Seattle: 0-0
Twins: 0-0
Game 1: Felix Hernandez vs Francisco Liriano*
Game 2: Erik Bedard* vs Nick Blackburn
Game 3: Carlos Silva vs Kevin Slowey
Game 4: Jarrod Washburn* vs Glen Perkins*
The last time Felix Hernandez started an Opening Day game for us, the Mariners won 88 games that season. Correlation?
Baseball Prospectus' depth charts currently lists both the Mariners and Twins at 77-85 for this upcoming season. CHONE's projected standings had the Twins at 79-83 and the Ms one game back at 78-84. So these look like evenly matched teams on paper before the first whistle. It might be funny to come back to this after the final pitch of the season and see where the two teams respectively finish.
For a while there, Francisco Liriano's career appeared to be whirlpooling away with injury issues, but he managed to right the ship and start blowing away minor league hitters again; eventually forcing his way back into the Major League rotation and giving the boot to Livan Hernandez. Still, the Liriano of 2006 never reappeared and he might be gone forever. That Liriano threw strikes 66% of the time and posted a ridiculous 56% ground ball rate while striking out 30% of all batters that he faced. In 2008, those rates dropped to 61.5%, 41% and 20%.
Nick Blackburn was the picture of average last season. What he does do is throw strikes and miss enough bats to get away with it. He's pretty uninteresting from a writing standpoint. From a baseball point, I would gladly take several Nick Blackburns under team control. This match up is going to be all about Erik Bedard and our guess the first injury contest. I'm calling gingivitis.
Kevin Slowey is Nick Blackburn except with fewer groundballs and more strikeouts. One of these days, MLB is going to uncover Minnesota's secret cloning factory where they keep Brad Radke on ice and churn out this stream of like-styled hurlers.
Glen Perkins is left-handed. So is Jarrod Washburn. Lefties are neat.
Series Previews 2.0 are still in beta. That is, I'm still trying to figure out how I want to format these and what kind of information I want to put together.
Surly Darkness
Surly Brewing Company Brooklyn Center, MN
This would be a dark enough beer to match the mood of yesterday. Pretty much everything made by Surly Brewing is fantastic. They jostle with Town Hall as the best prolific brewers in the state of many lakes.
1 recs | 31 comments
This post isn't brought to us by delicious, delicious beer?
seattlebruin - April 6, 2009
I am not sure if I am going to continue that.
For one, I never compiled a list of the beers I mentioned last season and I don’t want to repeat myself.
Matthew - April 6, 2009
Hmm
I think we can help with that. I too would like to see the beer sponsorship continue.
My Opening Day beer is a bottle of He’Brew Jewbilation 12 (12% ABV, 12 malts, 12 hops) that I purchased 2 months ago and have been keeping chilled for just this day.
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
D'oh
Just saw your comment below. Nevertheless, I stand by my sentiment.
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
Thank god for interns
1. Jaywalker Russian Imperial Stout
Walking Man Brewery. Stevenson, WA
2. Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale
Clipper City Brewery. Baltimore, MD
3. Tampa Bay Burning Bunny
Tampa Bay Brewing Company. Tampa, FL
4. African Amber
Mac and Jack’s Brewing. Redmond, WA
5. Alaskan Winter Ale
Alaskan Brewing Company. Juneau, AK
6. Pliny the Younger
Russian River Brewing. Santa Rosa, CA
7. Trois Pistoles
Unibroue. Chambly, QC
8. Lions Winter Ale
Granville Island Brewery. Kelowna, BC
9. Detonator Doppelbock
Fish Brewing Company. Olympia, WA
10. Blackout Stout
Great Lakes Brewing. Cleveland, OH
11. Three Philosophers
Brewery Ommegang. Cooperstown, NY
12. K-C≡N
13. Quilter’s Irish Death
Iron Horse Brewery. Ellensburg, WA
14. Pliny the Elder
Russian River Brewing. Santa Rosa, CA
15. Old Rasputin Imperial Stout
North Coast Brewing Company. Fort Bragg, CA
16. Breakfast Stout
Founders Brewing. Grand Rapids, MI
17. Double White Ale
Southampton Publick House. Southampton, NY
18. Blootvoeste Bruin
Walking Man Brewing. Stevenson, WA
19. Adam
Hair of the Dog Brewing. Portland, OR
20. Scotch Ale
Boundary Bay Brewing. Bellingham, WA
21. Samuel Adams Utopias
Boston Brewing Company. Boston, MA
22. Tankhouse Ale
Mill St. Brewing. Toronto, ON
23. Moose Drool Brown Ale
Big Sky Brewing. Missoula, MT
24. Lia Fail
Inveralond. Perth, Scotland
25. Sweetwater IPA
Sweetwater Brewing. Atlanta, GA
26. 90 Minute IPA
Dogfish Head Brewing. Milton, DE
27. Stone Brewing. Escondido, CA
28. Tsunami Stout
Pelican Brewing. Pacific City, OR
29. Seattle Internation Beerfest
30. Anchor Steam
Anchor Brewing Company. San Francisco, CA
31. Free State Oatmeal Stout
Free State Brewing. Lawrence, KS
32. 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Stone Brewing. Escondido, CA
33. Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale
Pike Brewing. Seattle, WA
34. Black Toque
Phillips Brewing. Victoria, BC
35. Ølfabrikken Porter
Gourmetbryggeriet. Roskilde, Denmark
36. Dave
Hair of the Dog Brewing. Portland, OR
37. The Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale
Avery Brewing Company. Boulder, CO
38. Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
Anderson Valley Brewing. Boonville, CA
39. Pilsner Urquell
Plzensky Prazdroj. Plzen, CZ
40. Goose Island Beer Company. Chicago, IL
41. St. Bernardus Abt 12
St. Bernard Brewery. Watou, BE
42. Hop Rod Rye Ale
Bear Republic Brewing. Healdsburg, CA
43. Hazelnut Brown Nectar
Rogue Ales. Newport, OR
44. Bodacious Black & Tan
Hoppin Frog. Akron, OH
45. Speedway Stout
AleSmith Brewing. San Diego, CA
46. Imperial Red
Lagunitas Brewing Company. Petaluma, CA
47. Great Pumpkin
Elysian Brewing. Seattle, WA
48. Hercules Double IPA
Great Divide Brewing Company. Denver, CO
49. Ottawa Senators
50. La Terrible
Unibroue Brewing Company. Chambly, QC
51. The Abyss
Deschutes Brewing Company. Bend, OR
52. Westvleteren Abt 12
Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus. Westvleteren, BE
Robert - April 6, 2009
god damn me
Robert - April 6, 2009
Love you(r interns) anyway
Especially for grabbing the actual breweries. I neglected to do that.
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
Excellent list
Too bad it is next to impossible to get any of these except for the Quebec one and Euro imports in Ontario…..
tdot mariner fan - April 6, 2009
I could buy you some Walking Man next time I'm down in Stevenson...
Postage would be a bitch, though…
PositivePaul - April 6, 2009
Post or hopping the border are not cost effective anymore
If it were not for Quebec beers like St. Ambroise and Unibroue stuff, plus some micro-brews from Ontario being good, I would die up here.
tdot mariner fan - April 6, 2009
No beer is dark enough to match this feeling of despair
OlSalty - April 6, 2009
It's Felix Day
Let the sunshine and lollipops warm your spirit!
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
Looking forward to 1st place at the end of Monday!
That’s what opening day’s about isn’t it, our one day at the top.
wishfulthinking - April 6, 2009
Honestly glad to see that these are back.
Robert - April 6, 2009
You could show me how glad you are by compiling a list of the beers that I mentioned in these last season.
Matthew - April 6, 2009
Can't help myself...
If this is Season Preview 2.0, are we going to have to wait until next year to see how it shakes out?
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
All ribbing aside
Glad to see these back. It’s helping today actually feel like Opening Day (which is tough when it’s on the road and I’m stuck at work through the first 1/3 of the game)
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
The Liriano of 2006 also threw 95 miles per hour
I hate when good pitching gets broke
Jeff Sullivan - April 6, 2009
Well then good news if you like good relief pitching!
Matthew - April 6, 2009
Here you go.
Also, now that we have this compiled, it might be fun to do stats on it. Matthew chose Stouts X% of the time. For series where Matthew picked IPAs, the Mariners did Y% better than when he picked others. The luckiest breweries for team fortune are _. Whatever – we let a GROUNDHOG tell us what the weather is going to be.
3/30 TEX @ SEA – Jaywalker Russian Imperial Stout
4/3 SEA @ BAL – Loose Cannon Hop^3 Ale
4/8 SEA @ TAM – Tampa Bay Burning Bunny
4/10 LAA @ SEA – Mac & Jack’s African Amber
4/14 KC @ SEA – Alaskan Winter Ale
4/16 SEA @ OAK – Pliny the Younger
4/18 SEA @ LAA – Unibroue Trois Pistoles
4/21 BAL @ SEA – Lions Winter Ale
4/25 OAK @ SEA – Detonator Doppelbock
4/28 SEA @ CLE – Great Lakes Brewing Blackout Stout
5/2 SEA @ NYY – Ommegang Three Philosophers
5/5 TEX @ SEA – Potassium Cyanide
5/10 CWS @ SEA – Quilter’s Irish Death
5/12 SEA @ TEX – Pliny the Elder
5/14 SD @ SEA – Old Rasputin Imperial Stout
5/19 SEA @ DET – Bells Brewing Expedition Stout, Kuhnhenn Brewing Raspberry Eisbock, Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout
5/23 SEA @ NYY – Southampton Double White Ale
5/26 BOS @ SEA – Walking Man Blootvoeste Bruin
5/29 DET @ SEA – Hair of the Dog Adam
6/2 LAA @ SEA – Boundary Bay Scotch Ale
6/5 SEA @ BOS – Samuel Adams Utopias
6/9 SEA @ TOR – Tankhouse Ale
6/12 WAS @ SEA – Moose Drool Brown Ale
6/16 FLA @ SEA – Lia Fail
6/20 SEA @ ATL – Sweetwater IPA
6/23 SEA @ NYM – Dogfish 90 Minute IPA
6/26 SEA @ SDP – Stone Brewing (Full lineup)
6/30 TOR @ SEA – Tsunami Stout
7/3 DET @ SEA – Seattle International Beerfest
7/7 SEA @ OAK – Anchor Steam
7/11 SEA @ KC – Free State Oatmeal Stout
7/18 CLE @ SEA – Stone Brewing 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
7/21 BOS @ SEA – Pike Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale
7/25 SEA @ TOR – Black Toque
7/28 SEA @ TEX – Ølfabrikken Porter
8/1 BAL @ SEA – Hair of the Dog Dave
8/4 MIN @ SEA – The Maharaja Imperial India Pale Ale
8/7 TAM @ SEA – Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
8/12 SEA @ LAA – Pilsner Urquell
8/15 SEA @ MIN – Goose Island Beer Company (Bourbon unreadable word Stout)
8/18 SEA @ CWS – St. Bernardus Abt 12
8/21 OAK @ SEA – Hop Rod Rye Ale
8/25 MIN @ SEA – Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar
8/29 SEA @ CLE – Bodacious Black & Tan
9/1 SEA @ TEX – Speedway Stout
9/5 NYY @ SEA – Imperial Red
9/9 TEX @ SEA – Great Pumpkin
9/11 SEA @ LAA – Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
9/15 SEA @ KC – The Ottawa Senators
9/19 SEA @ OAK – Unibroue La Terrible
9/22 LAA @ SEA – Deschutes The Abyss
9/26 OAK @ SEA – Westvleteren Abt 12
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
my thanks.
Matthew - April 6, 2009
You can repay me by recommending more good beer.
Last year’s list brought back a lot of delicious memories.
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
Anything Lost Abbey or Port
Jeff Sullivan - April 6, 2009
Prima Pils too
Jeff Sullivan - April 6, 2009
I am recommending this FanComment
Robert - April 6, 2009
I am recommending this FanComment
seattlebruin - April 6, 2009
Updated.
Matthew - April 6, 2009
Surly is my favorite of the seven little Duffs.
Jed MC - April 6, 2009
Many thanks
But I have to ask: Why a beer called “Darkness” on the first series of the season? Is the torrent of bad news from the last couple weeks really that bleak?
seattlecougar - April 6, 2009
I have not had that many beers from Minnesota.
Matthew - April 6, 2009
Hmmm...
There are far too few Porters on that list.
PLU Tim - April 6, 2009
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