Bay Area Beginnings
It’s beginning to feel a lot like springtime. I can feel a crisp Coors Light on my lips, I can hear Hammy’s voice in my ears, and I can just feel the disappointment of a late-inning blown lead already. I don’t know how, but I still get excited every single year.
The Guardians are opening the season in Oakland this year, which let’s be honest, is pretty depressing. It’s the only ball club I have the balls to feel bad for nowadays. Not really the fans, just the people who have to play there. As you can tell in the picture above, on my trip to see the Guardians play there in 2022, the tickets were pretty easy to come by.
Bieber has been named the opening-day starter ONCE AGAIN, and with a few extra MPH in his pocket, I see a start to this year’s season with a tally in the win column. Bieber will be facing off against Alex Wood, who is making his first OD start in his career. Wood is going to throw strikes as he only walked one batter this spring while sitting down 13. I think Wood is a good example of the A’s push to throw strikes and force teams to hit this year, but unfortunately for them, that’s kind of what we do.
The Friday game will likely be McKenzie going toe to toe with Paul Blackburn. Blackburn gives up 10 hits per 9 which seems enticing to me, however unfortunately, those will probably all be singles and I see us losing this game 3 to 1 or some shit like that. This one is a toss-up for me, being that this will still only be Sticks' 6th regular-season start since rehab in 2023.
Saturday afternoon is when I anticipate we see Bibee make his 2024 debut against JP Sears. Something of note, Sears was experimenting this offseason with a new sinker that he has developed. Sears debuted this pitch, funnily enough, against the Guardians in March which resulted in a struggling young lineup that went down 6 in a row, with no hits. That sinker may be something to look for on Saturday.
Finally, on Sunday afternoon I assume we see Logan Allen against Ross Stripling. Stripling pitched 22 times and started 11 games for SF last year, remaining winless throughout. Stripling ranks about average in every metric I checked out. I think this game could ultimately come down to the bullpen as I wouldn’t be surprised if it was tied at 4 runs a piece in the 5th.
My non-professional and way too specific predictions:
Cleveland Guardians (2-2), 5 or more steals, 2 or less errors, One Naylor HR
I think the Guardians win two out of these first four games, and I don’t foresee an opening-day loss with Bieber on the mound against this lineup. I'm taking the over on 5 steals in the series with Sean Murphy no longer behind the plate. I’ll confidently take the under on 2 errors simply because if we don’t have defense, we don’t have much. Considering Cleveland is a scrappy, single-slapping squad, in one of the most pitcher-friendly stadiums in the AL… I can’t see the Guards putting up more than one home run, but that one will likely come off the bat of someone with NAYLOR written across his back.
Sunday night, the boys can depart the dark and dreary Bay Area, hopefully with a 2-2 record, so we can head up to Seattle with our heads held high. Here's to a '24 season with a sprinkle of excitement now and then. We can absolutely take a bad AL Central!
With high hopes and low expectations,
TGK
P.S. Miles Straw was placed on waivers today, opening a roster spot for SOMEONE who knows how to hit a baseball. If Miles Straw was our starting center fielder on opening day, there was a good chance I would be writing this blog from a looney bin.