06 April 2008

It's Their Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)


On Friday, the Dbacks crashed Colorado's home opener party. On Saturday, Denver unveiled their NL pennant just prior to gametime. Moments later, Chris Young led off that game with a 432 ft Rocky Mountain buzzkill, and Arizona never looked back.

I learned my lesson. Never heap praise on a young player. Thursday's adoring ode to Arizona's short version of "Chris Young" was immediately met with a four whiff washout. So I'm ignoring yesterday's pair of homers. Pay no heed to how he's working deep into counts. Understand his is an early season fluke, and if you're in my fantasy league, he's an unattractive waiver pick up.

Pena and Lyon were both shaky in relief, but the game was in hand thanks to the offense and a characteristic seven innings from Webb, who is already 2-0. Suddenly, Arizona leads the NL in homers with ten, which really isnt as shocking as some people think. Last year's team couldnt find first base with Google Earth, but they were middle of the pack in homers (171) , tied with the Rockies and Padres - a shock in itself to many casual observers. Will Melvin's Murderer's Row lead the NL in homers? Probably not, but I expect them to be in the mix. Favorable park with a bunch of upside sluggers and every single starter has some pop at the plate. No Willy Tavares or Juan Pierre here.

Since we're not mentioning Chris Young, and have learned our lesson about young players generally, now is a good time not to mention Justin Upton, who has crushed three homers in three days. It is hardly newsworthy that he had three hits Saturday. He'll probably, you know, regress. We barely noticed how he turned around an outside pitch off the plate for a sharp single to right, and turned another that caught more of the plate back to the center field bleachers, fifteen rows up. Who really cares that it was the longest homer in the majors this week, or that Upton is the only major leaguer still shy of his 22nd birthday? Well, also still shy of his 21st birthday, but who's counting? I just refuse to be a party to this sort of youthful arrogance, thinking it's better than everyone else.

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