Look, I get up pretty early for work and was trying to get a head start and already had a glowing recap written. But everything went sideways. Not everything was the same as last year. But a whole lot of things looked familiar for the Detroit Tigers in their Opening Day win over the Marlins. The bullpen imploded, the base running nearly cost them dearly, and I was once again lost for words.
But it's not all doom and gloom. The offense looks as it should. If the Tigers get production from the bottom of the lineup they will grind down plenty a pitcher. Justin Verlander had one hiccup, but outside of the Stanton bomb looked like the Verlander of late last year. Anthony Gose hit the hardest ball he ever has, Victor Martinez looked healthy, and Justin Wilson threw a baseball very hard multiple times.
But the PTSD of that ninth inning isn't going to go away. The lead was surrendered by different pitchers but induced the same pit in our stomachs. The difference is, the Tigers won. That's a loss every single time in 2015. And instead, the Tigers are undefeated. Here's to hoping that the new outweighs the old.
We're 1-0. Everything is awesome.
Rod Allen drinking game
Ah yes, a Tigers classic. Now in version 7.0, this extremely detailed drinking game is a staple of the season. While planning on waiting at least one game, I caved at about 10:30 last night.
The Incontrovertible truths of 2016
Grant Brisbee takes a look at some certain truths for the 2016 season. I will add that the Tigers bullpen is, and will always be, cursed.
Is Tommy John overused?
A lot of buzz surrounding Jeff Passan's book "The Arm." Appears to be getting good reviews so far. I linked an excerpt last week but this week, Jeff joins the Wall Street Journal to discuss the frequency with which the surgery is used.
Opening Day... part 3
I'm not a big fan of the three iterations of opening day. Is it so hard for everyone be happy at the same time? Waiting until Tuesday was torturous. Anyway, here is all the weird things that have happened already in baseball and an interesting look at early season error rates.
UPDATE: Late submission weird thing that has already happened. Super excited for the amount of slide controversy we are going to see this year.
AL Central update
Both the Indians and Royals went down on Tuesday. The Royals received Thor's hammer to the face while the Indianswere the first victim on Big Papi's farewell tour. The White Sox are 2-0 after a late win in Oakland.