Opening Day

Tomorrow in St Louis the Roxs begin their defense of the NL pennant. Francis takes the mound against Wainwright at 2:15 PM. The Roxs are 8 - 7 in season openers. This is the only second March game in Roxs history (we won 9-2). They lost in extra innings to the D-backs last year. Obviously they begin the year on the road with the home opener on Friday against the D-backs (again!). Francis was 2 - 0 last year against St Louis.

I think it is important for the Roxs to get back into the saddle. The Roxs have an April record of 159 - 180 (86 - 86 at home and 73 - 94 away). Only 4 Aprils have had a winning record in Rox history. To prove to themselves that they belong, put some fear in their divisional foes that last year wasn't a fluke, and to lessen any sort of media pressure that befalls them if they start slow.

The Roxs Roster:

Starting Pitchers: Francis, Cook, Jimenez, Morales, and Redman

Relief Pitchers: Bowie, Buchholz, Corpas, Fuentes, Herges, Vizcaino, and Wells

Catchers: Torrealba and Iannetta

Infield: Atkins, Tulo, Nix, Helton, and Barmes

Outfield: Holliday, Taveras, Hawpe, Baker, Spilborghs, and Podsednik

Surprises...not much except maybe Podsednik and Bowie. I imagine Sullivan will be back up in the bigs by mid summer. Redman in the 5th spot isn't a big deal versus Hirsh. It drops the Roxs into an 81 - 87 win range. Again the big questions for the season is the pitching and relief and can Nix be the answer offensively at 2B.

Enough Talk...Play Ball!

Frozen Four

With all the pub the Men's Basketball Tournament gets, I wonder why hockey doesn't get the same love? Probably for the most part it is because the game isn't really a national game. The majority of the teams are in the northeast (the southern most team is Alabama Huntsville and of course the westernmost teams are the 3 teams in Colorado). I count approximately 55 - 60 teams that play Division I Hockey. The sixteen teams are taken by a method that probably could make more sense. I mean Wisconsin got in with a losing record this year? The six division winners all receive an automatic big and then an additional 8 at large bids go out. Being from a Michigan St family we hit the road and went down to CSprings to see State play Colorado College. Obviously a home game for CC yet Michigan St came out and beat them. Michigan St then got to play Notre Dame on Saturday and the team looked like they had run out of emotional gas. Anyway April 10 and 12 Michigan and Notre Dame play to face the winner of North Dakota and Boston College. Should be interesting...too bad AF couldn't hold their 3rd period lead!

This Week in Comics

X-men Legacy #209
I just don't get it sometime. You have a great series event, you are coming off a high and then you lay consecutive eggs. This book doesn't have a place...it needs to go away. This was a filler story with nothing. Come on build on something don't give us junk.

Ultimate Spider-Man #120

This must be crap writing week at Marvel (or maybe just bad Bendis writing). I liked the concept of bringing an old TV cartoon character into the ultimate mix but really this story was just weak. I guess someone thought by throwing the X-men into the mix we might feel better about the story but really nothing for me. Even the artwork was kind of lame...looked a bit rugged. There wasn't even a large pane drawing!

The New Avengers #39

Can we get the Skrull Invasion started? These filler issue bore me. Bendis Avengers continues to bore me. Why am I reading this? Why am I still giving Bendis the benefit of doubt? How many more questions can i ask? How many more issues will I put up with? This is crap!

Casanova - Luxuria

Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba's really great comic book series. With the Umbrella Academy coming out, I first came across Ba's decent art work which made me expand out to see what else is going on. Casanova's first 8 issues were collected and so got to read the series in whole (which by the way is a good way to go). All in all a great series. Bit confusing to start with, but a bit more coherent as you get into it. Matt Fraction is a great new writer. I believe he is taking on the new Iron Man series starting in May. As mentioned Ba's art is fantastic, works in tandem with Fraction's story. Looking forward to the next series. Have the first 5 issues but waiting to read it in full. Image's 16 page $1.99 is a great way to go. I applaud it.

Haiku Wednesday

Fools

This joke is on you
A good laugh, lots of smiles
Be prepared next year!

MLB Opening Day

It's Opening Day! Of course at 4 AM, I'm not for sure I will be up for watching it. Guess that is why I have a DVR! Anyway glad to have the 2008 season ahead. Hopefully the Roxs will continue to make strides. Since everyone else does it I have to throw out my picks.

AL Playoff Teams
Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, and Angels

NL Playoff Teams
Dodgers, Roxs, Brewers, and Mets

World Series
Soxs and Roxs Part II!

Baseball quote
"A baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day"

Rox Talk

And now for something completely off the wall and different. During my previous study on plate appearances, at bats, and left on base, I also annotated the weather data at Coors Field to determine what the weather does for home runs. The adage I have always heard was with the dog days of summer and the heat that homeruns increase. Is this true? Well look at the graph below.

	Games	HR	Rate	Temp	Wind Speed
April	13	18	1.38	62	10
May	14	26	1.86	70	8
June	12	31	2.58	79	8
July	12	32	2.67	87	7
August	14	38	2.71	82	6
September	17	39	2.29	75	7

It would seem that as the summer temp go up the rate of home runs go up. What is interesting though is if you look at temperature and homeruns the trend isn't as nice. I mean overall the trend does increase as temperature rises but you don't really see a definite trend.

What about wind speed?

And finally wind direction?
Interesting it seems low wind speed good and wind out of right field.

Great Street Art

This Week in Comics

Fantastic Four#555
Chapter 2 in the further adventures of Marvel's Original Family. Read someones blog who really hates the direction these two first books are going. I found the story to be intriguing although a bit too solo with none of the characters really interacting. The art is good. Anyway next issue brings a big giant robotic Capt A. We shall see...







Captain America #36
Good story but the last two pages drove me nuts. This run as been so good, I just hope Brubaker doesn't try the Clone thing (doesn't anyone learn from Spidey?). Also I hope the whole Skrull thing doesn't detour our series. The Capt A death thing may or may not have been driven by the Civil War storyline. Good stuff

Modesty Blaise, Dakota North?

Reading the latest MAKE magazine, I ran across a section on Modesty Blaise (vaguely might have heard of her?), as she was first seen in a newsprint serial comic strip in England. Why does England always come up with these spy clandestine characters? A kind of female cross between James Bond and Emma Peel I was intrigued. Seems like a character that could be Tara Chase's grandmother! Will have to give a book a try and see what it is like...I guess you could call it a "pulp" phase! In other bizarre connections, I have had a fascination of an older Marvel character call Dakota North (I ran across her in the dollar bin back when I used to go to the DragonCon in Atlanta! That probably should have told me something...). A kind of detective she really has had no longstanding runs in the Marvel. She had very short 5 issue run back in 1986. Bendis has sort of brought her back as a side character but she really hasn't done too much. Perhaps someone will bring her back into the picture !