00:00Opening day, just 30 minutes away. Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid.
00:05We've got baseball to talk about, daytime baseball to talk about, no less.
00:09Let's bring in George Kurtz.
00:12George and I hosting for many years on Fantasy Sports Today and other shows as well.
00:16And George, I know today is one of those days for him where it's a holiday.
00:20He's going to sit back, he's going to watch, he's just going to be happy that his Yankees got a
00:25win in game one
00:26and he can just take a breather and watch the games today. Does that sound right?
00:30That pretty much is right, right? Nothing to panic about today.
00:33Yankees won last night, 7-0. I probably still would have preferred if the Yankees were playing in 35 minutes
00:38or so, Greg,
00:39but it's a big day for me. I love opening day. There's just something romantic about it, special about it.
00:44I've said many times, my father passed away in 93, and the only thing we really ever got along about
00:50was our love of the Yankees and baseball.
00:53When I had a normal job, I would take off this week, back when baseball opened up on a Monday.
00:57This way I could watch all the day games all week.
01:00I don't think I've ever had a normal job. I think I've always been doing baseball somewhere
01:05my entire life. I guess that's a good thing.
01:07Okay, so let's break down some games with George, see if he has any opinions on these.
01:11We've got the Pirates and Mets. I believe this is one of the first games going off today.
01:141.15 p.m. Eastern, and the Mets are ever-so-slight favorites against the Pirates.
01:21And so there are people squinting at that screen, George, and going,
01:25wait a second here. It's the Mets against the Pirates. What's the deal?
01:28Why is it only minus 118? Well, you have Paul Skeens on the other side of the coin there in
01:34that one.
01:35So are you buying into starting pitching this early in the season?
01:38I mean, Skeens pitched a lot in the World Baseball Classic.
01:41I would assume he can go six, seven innings in this one.
01:44I would assume as well, as long as you start throwing strikes, right?
01:47Yeah, we don't expect a lot of runs coming in this game.
01:49Peralta's going on the other side for the Mets.
01:50I can tell you here, living in New York, it is a beautiful day here.
01:54All right, especially for March 26th here, about 68 degrees and sunny.
01:58It did drizzle this morning, but that's gone away here.
02:00So good day for baseball there at Citi Field.
02:03I don't expect many runs to be scored today.
02:05You know, this is a little bit of a weird game here because Pittsburgh,
02:09a lot of people think Pittsburgh could be in the running for a wild card,
02:12mainly because of that pitching, right?
02:13You got Skeens, Bubba Chandler, Jared Jones when he comes back,
02:17Keller and all that, if they can just get enough offense.
02:20And, Craig, are the Mets, with all of Atlanta's pitching problems, right?
02:24They got Chris Sale and prayers.
02:26Are the Mets the team to beat now in the National League East?
02:30You know, Philly is getting older there, no Zach Wheeler.
02:32The Mets may actually be that team.
02:35It could be.
02:36The Mets certainly reshaping their roster.
02:39We'll find out early on if that ended up working.
02:41Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox today go at it against the Cincinnati Reds,
02:46an interleague battle to get things going.
02:48The Reds used to be the team that opened up first before everybody else.
02:51Now they're just like everybody else, George.
02:53Red Sox minus 158.
02:55They have Garrett Crochet against Andrew Abbott.
02:58Red Sox a little bit with a new look this season.
03:01And the Reds, well, I mean, just trying to get back to the postseason.
03:04What do you make of game one between these two squads?
03:07Yeah, Crochet, another ace that's on the mound and not quite, maybe not quite Skeen's level,
03:12but he's not that far behind as well.
03:14Should have been Hunter Green for Cincinnati, but he's out until somewhere around the All-Star break due to injury
03:18there.
03:19Abbott, not a terrible replacement here, but I like the Red Sox in this game.
03:22I do.
03:23The Red Sox probably aren't being talked about enough.
03:25Good rotation.
03:26They made some changes there.
03:27If they just had that one extra bat, you know, Craig, I think they'd be a true threat to the
03:32Yankees and Blue Jays there in the American League East.
03:34And I think the American League East is going to be a beast this season here.
03:37Like the Sox in this game, Crochet is just, you know, he's an ace.
03:40Hard to beat him.
03:414'10 Eastern, Tarek Skubal, in what could be his final year with the Tigers, maybe pulls another Cy Young.
03:47Who knows?
03:48A lot of folks are down on the Padres this season.
03:51I'm not sure why, George, but Tigers are favored today, minus 134 because they have Skubal.
03:56And maybe it's because the opening day pitcher for the Padres is Nick Pavetta.
03:59No slouch, by the way, in terms of pitching.
04:02But is this Padres team as good as they have been in years past?
04:07Are they as good?
04:08Maybe not as good, but I think they're a solid team.
04:10Certainly in, once again, wild card contention.
04:12We're just reading an article here about that they expect the Padres to be sold at some point for about
04:16$3.5 billion.
04:18That's nothing for you, Craig.
04:19You'll be able to hand out a pocket change.
04:21So $3.5 billion.
04:22Maybe that's why, because generally before a team gets sold, they get rid of some conscience.
04:26They won't make the moves they need to make to stay in.
04:29Maybe that's why people are a little bit down on them here.
04:32It's a really good game here.
04:33Detroit, I said all of all season, why are they going to trade Tarek Skubal?
04:37You know, they didn't.
04:38Then they lost in the arbitration.
04:40As much as I think they can't lose him for nothing, I don't see them falling out of it at
04:45the All-Star break, no matter what happens, because that division's not strong enough here.
04:48So I guess they are going to lose him for nothing if he's the first $400 million pitcher, which a
04:53lot of us expect him to be.
04:55Special day at 4.15 Eastern in Philadelphia as Christopher Sanchez, off this new contract extension, gets his opportunity, first
05:03opportunity to start opening day against the Texas Rangers.
05:06Rangers with a new manager in Skip Schumacher.
05:09Phillies minus 152 against Texas.
05:12They have Nate Uvaldi starting opening day for them.
05:15Total seven and a half.
05:18If, George, do the Phillies, who seem to be a pretty big favorite on this board today, have enough to
05:23get it done?
05:25You know, I think they'll win the game.
05:26That's too big a number here.
05:28You know, Uvaldi's a really good pitcher himself.
05:30I know the Phillies have the better lineup, you know, with Schwarber, Turner, Harper, and so on there.
05:36But I'll take the range.
05:37I'll just take the number on the Rangers here.
05:38Uvaldi can keep this lineup down.
05:40I just don't know how deep in the game Uvaldi's going to go.
05:43And then they get to the Rangers bullpen, and maybe that's where the issue is.
05:46Sanchez might be the best pitcher in baseball that we just don't talk about, right?
05:49Because he's not crochet.
05:50He's not skinny.
05:51He's not school.
05:51Sanchez is really good himself there.
05:54So I think the Phillies will win the game.
05:56But on principle, I would take the Rangers, and I'll take the plus money.
06:00All right.
06:00So meanwhile, we have an opening day line of a minus 260.
06:03You do not see this that often on opening day across the board in Major League Baseball.
06:07And literally against a team for L.A. in Arizona who's pretty good, right?
06:12Like, the Diamondbacks are not a bad team.
06:14But it's the Dodgers, and they got the crazy juice, I'm going to guess, on every game this season.
06:19Yoshinobi Yamamoto is the opening day starter.
06:21He's minus 260.
06:22Zach Gallin is back with the Diamondbacks for another season.
06:26Total, eight and a half here, George.
06:29You know, this is just not a game that I mess with when I see a line this big.
06:32Because, I mean, who knows?
06:33It's one game.
06:34Arizona can win.
06:36Well, the way we're going to attack the Dodgers most of the year, because you're not going to do it
06:40on the money line.
06:41I mean, you could have it in a parlay, which I do, in a game here.
06:44But you can go on the run line here if you want to take them in that game.
06:46But even that is not great today.
06:49Minus 126 to win by at least two runs here.
06:52So I'd probably stay away from that as well.
06:54Part of the problem with Diamondbacks is, I know it's Zach Gallin who won the Cy Young a couple of
06:58years ago,
06:58but he's not that pitcher anymore, right?
07:00And maybe their top two pitchers are on the I.L. in Corbin Burns coming back from T.J. and
07:05Merrill Kelly.
07:06So that's also an issue for them.
07:08I expect the Dodgers to win.
07:10You're going to get all the pomp and circumstance of the World Series going on tonight.
07:13So there'll be a lot going on there.
07:14I do have some worries about the Dodgers as far as Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
07:18Are they getting a little – are they feeling their age?
07:21That sort of thing here.
07:22But, Craig, I expect this to be another season where the Dodgers cruise through.
07:25I don't think they'll win 103.5 games, all right, because they –
07:29I don't think they just take the regular season seriously.
07:31They know they're going to win it.
07:32They're going to be there.
07:32They want to get everybody healthy by October.
07:34I think they'll win the West pretty easily, but more around the 95-98 win than 103.5.
07:40I think they start to that 98 wins tonight.
07:43Final game on the board tonight will be the Mariners and the Guardians.
07:47A lot of folks are on Seattle to win the American League this season.
07:51They have ace Logan Gilbert on the bump, one of the lowest totals on the board tonight.
07:56I see some 6.5.
07:57I know we're showing 7 here, but it's a low one.
08:00Tanner Bibby starts for Cleveland.
08:02We know Cleveland, George, very capable of winning any day, any game,
08:06one of the more underrated franchises in baseball.
08:09Who do you like tonight between Cleveland and Seattle?
08:13Yeah, they're that pain-in-the-neck team, right?
08:15That pain-in-the-neck team, Cleveland, this never goes away,
08:18even though we're like, how does this team hit the ball?
08:19Right outside of Ramirez, there's nobody else there.
08:22And if I'm Seattle, I'm just walking him every time he comes up here.
08:25I'll let someone else beat me here.
08:27I like your first statement there.
08:28I think Seattle is the team to beat in the American League.
08:30Love that rotation.
08:32Even though Louis Castillo is not Louis Castillo of years back here,
08:35but still are the best rotation in the American League here.
08:38I think they're the team that go out there.
08:39I think they win tonight.
08:40Gilbert, we're sort of waiting for him to take that next step, right?
08:43To be that true ace.
08:44Maybe this is that year, but again, I love the depth of that rotation
08:47with Wu, Castillo, George Kirby, Bryce Miller, who's on the IL,
08:51but he shouldn't be on the IL long.
08:52He'll be back in mid-April.
08:53Just adds to it.
08:54One more bat.
08:55They're a dangerous, dangerous team.
08:57Yeah, I like the Mariners.
08:58It's an idea.
08:59And I like them to win the American League as well.
09:02All right.
09:02Great stuff, George.
09:03Enjoy opening day.
09:04I know a special day for you and me and everybody else.
09:06Really appreciate you coming on.
09:07And I know we'll talk again soon.
09:09Thanks again.
09:10My pleasure.
09:11Everybody enjoy opening day out there.
09:12I hope your team wins.
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