It Begins Tonight

Finally, after months of waiting and reading stories on who signed where and who got traded where and looks back on 2008 and looks forward on 2009, tonight, real games begin.

The Atlanta Braves will face the Philadelphia Phillies tonight, kicking off another year of baseball.

Because this is the first game of the year, I will break down both teams rosters, and go over who may be starting and where they may be hitting.

Let's start with the Braves.

The starter tonight will be Derek Lowe and the bullpen consists of: long men Jeff Bennett & Buddy Carlyle, lefties Mike Gonzalez & Eric O'Flaherty, righties Peter Moylan & Blayne Boyer & Rafael Soriano. Gonzalez is the closer, though Soriano may be in line for some saves as well.

The starters are: C Brian McCann, 1B Casey Kotchman, 2B Kelly Johnson, SS Yunel Escobar, 3B Chipper Jones, LF Garret Anderson, CF Jordan Shafer, and RF Jeff Francoeur.

The bench consists of: C Clint Sammons, utility guys Greg Norton (1B/OF) & Omar Infante (IF/OF) & Martin Prado (IF), and OF Matt Diaz (will platoon against lefties in LF)

The line-up should look something like:
Kelly Johnson (L)
Yunel Escobar (R)
Chipper Jones (S)
Brian McCann (L)
Garret Anderson (L)
Jeff Francoeur (R)
Casey Kotchman (L)
Jordan Shafer (L)
Derek Lowe (R)


Next, the Phillies:

Starting tonight is notorious wife beater, Brett Myers. The bullpen consists of: long men Chad Durbin & Chan Ho Park, lefties Scott Eyre & Jack Taschner, and righties Clay Condrey & Ryan Madson & Brad Lidge. Lidge, of course, is the closer (who was perfect in save opportunities last season).

The starters: C Carlso Ruiz, 1B Ryan Howard, 2B Chase Utley, SS Jimmy Rollins, 3B Pedro Feliz, CF Shane Victorino, LF Raul Ibanez, and RF Jayson Werth.

The Bench: C (and best-selling author) Chris Coste, 3B/OF Greg Dobbs, 1B/OF Matt Stairs, and utility men Miguel Cairo & Eric Bruntlett.

The line-up will look similar to this:
Jimmy Rollins (S)
Shane Victorino (S)
Chase Utley (L)
Ryan Howard (L)
Raul Ibanez (L)
Jayson Werth (R)
Pedro Feliz (R)
Carlos Ruiz (R)
Brett Myers (R)

There is very little balance here, with lefties at the top and righties at the bottom. Lowe could have a field day going through the bottom third of the line-up.


Now, I want to take a look at how Derek Lowe & Brett Myers have done against the starting nice of the opposition.

Lowe vs Rollins: 6-20 (.300)
Lowe vs Victorino: 1-5 (.200)
Lowe vs Utley: 5-14 (.357)
Lowe vs Howard: 2-16 (.125)
Lowe vs Ibanez: 2-19 (.105)
Lowe vs Werth: 1-4 (.250)
Lowe vs Feliz: 5-23 (.217)
Lowe vs Ruiz: 0-2 (.000)
Lowe vs Starting 9: 22-103 (.214)

Lowe has a very typical platoon split, with lefties hitting .274 (.740 OPS) and righties hitting .241 (.632 OPS).

Myers vs Johnson: 3-17 (.176)
Myers vs Escobar: 1-4 (.250)
Myers vs Jones: 10-30 (.300) 3 HR
Myers vs McCann: 10-27 (.370)
Myers vs Anderson: 2-6 (.333)
Myers vs Francoeur: 6-31 (.194)
Myers vs Kotchman: 1-5 (.200)
Myers vs Shafer: No History
Myers vs Starting 9: 33-120 (.275)

Throughout his career, Myers has handled lefties (.250) at a better rate than righties (.270), which is a little reverse of the norm, although he does allow righties on base at a higher rate. The OPS is reversed as well (.785 vs righties and .746 vs lefties).

The Braves have had more success against Myers than the Phillies have had against Lowe, with a higher average and more power.

I don't know what all these mean in preperation for tonight's opener, but fuck am I excited.

Holy Panda Rape, It's Baseball Season!!!!111!!!!