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It's baseball season! One game is now officially in the books, and the ever-elusive 162-0 season is still on the cards for the Metsies. Jon Niese impressed in his first Opening Day start for the Mets, tossing 6.2 innings of 4-hit ball, while the makeshift outfield led the offense's 11-run explosion. It certainly wasn't a nail-biter, but it was a highly entertaining opener nonetheless. The full box score for the first of (at least) 162 can be found here.
Scott Rice made his major-league debut yesterday, after 14 years in the minors.
Yesterday marked the 50th consecutive opening day game for Mets usher Luke Gasparre and fan Robert Ostertag. It's nice to see the occasion marked with a victory.
Over at Faith and Fear, Greg wrote about the transition between a long offseason and the joy of an Opening Day victory. Meanwhile, Toby Hyde had a look at the Las Vegas Opening Day roster.
Yesterday at AA
After the release of Brad Holt, Rob had a look at short-season pitchers who excelled at that level. It's certainly an interesting read, and highlights the fact that Brooklyn is a long way from the majors despite being only a short drive from Citi Field.
Steve had a preview for the opening series of the year, asking some questions of our Padres blog.
David looked back at Mets history on the first day of April, a day in which the Padres beat the Mets.
Around Baseball
Major League Baseball played a trick on the rest of the league, and let the Nationals open up against a minor-league team. That minor-league roster couldn't do much against a dominant Stephen Strasburg outing and a pair of Bryce Harper home runs, and the Marlins lost their opener.
The Braves got off to winning ways to start the season as well, with their Opening Day victory coming at the expense of the division rival Phillies. I'm still not buying that the Phillies are dead.
It wasn't such a great start to baseball season on the other side of New York, as the Yankees got beaten by the Boston Red Sox 8-2. C.C. Sabathia wasn't throwing the ball very hard, Joba looks even fatter with a mustache, and quality of the lineup was very un-Yankee like. This could be a long season for Francesa fans.
BtB made their SPRiNG predictions for the 2013 season, and the Mets finished surprisingly well. I'd settle for .500 and 2 games back of the division winner.
The Rangers are closing in on a very long extension with SS Elvis Andrus. That's one less guy that we can expect to see as a free agent this decade.
Finally, Carlos Beltran is playing through a fractured toe. Does it surprise anyone that the selfish one would put himself in front of the team in a contract year? #BlameBeltran
Over at FanGraphs, JD took a closer look at SS prospect Trevor Story.