We’re just one day away from the Major League Baseball season starting. I know, I know there where two games that counted, but we’ve been over this before and you know how I feel about that. Tomorrow all 30 teams are in action and that’s opening day!
Now I’ve seen a lot of predictions for the upcoming season and at Sports Time Radio we have made our picks as well. I decided that I’m going to do something different with our picks this season. Instead of building one giant blog just our picks I’m going to do individual posting of our picks. We had five different people make predictions for the upcoming baseball season and we would have or might have six people if Mr. Fantasy’s predictions show up before I get everything posted. I’m going to try and get them all up here by this weekend; so you’ll be able to see what we think will happen this coming season.
If you’ve made any predictions that you feel like sharing go ahead and leave them in the comment section and I’ll add them in with our predictions.
I saw a couple of interesting or some people might say surprise moves as teams finalized their rosters for the start of the season. Instead of sending their top prospect down to the minors to push back that players arbitration clock both the Chicago White Sox and San Diego Padres decided to start the season off with their best prospects o the major league roster.
With an injury to Jon Jay the White decided that Eloy Jimenez would be on the opening day roster. Of course now that the White Sox have Jimenez signed to a contract and they know he’ll be with the team for the next 8 years I’m sure this decision became much easier for them. Jimenez hit .250 in spring training with 2 home runs. Jimenez is just 22 years old and it will be very interesting to see how he’ll do as an everyday major leaguer.
In San Diego the Padres decided that 20 year old Fernando Tatis Jr. will be the opening day shortstop. I’m sure that it helped Tatis’ cause that Manny Machado has lobbied for him to be on the opening day roster. Tatis had a solid spring hitting .265 with 2 home runs.
It will be a big step as a 20 year old for Tatis to be the everyday shortstop, but he has a lot of veteran support in the Padres infield. Not only will Tatis have Machado next to him at 3rd base, but Ian Kinsler will be at 2nd base and Eric Hosmer will be the 1st baseman. All of these players have won Gold Gloves and will be able to help Tatis.
As big of a surprise as it was that Tatis will be on the San Diego’s opening day roster the fact that Luis Urias was the player who was sent to Triple-A to make room for Tatis.
Urias struggled in spring training hitting .213 with 2 home runs. Urias also struck out 16 times in 47 at bats. Urias played in 12 games at the end of 2018 for the Padres. He hit .208 with 2 home runs, but in 48 at bats he struck out 10 times.
There was some questions on why the Padres kept Jose Pirela and Greg Garcia on the roster instead of Urias. You’d have to think that’s it’s better for Urias to be getting full time at bat at the Triple-A level than sitting on the bench in the majors behind Kinsler.
Urias is just 22; so if he figures things out at Triple-A it probably won’t be long before he’s back in the major leagues.
Here’s a list of ever opening day starting pitcher in the order of the games start times.
Andrew Cashner-Orioles, Masahiro Tanaka-Yankees, Jacob deGrom-Mets, Max Scherzer-Nationals, Miles Mikolas-Cardinals, Jhoulys Chacin-Brewers, Julio Teheran-Braves, Aaron Nola-Phillies, Jordan Zimmerman-Tigers, Marcus Stroman-Blue Jays, Zack Greinke-Diamondbacks, Hyun-Jin Ryu-Dodgers, Justin Verlander-Astros, Blake Snell-Rays, Jon Lester-Cubs, Mike Minor-Rangers, Trevor Cahill-Angles, Mike Fiers-A’s, Madison Bumgarner-Giants, Eric Lauer-Padres, Corey Kluber-Indians, Jose Berrios-Twins, Kyle Freeland-Rockies, Jose Urena-Marlins, Jameson Taillon-Pirates, Luis Castillo-Reds, Carlos Rodon-White Sox, Brad Keller-Royals, Chris Sale-Red Sox, Marco Gonzales-Mariners.
Don’t forget to adjust your fantasy line ups for your weekly leagues and you’ll have to start doing your breakdowns for who you’ll start in daily fantasy tomorrow.
Clem Daniels passed away yesterday at the age of 83. Now that name might not mean a lot to people, but if you take the time to look into Daniels you’ll find out that he was the all-time leading rusher in the AFL.
In shot the AFL was the American Football League that was founded in 1959 and went head to head with the National Football League from he 1960 season until the 1970 season before he leagues merged.
Daniels played 9 season in the AFL. He started with the Dallas Texans in 1960, but had just 1 carry that season for -2 yards. In 1961 he joined the Oakland Raiders and sent the next seven seasons in a Raiders uniform. Daniels wrapped up his career after the 1968 season as a member of the San Francisco 49ers after one season with them.
Daniels best season was in 1963 when he rushed for 1099 with the Raiders. Now remember they only played 14 games in a season then.
In his career Daniels had 5138 career rushing yards on 1146 carries; so he averaged 4.5 yards per carry in his career. He played in 110 games in his 9 year career and scored 30 rushing touchdowns. Oddly out of those 110 games Daniels only started in 29 of them. Daniels was also a solid receiver as he caught 203 career passes for 3314 yards an average of 16.3 yards per receptions and he had 24 career touchdown receptions. Daniels also spent some time as a return man. He returned 57 kickoffs for 1206 yards and 8 punt for 103 yards. Daniels retired at the age of 33 after the 1968 season.
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