the anaheim angels of los angeles in orange county of california (0-0) @ seattle (0-0)

[TTown]

jered weaver vs. king felix
cj wilson vs. james paxton
matt shoemaker vs. hisashi iwakuma

(probables taken from mlb.com, if anaheim's is wrong blame a mlb web intern)

felix eats opening days for breakfast, 5-0 with a royal 1.52 career era.

(also announced just this morning that walker is officially #4, happ #5)

so... yeah. long time, everybody. kind of went on an internet hiatus there for awhile, which ate up the end of last season and virtually the entire seahawk season.

nervous for this season, as the mariners seem to be a chic pennant pick and those almost always flop. but i guess we'll give it a go, eh?

didn't love every move we made, but i'm glad we resisted the urge to trade away the rotation. walker, in particular, just destroyed spring training this year, and i can't wait to see what he can do over a full season. signing cruz didn't 'wow' me, but he was probably the best we could get without giving up anything more than a pick. four years? meh, i don't think that's the issue. i think the playoff monkey is weighing so strong on this franchise that just getting to the postseason will erase a lot of grumbling about those latter years. besides, if we can get two nice seasons out of cruz, and even a marginal third, we'll just DFA him in year four.

wish list:

1. the rotation lives up to its massive potential.
2. ackley and morrison play like their post-AS selves. they were swinging the bat with authority, need more of that.
3. zunino's contact rate begins to even the scale with his power.
4. miller takes wilson's absence and shines, not letting him back into a platoon situation.
5. the fernando rodney experience: less drama, similar results.
6. trading mauer away doesn't haunt us.

season motto: if the royals can play in a game seven of the world series, we can at least play in the one-game wild card round, right? RIGHT?

[TTown]

m's win the opener 4-1. felix goes 7, giving up only a first inning HR and two hits. smith went 3/3 and knocked in two, jackson and miller each had two hits, ackley a HR and cano an RBI.

in short, huzzah.

[BayAreaMadSkill]

First game was awesome. Felix was just an absolute monster, and it was nice to see the offense come through, especially with two outs. Smith was raking the ball.

Rodney was on the verge of giving me another heart attack after that initial walk, but he came through.

[Cactus Jack]

Going to be a fun year!

[BayAreaMadSkill]

We suck. Season is over.