NL West

Opening Day is Christmas to a baseball fan. It marks the end of a long, cold winter and the beginning of a new baseball team and renewed hope. Opening Day is when fans come down with a sickness that can only be cured with a Rockie Dog and a sunburn.

The 2010 season is officially on its way in San Francisco, with the home opener against Atlanta looming tomorrow.

While opening week is near the end of its run in the major leagues, today the Giants' minor league organizations begin their own Opening Days.

What should Giants fans expect this season, after the Giants' combined farm system finished with the best record out of any other organization in baseball?

I'm not bashing Brandon Medders and his performance in 2009 by any means. I thought he was a surprising reliever in 2009. He had a great May where he posted a FIP of 2.85, and a solid September/October where he had a FIP of 3.16, and proved to be an integral part of the Giants' success last year.

When this Colorado Rockies team was put together, it was heralded as a young club with veteran leadership. The two would combine to produce fundamentally sound defense and clutch hitting on offense.

Update

The Rockies got some good news in regards to their bullpen on Tuesday—sort of.

Closer Huston Street visited Dr. James Andrews yesterday, and an MRI revealed no structural damage.

Usually when a player visits Andrews, the term Tommy John or rotator cuff surgery follows. The fact that this didn’t happen with Street is very good news for Rockies fans.

With one out left in the top of the ninth inning in Monday’s season opener against the Diamondbacks, Adrian Gonzalez and Kyle Blanks were not satisfied.  

Trailing 6-1, the afternoon appeared all but squandered with little positive to take into game two Tuesday. 

That changed when Gonzalez stepped to the plate.

Well, there are thousands of new skeptics-turned-experts out there. The controversy surrounding Torre's decision to tab Vicente Padilla as the Dodgers' Opening Day starter over the youngster Clayton Kershaw culminated in the struggle of Padilla to hit his spots in the early innings.

Just as Jeff Francis thought that he was over the hump, he showed up at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque, N.M., feeling stiff and sore.

It's finally here. I'm sorry for the delay. It's been tough balancing two blogs (this and 500 Days of Zobrist , the fantasy baseball blog) so I've kind of slacked a little the past week on posts here at Remember '51.

Earlier this week the Arizona Diamondbacks announced who would be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day.

They have given this honor to Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, who recently retired.

Warner has been a fan favorite during his time in Arizona and led them to a Super Bowl in 2009. His departure from football will be greatly felt, and the Diamondbacks should be applauded for recognizing him.

While I believe that Warner deserves the honor of throwing out a first pitch, I find myself a little disappointed in the timing of this.