Yo, Yo. It's that time of year again baby, gonna be a lot of fun and hopefully a lot of green. On semi-vacation this week, so internet kinda spotty, but have a few first impressions (btw, I'll include my projected era for each pitcher I mention).
First of all I like the Dodger play, maybe the games best pitcher, Kershaw (2.71) coming in against the lowly Pad's. I do find the total interesting, books are giving Volquez (4.34) some respect (or the Dodgers lineup none). I think Volquez performs better this year, two years removed from TJ surgery but still think his control issues will dog him....he will have games where he is on and throwing strikes where he can pitch like an ace. I think the Dodgers may surprise some people this year.
Cubs home opener against a pitcher who will probably be on a pitch count, and the back end of the BP a little light after losing Storen for the start. Dempster (3.99) is a much better pitcher than last years era suggests, but the Cubbie lineup scares me here. End of the day home opener at Wrigley Strasburg (publicly overated) Dempster (publicly underated) and no Storen for Washington....there may be some value here.
Miami had their home opener last night and then had to hit the road right away and head to Cinccy. Buehrle (4.15) has a hard time putting away RHB's and Cincy'slineup only features two lefties, both who hit lefties well. On the other side Cueto (3.72) was one of the luckiest pitchers last season and will probably be overvalued for at least the start of this season. I don't like overs as much as unders but I think 8 runs in this game is not too hard to imagine.
Masterson (3.74) and Romero (3.79) are pretty much a wash, and Cleveland a home dog.....The total here also strikes me as low as both of these pitchers out performed their advanced stats last year. I will also add here that Masterson has had a shaky spring and Romero has only thrown 11 innings this spring.....
Gonna try and have a deeper look at the games later, if I see anything interesting will definitely chime in.