Monday, April 06, 2009

Its Opening Day for the San Diego Padres and MLB!

Monday April 6th, 2009

Its Opening Day for the Padres!

The most exciting time of the year for me. And where will I be come opening pitch?

Sitting on my couch with a torn Achilles Tendon. This will be the first opening day I have missed in San Diego since I moved here in 1985. Woe is me:( BUT I will get to watch it on TV in High Definition, so that is about as good as its gonna get for me.

The Padres open the 2008 season with a payroll $20 million less than 2008 or $53 million according to the Union Tribune, a far cry from the $40 million most people in the media were saying they were mandated to have, and a pretty decent team for all the talk of them losing 100 games in 2009.

(Update - As usual the Union Tribune was wrong. Both about the mandated $40 million payroll and about the Padres being only $20 million below 2008's total payroll of $73 million.

As it stands today - 4/7/09 - and without either of the remaining minor league contracts with options for a major league salary above the major league minimum of $400k for Mark Prior and Eliezer Alfonzo being exercised, the Padres payroll is at $44,526,353.00)

The starting lineup for Opening day appears to be:
CF - Jody Gerut
2B - David Eckstein
RF - Brian Giles
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
3B - Kevin Kouzmanoff
LF - Chase Headley
C - Henry Blanco
SS - Luis Rodriguez

And Starting on the mound for the San Diego Padres today- Jake Peavy

On the bench are:
SP - Chris Young
SP - Walter Silva
SP - Kevin Correia
SP - Shawn Hill

OF - Scott Hairston
OF - Drew Macias
2B - Edgar Gonzalez
SS - Everth Cabrera
C - Nick Hundley

The Bullpen consists of:
CL - Heath Bell
SU - Cla Meredith
SU - Duaner Sanchez
MR - Edwin Moreno
MR - Luke Gregerson
MR - Eulogio (Frankie) De La Cruz
MR - Ed Mujica

Cliff Floyd and Cha Seung Baek are starting this season on the DL.

And now it begins.