Play of the year?

Mark Buehrle has a knack for doing incredible things on the diamond. Most of the time he does it with his pitching, but he did it with his glove and his arm on opening day against the Indians. If you haven't seen the play you need to have a look. After he made the foot save like Patrick Roy used to, he chased down the ball as it headed through the infield and past the foul line, then he reached down with his glove and scooped the ball between his legs to Paul Konerko.

On top of that he dominated on the mound as he pitched a solid seven innings of 3 hit ball without allowing a run. He is the fastest working pitcher in the bigs and is almost always a treat to watch. With this first shutout win of the season, Buehrle has now won 136 career games.

Roy Halladay shook off some early inning hits and settled down very nicely to pick up his first win of the season. With Doc you better get to him early because once he settles in, he is going to be tough to put a string of hits together. Halladay struck out nine in seven innings of work allowing just three hits after the first inning. I could see Doc winning 22 games for the Phillies this season. With this victory he now has 149 career wins. The next one win puts him half way to 300.

Tim Lincecum dominated the Astros in his season debut. The thing I love about watching him pitch is how he throws in reverse. When he is behind in the count most pitchers throw fastballs, but not Lincecum, he throws the curve or slider or change up. When he is ahead in the count and they are looking for the off speed stuff he will blow the 96 mph fastball by the hitter. I have a feeling the NL Cy Young will be a fight between Doc and the Freak. With his dominating victory, 7 IP 7K 0ER yesterday, Lincecum picked up career win #41.

Other pitchers picking up victories and moving closer to that 300 win # were Jered Weaver with an unspectacular outing of 3 ER over 6 innings of work for career win #52 and Johan Santana who effectively pitched 6 solid innings of 4 hit ball while surrendering just one run for #123 of his impressive career.

I have to include Albert Pujols in my blog due to the fact I believe he has the potential to be the greatest HR hitter of all time. Opening day for Albert say him launch career HR's 367 and 368, which puts him just 332 more away from the 700 number. Could he hit 50 + HR this season, I say if anyone could Albert could.

My final thought on opening day is regarding the rookie phenom Jason Heyward. What a debut as he crushes a deep HR in his first big league AB. Has there been a better looking hitting prospect come to the majors over the last few years than him? At 6'5" and 240 lbs, this 20 year old has huge potential. It will be a pleasure to watch this kid perform. Could he be the next Pujols?

All in all a great day of ball. We almost got to see an opening day no hitter as Shaun Marcum pitched great and maybe was the most impressive of all the pitchers during the day. Too bad the pen couldn't save the W for him. Oh well, now we know why Halladay needed to get out when he did.