Royalties & Cardinalate

Well, it was an odd game on Friday but very climactic. The crowd was amazing and created all kinds of memorable, clichéd-type energy and happenings ('willed their team to win' comes to mind). David Eckstein had quite a home debut (reached base 5 times) at the plate and his spunkiness will no doubt bring out the love of the average Cards fan. The Birds played very poor defensively and there were no homers or big hits, but the bases-loaded K by Izzy to end the game put an intensely positive spin on the final Busch opener. Spine-tingling moment and one, final eruption of noise to cap it off. Chills .. I got some great shots of the new stadium, so let me know if you'd like to check them out. I can just email them rather than posting them here. ... The all-you-can-eat-and-drink activity at Homer's Landing turned out to be immensely enjoyable, though I missed some pitches (way, way more than usual) while getting things to consume, and the many subsequent trips to the john. .. Looking forward to a better played game on Saturday.

I am three hours away - and a nice stroll down Market St from my office - from attending the 39th and final Busch Stadium season opener. The forecast is 70 degrees and sunny skies. Nice. Friday marks my fourth home opener and I cannot wait to soak in the pregame ceremonies and motorcade. It should be quite an enjoyable atmosphere and great way to kick off this weekend. I am really hoping that Mark Mulder steps up and pitches well. His mound departure has standing 'O' written all over it if he can come through. Note: Two ex-A's (Cory Lidle) will be dueling. My prediction: Cards 7, Phils 4. Let's go!

I had a really busy Tuesday and did not even begin the game until 11 p.m last night. So I had to zip through some ABs to get through it. But it was fulfilling nonetheless. I was stunned when Jimmy Edmonds' HR went over the LF wall. I may have temporarily forgotten about the cozy confines at Juice Park, but it looked at first as if Edmonds had just went with the outside pitch and poked it toward LF with a nice flick of the wrists. Replays showed that he did get some drive into his swing, but it just shows how strong Edmonds is, especially his lower body. Carpenter looked as good as he did last season and, though the bullpen struggled, it is hard to find much fault with this opener. I thought Oswalt was being squeezed (juiced?) a bit with the strike zone, but ... Pujols went 70-plus plate appearances this spring with 0 Ks, so I'm hoping for a HR-to-K ratio like this in 2005 from Phat: 52-to-29! Actually, if he gets more HRs than Ks I would be ecstatic. I think he can do it. ... So, the Ankiel Waiver Watch is on. How did it come to this? Oh, well. He seems to be enjoying playing OF. ... Now, can KC get a W? This week? I'm hoping Hernandez makes a strong return on Wednesday.

Well, we couldn't really expect Jose Lima to beat Jeremy Bonderman, could we?

At least Pickering went deep. It wasn't cheap, either. Big Cal showed why he's considered to be that vaunted middle-of-the-order threat. Wish he'd make contact more often, though. He also seemed a little anxious at times.

My full reaction to the game can be found here.

After the Royals game, I flipped over to the Reds-Mets just in time to see Joe Randa double of the glove of a diving Carlos Beltran. Beltran hit a home run earlier in the game for the Mets. Opening Day 2004 seems like a long time ago...

Even if it is only a Yankees-Red Sox game, tonight still marks the dawn of MLB 2K5.

I, for one, am extremely pumped - and relieved. During the greater part of January and February, I slaved away at a new projection system, which I am calling PROFITS. I introduced it today in my new blog at KansasCity.com. My projections for the season can be found on that page as well. All that work is behind me now. Starting tonight, the data starts flowing for real.

Consider the new blog as a companion to this one. While The Stat Guy blog is an Officially Sanctioned and Authorized Web hub, this one is not. I can write things in this space that I can't write in the other. Plus, here, I get to interact with my little brother.

One big advantage of the new site is that I am, indeed, a Credentialed Journalist. This is a brave new world in my universe. I have always been the sole member of my one-man band of outsiders.

Now, this year, I will sort of be on the inside. Not completely, mind you. I still don't have a relationship with the team, either the players or the front office. But, now, I will be in their midst and I hope these relationships will develop. On Thursday, I went out to the ballpark to get my picture taken for my pass. The place was empty and preparations are in motion for the start of the season. The scoreboard was illuminated - Desi Relaford flied out to left his last time up, it was telling me. The field looked tremendous as always. I went downstairs and poked my head ino the Royals' clubhouse. The dark-blue door smelled like fresh paint. Upstairs, in the press box, I saw The Star's seats - right in the center, up against the glass. A table in front for my computer, high-speed wireless Web access hanging in the air, ready to be plucked.

Of course, there are only 3 or 4 seats for Star reporters. Let's see...Dutton, Passan, Posanski - there is a good possibility that I'll be jettisoned to the far reaches of the press box. Just as well. That's were I'm used to being.

On the outside.

But from my little spot on the perimeter, I'm hoping to gain insider's perspective. It is my hope that I learn things about the game and the way teams operate that I never could have hoped. Of course, it is entirely possible that there simply isn't anything there - I was right to cling to statistical analysis in the first place. We'll see. But it is my hope that being close to the operation will enable me to become a better analyst.

From time to time, I'll be blogging live from the press box, taking questions from readers and, in general, just interacting with like-minded individuals. That'll happen over at the other site, of course. But I'll post here on those days as a head's up.

Let's get this thing rolling!