So, for some reason I decided to wake up early this morning and watch baseball's opening day in Japan between the A's and the Red Sox. As I type this, the Red Sox have just taken a 3-2 lead...

...As a Daisuke Matzusaka fantasy owner and fan, I was worried early on, when he seemed to have no control, throwing five walks in the first few innings, and hitting a batter,but really rebounded to get out the last 7, striking out six in five innings, while luckily getting away with only giving up 2 runs.

...Talk about a contrast in style between the two pitchers...Blanton relies on not walking anyone and keeping the ball in the ballpark...his stuff certainly doesn't blow anyone away, while Daisuke was his own worst enemy; once he was able to find the strike zone, the As couldn't just wait out walks at the plate.

...the one thing I can say is I'm glad I didn't wake up early just to hear Joe Morgan on the telecast

...though Steve Phillips isn't much better - can we make a new rule in which there's a limit for how many times you can use the word "wheelhouse" in a game?

...can we start changing the default stats shown when each batter comes up? maybe from batting average/home runs/RBI to the "slash stats" batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage

...also you want to talk about how silly wins are in one sense - Daisuke really "won" the game for his team, kindly rooting them on to score three runs after his last inning pitched (of course Red Sox may not hold on, but even being in position to win...) (Update: Well, would have been, had Jack Hannahan not hit a 2 run bomb in the sixth to retake the lead for the As)