Spring Training is officially done.  The Orioles will embark on their summer long journey against the Tampa Bay Rays (don’t say Devil Rays, you’ll be fined a dollar by sed Rays for doing so).  Kevin Millwood will kick things off April 6th.  I can barely wait.  These are the times I wish someone had invented a time machine.  I want to get to those days where people are relaxing in the stands while the Orioles take the field as soon as possible.

The season officially started with (of course) the Red Sox taking on the Yankees (gross) at Fenway last night.  I watched as much as I could before sleep ultimately took hold of me.  My take on each team after last night couldn’t be more different.  Every pundit in baseball seemed to be predicting the Yankees will repeat as world series champions.  I can’t say I’m sold on that squad just yet.  Yes, their offense is a powerful one.  But, their bullpen was worse then I had expected.  Maybe its the begining of the season warm up period, but they sure looked just plain bad.  The Yankees new arrivals (Granderson, Chan Ho Park, Nick Johnson) played just “eh” as a whole.  Granderson had the most succesfull opening for his new club by sending a ball into the right-center field seats.  It was definitely an impressive shot.  But, Johnson was held without a hit (he did reach base twice on walks which is what he really does best), and Chan Ho Park was abismal in his first outing that didn’t even span a full inning.  If the Yankees are going to prove the pundits correct this season, their bullpen needs to be in shape (fingers crossed they’ve entered a season long struggle). 

The Red Sox, on the other hand, were impressive.  I’ve always admired the energy level that the Sox bring to the table.  They played hard, and never gave in.  Ultimately, they took the lead and finished off the Yankees by a score of 9-7 with big games from Kevin Youkilis (2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 rbis), Dustin Pedroia (2-4, 1 HR, 3 rbis, 1 BB, 2 runs scored), Adrian Beltre (1-3, 2 rbis), Marco Scutaro (2-3, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 run scored), and Mike Cameron (2-3, 1 run scored).

I was pretty torn in this game on who to pull for.  My friend said it best: “Boston vs Yankees, who do you root for, terrorism?”  While it is quite a crude thing to say, it is hard for an Oriole’s fan to root for either team.  I had to go with the lesser of two evils and pull for Boston.  Thankfully, they made my well wishings count.

The Oriole roster is finalized barring any last minute trades:

Starters:

Kevin Millwood

Jeremy Guthrie

Brian Matusz

Brad Bergesen

David Hernandez

Bullpen:

Mike Gonzalez

Jim Johnson

Cla Meredith

Mark Hendrickson

Will Ohman

Matt Albers

Jason Berken

Infielders:

Brian Roberts

Garrett Atkins

Miguel Tejada

Cesear Izturis

Ty Wigginton

Julio Lugo

Outfielders:

Nolan Reimold

Felix Pie

Adam Jones

Nick Markakis

Luke Scott

Catchers:

Matt Wieters

Craig Tatum

 

See everyone at the yard this Friday.