It’s another new year for Major League Baseball, which means its opening day once again.
The 162-game regular season marathon begins and all 30 teams are tied for first place. Today marks another year where we could see highly paid teams win their divisions, lower paying teams seep through the cracks and a team set to defend their World Series title.
The New York Yankees set to get the season started at 1:05 p.m. today. The Bronx Bombers won 95 games a season ago and lost in the ALCS. They look to return to the place they were at the end of the 2009 season and capture a 28th World Series title. C.C. Sabathia will be the opening day starter against the Detroit Tiger’s Justin Verlander. The Tigers look to improve from a .500 season.
Atlanta will play its first season without Bobby Cox as their manager. Cox retired last season, after 20 years of managing the Braves. They will open the season against the improving Washington Nationals.
Cincinnati surprised nearly everybody when the Reds won the NL Central. They will host the Milwaukee Brewers, who landed Zack Greinke to boost their starting rotation.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will start the season against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals finished last in their division, last season.
San Diego starts the season on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Padres finished two games back from a 2010 playoff appearance and will be without the All-Star first basemen, Adrian Gonzalez, who was traded to the Red Sox in the offseason. The Cardinals–who lost there ace, Adam Wainwright, for the remainder of the season due to Tommy John surgery–will try to get back on track after failing to make it to the postseason.
The prime time game will consist of the defending World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants at the LA Dodgers. The Giants will look to be the first team to repeat as world champions since the Yankees won three years in a row from 1998-2000.
