Opening Day - MLB

Opening day came and went for another MLB season. I don't like the fact that the opening day and the NCAA finals are on the same day. I would rather have thee two major sporting events on different days of the calendar. This has been happening the last few years and this year was no different. Lots of focus this opening day on the San Francisco Giants because of the two Barrys. One is chasing Hank Aaron and the other, the ghost of Kevin Brown! I am an A's (and DBacks in the NL) fan and I like Barry Zito a lot, but I can't believe the Giants of all teams paid him 126 mill for 7 years. That's not the way they do business. Zito is not worth it only because no pitcher is! But he is at least healthy by pitcher standards. I'll give him that. But both Barrys disappointed this opening day. Zito lost after giving up 3 runs (2 earned) and Bonds went 1/3 with a walk and no home runs. He is still 22 HRs short of the record

The season need to warm up. Not many story lines right now. We always hear about watered-down pitching and I never really knew what to think of it. I realize there are more teams now, but in 2007 there should also be more people in general, more athletes, more money, more motivation to become a great pitcher, better workout programs, health sciences etc. So I always thought we should have enough pitching talent in this day and age and having 30 teams instead of 18 or 24 or whatever shouldn't matter all that much. So I decided to look at the starting pitchers for all the teams and the list is as follows.

Padres - Jake Peavy
Giants - Barry Zito
Diamondbacks - Brandon Webb
Rockies - Aaron Cook
Dodgers - Derek Lowe

Cardinals - Chris Carpenter
Brewers - Ben Sheets
Cubs - Carlos Zambrano
Reds - Aaron Harang
Pirates - Zack Duke
Astros - Roy Oswalt

NY Mets - Tom Glavine
Braves - John Smoltz
Marlins - Dontrelle Willis
Nationals - John Patterson
Phillies - Brett Myers

Athletics - Dan Haren
Mariners - Felix Hernandez
Texas - Kevin Millwood
Angels - John Lackey.

Royals - Gil Meche
Twins - Johan Santana
Tigers - Jeremy Bonderman
Indians - C.C.Sabathia
White Sox - Jose Contreras

Blue Jays - Roy Halladay
Yankees - Carl Pavano
Devil Rays - Scott Kazmir
Red Sox - Curt Schilling
Orioles - Erik Bedard

You look at this list and go "what the hell?". I know that a couple of guys are injured like Mark Prior and Francisco Liriano and some teams have multiple aces like Smoltz and Tim Hudson, but still, this list is real slim pickings! Now I totally agree that pitching is watered way down. Either kids are not taking up pitching these days or all the medical, health and other advances have helped only the hitters and hurt the pitchers along with all the other changes to the game over the years. Whatever the reason is, the pitching talent is just not there in the game today. There are not more than 10 to 12 true aces in that list. That's bad for an opening day. Now just imagine if I list the 5-Th day starter for all these teams! Should look brutal!