SweetSpot Roundup 4/4

Baseballin' On a Budget (Athletics): Game 2 Recap
"HEY BATS YOU CAN START HITTING NOW." The A's must have heard Dan, because they scored 7 in game 3.

Ghostrunner on First (Blue Jays): Kyle Drabek's Day At the Office
Drew's got a really nice graphical representation of Kyle Drabek's absolutely dominating performance against the Twins on Saturday.

ProBall NW (Mariners): Mariners Tally Another Comeback
Milton Bradley is sparking rallies and the Mariners are winning?  What is this, 2007?

Weaver's Tantrum (Orioles): Opening Day; Crazy Day
"Guthrie sure looked like a real opening day pitcher against the Rays."  Of course, if you're drunk enough, I look like George Clooney.

Baseball Time in Arlington (Rangers): The Rangers Sweep the Red Sox
"Taking era adjustments and the relative values of on-base percentage and slugging percentage into account, the Texas lineup has essentially performed like Ted Williams through its first three games against one of the most talented teams in baseball, and that ... well, that's just fantastic."

The Ray Area: Opening Day-ish
"Splitting Opening Day is like spreading the first two days of the NCAA tournament across a week.  Sure more TV eyes end up on each game but, part of the fun of Opening Day (and the opening rounds of the NCAA tourney) is watching and following multiple games at once."

Fire Brand of the American League (Red Sox): On the Bright Side, David Ortiz Is On Pace To Hit 162 Homers
Hey, remember back when David Ortiz was supposed to be done because of his slow starts. The world is a better place when people aren't complaining about the Cookie Monster.

Royals Authority: Curb Your Disappointment
"We spend a lot of time discounting spring training results.... Yet, come Opening Day, that one game out of 162 seems to be more than enough for many to draw immediate conclusions."

It's About the Money, Stupid (Yankees): Another Shattered Bat Injures Another Fan
Jason's personal crusade continues.  And he's right, it's far past time that baseball  and the players' union banded together to fix the problem.

Austin's Astros 290 Blog: Finding optimism out of a heartbreaking loss
Austin points out the promising signs from the Astros' opening day loss after the Phillies' three-run ninth.

Capitol Avenue Club (Braves): Braves 11, Nationals 2
"All of the regulars are hitting and Tim Hudson is back to pitching like he was in the middle of last season. Happy times are here again."


Disciples of Uecker (Brewers): Brewers Elimination Number Down to 157
Solid perspective from Jack. "157. Despite a catastrophic series filled with a blown save, a brutal outing by a new acquisition, and a blowout loss, all at the hands of a division rival, the Brewers are hardly closer to elimination than they were at the beginning of the season."


Fungoes (Cardinals): Is Colby Rasmus a horrible two-strike hitter?
Apparently, some in Cardinal nation have accepted as gospel the notion that he is. Pip does some good work in finding out whether or not that's, you know, true.

The View from the Bleachers (Cubs): Game 2 - God Bless the 8th Inning
A wrapping-up and breaking-down of the Cubbies' first (and so far only) victory.

Dodger Thoughts: Dodgers survive and advance, 7-5
The Sunday night game ended five minutes ago, and this is already up. Cool! "Not for the first time this season, I'm at risk of not giving due credit to Kemp, who has once again become 'Stop what you're doing and watch TV' – in a good way."


Bay City Ball: Pat's Bat
Specifically, the speed of said bat. David Pinto, who is a very smart person, suggested Burrell has a hard time with hard fastballs; Otis Anderson, who is also a very smart person, offers some reasons to doubt that.


Mets Today: Mets Game 3: Win Over Marlins
Wrapping up the Mets' second win in three games. The best part about opening week is the hope fans of teams like the Mets, Royals and Orioles must be feeling right now. And they should be feeling that hope. It's awesome, for as long as it lasts.

Nationals Baseball: Tiny Little Hurdles
Harper looks at the team position-by-position and ways it might improve offensively over 2010.

Ducksnorts (Padres): Pity About the Padres Offense
A delightfully rambling post wrapping up the Padres' game 2 win. Tweets, the history of bunts by Padres' number three hitters, and first impressions of the most amazingly bizarre relief pitcher ever.

Crashburn Alley (Phillies): Breaking Down David Schoenfield's Phillies Prediction
Bill has put together a long post analyzing, agreeing and disagreeing with Schoenfield's "why the Phillies will miss the playoffs" post in a thoroughly well-reasoned and discourse-advancing way and, frankly, everyone everywhere should read it.

Redleg Nation: Titanic Struggle Recap: SWEEP!!!
A succinct and informative recap of the Reds' third win in three games over the division rival Brewers, this one a 12-3 blowout led by Ryan Hanigan, who (if he stays healthy and keeps sharing time with Ramon Hernandez) is going to become the new, defensively-improved Mike Napoli or Chris Ianetta.