Morning Musings

Hey everyone, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. Remember when I started virtually every post like that? Oh, Young A.F.O.M.G., there's so much you had to learn!

Anyway, just felt like bringing that back. Cheddar's gonna be in with his look at the NL West, but I wanted to post some impressions on the major stories of the day.

1. Mike Pelfrey

Caught the game yesterday on the DVR tip, and Pelfrey looked every bit as dominating as you've read this morning. It was really extraordinary watching every single batter hit ground ball after ground ball, and this on a day when the hardest stuff Pelfrey was throwing topped out at 87 MPH.

It's going to be very interesting to see what comes of Pelfrey in the year ahead. The conventional wisdom is that he's all but certain to start the year in Triple-A. That's fine with me, particularly given the whole 5th pitchers in April thing.

But so many questions! Can he crack the starting 5 out of spring training? Can he harness a fully realized slider? Will he ever appear comfortable/not extraordinarily awkward when speaking to the press? Stay tuned!

2. John Maine

There's a little part of me that hates nicknames. A lot of that has to do with Chris Berman, who seems to feel that his commentary isn't complete unless he's found time to come up with some contrived alternate name for every person wearing a uniform.

But John Maine is different, and in trying to determine why he's different, I think it's because the two most readily used nicknames for him are so awesomely bad. "Remember the" Maine and "Maine Man" are just too ridiculous to be taken seriously, but I'm gonna admit it, whenever I see him pitch I can't help but shout out "Remember the Maine!"

3. Duaner Sanchez

Somehow I'll bet Nails won't start saying how much he hates Duaner Sanchez now that he's gone all Lastings Milledge on us. It's a little disconcerting that a player fighting his way back from injury wouldn't make it a high priority to arrive on time for his workouts, but it looks like Willie is handling it.

If you're wondering, yes, this is the first negative press young Duaner has ever gotten here at Y2K.

Anyway, that about does it for me. Be sure to check in for Cheddar's piece coming up later. Have a good weekend everybody.

- A.F.O.M.G.

(Images courtesy of scout.com and mlb.com)