Finally, baseball.
Put on your Rally Lobster t-shirt and join us in the Game Thread for today's Cactus League opener, as Jeff Suppan takes on Barry Zito in Scottsdale.
Follow the jump for today's pitching matchup, Brewer lineup and conversation on the first Brewer baseball since October!
Jeff Suppan (7-10, 5.29 in 2009) takes the ball in the Cactus League opener needing to prove he can still be a valuable member of the Brewer rotation. He's coming off his first season with less than ten wins, his second with less than 188 innings pitched, and his second with an ERA over 5 in the last eleven years. He'll probably only pitch two innings today, slightly less than the 5.1 innings per start he averaged last season.
Meanwhile, Barry Zito (10-13, 4.03 in 2009) is coming off a nice bounceback season that makes the four remaining seasons on his 7 year/$126 million deal look a little more tolerable. In 33 starts last season, he posted a 100+ ERA+ for the first time since 2007. He's faced the Brewers six times in his career and has not fared well, posting a 6.19 ERA in 32 innings.
Here's today's lineup, as noted in this FanShot:
Weeks 2B
Gomez CF
Hart RF
Fielder 1B
McGehee 3B
Zaun C
Counsell SS
Gerut LF
Suppan P
Also, via klwillis, we have access to today's traveling roster, which shows John Axford, Zach Braddock, Todd Coffey, Tim Dillard, Marco Estrada, A.J. Murray, Cody Scarpetta, Scott Schoeneweis and Chris Smith as the pitchers available out of the bullpen.
Enjoy the game!