Yesterday's Players of Note

Nick Adenhart: For obvious reasons.  But also, he was pretty excellent in his start, going 6 strong with  7 hits, 3 walks, and 5 K's.  Sad that that's the last line we'll be writing for an excellent young pitcher.

Yovani Gallardo: Gallardo made us look good on our prediction yesterday by allowing 2 ER off of 6 H and 2 BB in 6.2 IP.  He also K'd 6 and ohbytheway also hit a 3-run moonshot off lean mean lefty-throwing machine Randy Johnson.  Which, ohbytheway, is the first home run Johnson has ever surrendered to an opposing pitcher.

Kosuke Fukudome: Fukudome must love the month of April.  He was superb last April, and he's off to a great start this year, going 4-5 yesterday with a homer, a double, and a pair of singles, scoring 4 times to go along with a walk and a steal.  Monster night for him.

Blaine Boyer: Someone's gotta take the fall for that embarrasing Braves' bullpen collapse.  Might as well be Boyer, who got tagged with the loss, and is one of two (2) Braves relievers to limp out of the fiasco with an ERA of...infinity.  Hurrah!  Shades of 2005, boys.

Koji Uehara: The Orioles' Toyota (Japanese import...get it??) was decent in 5 innings against the vaunted Yankees.  He went 5, allowing 5 hits and a walk with only 1 ER.  Didn't K anybody, but the Orioles must be just thrilled by the fact that he didn't, oh, we don't know, act like an Orioles pitcher.  By which we could mean punching a judge (Sir Sidney!), walking more batters than anyone in the majors not once but twice (Daniel Cabrera!), having the gall to appear in a real live MLB rotation after being booed during your former team's ring ceremony (Adam Eaton!), or coming to baseball only after being facialed on the basketball court by Michael Jordan (Mark Hendrickson!).

Yesterday's Players of Note

Every day we're going to mention 5 or so players (we're not much for hard and fast rules around here) whose performance in the day before warrants mention. They aren't listed in any particular order, and it could be for reasons good or bad; the only caveat is that it has to be on the field work. Players of Note will not, for example, cover dudes who get trashed and get arrested for peeing in the street (here's looking at you, Jake!). You know, unless it's a really fun story. Like we said: hard and fast...not so much.

Trevor Cahill: The highly touted Cahill made his major league debut yesterday against the Angels, and...well, he sorta disappointed.  He went 5, allowing 5 hits and surrendering 5 walks.  Someone get the man a footlong!  He did record his first ever K, though it was his only one of the game.  Only 2 ER, but 57 strikes in 103 pitches isn't gonna get the job done, kid. 

Ubaldo Jimenez: How about Ubaldo!  7 strong, allowing 4 H, 3 BB, and 0 ER, while fanning 8.  This is what we should be getting used to seeing from the kid with the electric arm; if he can harness the kind of talent that he displayed in the second half of '07 for an entire season...well, the Rockies still won't be very good, but he'll get plenty of attention.  Props to his counterpart as well; Dan Haren K'd 9 while allowing only 3 hits and 1 run over 7.

Tim Lincecum: Just when you think you know a guy, he goes and does something like this: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, 5 K.  78 pitches for Timmy in this go-round.  The reason why we're mentioning hin here is the fact that he only went 3.  Yeah, he was struggling, but why pull the best pitcher in the NL after 78 pitches?  Give him a chance to sort it out.  We're just hoping that it's not an injury concern; the Giants say that it wasn't, but giants are notoriously untrustworthy. Not that that has anything to do with Brian Sabean; we just felt it warranted mentioning.

Chipper Jones: Perhaps this is a bit of self-indulgence here, but we are the ones who write this blog.  The KCSD Hero was 2-4 with a flapjack and a double, putting him at a nifty .500/.500/1.125 line for the season.  MVP-caliber numbers?  We think so.  And we dare you to disagree.

Kyle Farnsworth: The Farns is at it again, serving up an 8th inning four-bagger to Big Jim Thome to secure the loss for the Royals.  Good thing they gave him $9.25 mil over 2 years; in no way will they regret feeling the need to justify that contract by giving him crucial 8th-inning appearances that could go to Juan Cruz and Joakim Soria.  

Yesterday's Players of Note

Every day we're going to mention 5 or so players (we're not much for hard and fast rules around here) whose performance in the day before warrants mention.  They aren't listed in any particular order, and it could be for reasons good or bad; the only caveat is that it has to be on the field work.  Players of Note will not, for example, cover dudes who get trashed and get arrested for peeing in the street (here's looking at you, Jake!).  You know, unless it's a really fun story.  Like we said: hard and fast...not so much.

Justin Verlander:  Yeah, Verlander got knocked around yesterday, to the tune of 8 hits, 8 runs (all earned), and 2 free passes in 3.2 innings, but he also recorded 4 K's.  So, kiddies who aren't much for math, that's a little over a K an inning.  Also, according to the MLB At Bat app (which is pretty awesome), he was consistently working at 96-100 MPH, which is what he was hitting when he was receiving Cy consideration.  And he was even doing it from the stretch, which impressed us all the more.  We consider this a good sign that he is on the way to rebounding from the mechanical disaster that was last year.  Now someone tell him to stop leaving pitches in the zone.

Carlos Zambrano: PNH (post-no hitter), Zambrano was awful in '08.  In the last few starts of the year, like in the first few, he lost his arm angle, velo, and control.  He got knocked around in the playoffs as well, contributing to the Cubs' early exit last year.  On Opening Day, though, he looked solid: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 6 K.  His control isn't all the way back yet, but it's early; we're encouraged by the 90-93 mph sinking fastballs he was hurling.  Big Z needs to get back to the form he showed in his younger days if the Cubs have any real hope of turning this potent team into a champion.

Adam Lind: Besides Travis Snider, Lind is the closest thing the Jays have to a slugger.  He got the job done yesterday, knocking Verlander and the Tigers' 'pen around to the tune of a donger and 3 singles.  Why, if he keeps up that pace, you can forget about the Jays having a weak offense; Lind alone would drive in 972 runs.  Don't you love statistics?

Tony Clark/Felipe Lopez: We're cheating a little bit by including them both, but the duo jacked two unlikely tater tots apiece, so they ate plenty last night.  We say the homers were unlikely because...well, because it's Tony the Tiger and Felipe the...Frolicker?, because Aaron Cook's usually got a better sinker going than to allow the pair of ding dongs that he did, and OHBYTHEWAY they both hit one jack from each side of the plate.  Five (5) round trippers on the day for the D'backs.

Felix Hernandez: The King was outstanding last night, holding an admittedly impotent Twins lineup to 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks in 8 shutdown innings.  He also K'd 6, including Michael Cuddyer 3 times.  Good start for Felix; hopefully he builds on this and makes a real bid for Cy Young contention.  'Cause lord knows there's not much else for M's fans these days.