hoffman doesn't throw hard, but uses his fastball to set up his devastating changeup. Brad Lidge might be the most similar to K-Rod among current closers because of how devastating his slider is.
K-Rod is a master of the breaking ball who complements his benders with his fastball, and, like Rivera and Hoffman, he has enormous competitive arrogance -- a good thing -- that seeps out every time he pitches. He dispatched the Reds with a weak grounder, a pop-up and a strikeout, a great first day for the Mets' most important off-season acquisition.
The Mets' bullpen closed the door for Johan Santana, as Adam Rubin writes. K-Rod gave the Mets everything they wanted, writes Ken Davidoff.
2. It felt like Jake Peavy was taking on the Dodgers all by himself in the Padres' season opener, and when he didn't dominate, they didn't win. And it feels like it's only a matter of time before he winds up in a Cubs uniform. The possibility of a future trade hovered over the Padres' ace, as Tim Sullivan writes.
3. Felix Hernandez is beginning to take on the look of Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay or Johan Santana in terms of how he controls the game; it's beginning to feel like the hitters' best chances -- and perhaps only chances -- will occur when and if King Felix makes a mistake. He dominated the Twins on Monday, while pitching through an ankle tweak, as Steve Kelley writes.
Ken Griffey, Jr. had a great moment, slamming a home run in his return to the Mariners, as Geoff Baker writes. The Mariners' manager got a post-game beer shower.
4. The Twins are already without Joe Mauer indefinitely, and 38-year-old Mike Redmond, one of baseball's great gamers, made it clear that he was willing to catch every day if necessary. But on the first day of the season, he went down with an injured groin, and when you saw that, you just cringed. Presumably, the Twins' next option, if Redmond lands on the disabled list or is out for a few days, will be Drew Butera, who is in Triple-A.
5. Even in the last weeks of last season, Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricciardi talked about what a difference he thought Travis Snider and Adam Lind would make to the Toronto lineup over the '09 season. On the first day, he could not have been more right: Lind and Snider led the way, as Mike Rutsey writes. The Jays offered a ray of hope on the first day of the season, writes Richard Griffin.
The Jays expect a drop of attendance tonight, when there will be no beer served at the Rogers Centre.
6. We spent all spring talking about the back end of the Indians' rotation, about how the team's fortunes are tied to the success or failure of Carl Pavano, Anthony Reyes and, eventually, David Huff. But really, the Indians probably will not win the AL Central if Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona don't anchor their staff. And Lee looked awful on Opening Day, struggling with the command of his fastball, surrendering seven runs. To put that in perspective, consider how many earned runs Lee allowed month-to-month last season.
April 2008: 4
May: 11
June: 12
July: 15
August: 8
September: 13
This was an extension of Lee's spring performance, as Sheldon Ocker writes.
The Rangers took some big ol' swings against Lee, writes Randy Galloway. Kevin Millwood looked good on Opening Day, as Jim Reeves writes.
7. Quite simply, CC Sabathia looked like he was overthrowing, and you could tell it from his command. Sabathia's athleticism is such that, 40 years from now, you could probably wake him up as he dozed on his porch and hand him a baseball and he could probably repeat his delivery and throw strikes. And Monday in Camden Yards, Sabathia was badly missing his target, over and over -- and sometimes his arm seemed to lag in his delivery, causing his fastball to fly up and away to right-handed hitters, and when he tried to adjust, he overthrew his breaking stuff down.
Sabathia has admittedly put a whole lot of pressure on himself in the past, to the point that his performance is affected. He believes he did this after Bartolo Colon left the Indians and he wanted to be the ace, and he might have done this early last season, when his mechanics broke down for a handful of starts and he got away from throwing on a downhill plane.
Eventually, Sabathia will figure it out, but he takes the responsibility of his $161 million contract very seriously, and this might affect him for awhile.
Sabathia fizzled in his first start for the Yankees, writes Tyler Kepner. Mark Teixeira was booed mercilessly, Anthony McCarron writes. There was little charm in Teixeira's debut with the Yankees, writes Thom Loverro.
8. The Cardinals' bullpen took them down in 2008, so there was a sense of deja vu all over again Monday, as the relievers blew multiple leads. Now, what you hear all the time about Tony La Russa is that he will not waver quickly in the face of a bad day. Jason Motte had a terrible first day as closer, but assuming La Russa holds to form, he'll keep running Motte out there, time after time, having made the decision that he was good enough to do this job. And in the end, this will be a good decision.
Here's a good sign for the Cardinals, as mentioned in Joe Strauss's story: Motte didn't shrink from the moment:
Motte afterward faced the media standing at his locker, which last season belonged to now-departed closer Jason Isringhausen. "I'm not going to make excuses about the weather," Motte said. "It's not the fans or anything. Things weren't there. I was a couple strikes away, and things didn't go too good today."
The rest of Buster's blog -- more notes on Opening Day, injuries, deals and tons more -- is available exclusively to ESPN Insiders. 
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Buster Olney
