Bright new era in Miami the highlight of Opening week

A look at the first week of the MLB season

The dawning of a new era of Marlins baseball is the undisputed highlight amongst many intriguing match-ups and series in the opening few days of the baseball season, as the Miami Marlins open their new $515 million, 37,000 seater ballpark with a visit of the reigning World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, on Wednesday night with Josh Johnson set to go head to head with Kyle Lohse in a one game series.

The Cardinals hopes of repeating their success last year have been hit with the departure of Albert Pujols, while the return of Adam Wainwright is tempered somewhat by the uncertainty surrounding Chris Carpenter who is out for an as yet unknown amount of time. It is set to be a fascinating match-up as the new look Marlins could look to set their stall out early and utilise the speed of Reyes and Ramirez, among others, right from the off.

Elsewhere, many teams get their schedules underway on Thursday, with the Red Sox visiting Motown to take on the Tigers being one series that you should certainly keep an eye on. The three game series will include an off day on Friday, with Lester and Verlander set to go at it in the opener. The Prince Fielder era in Detroit could not have had a much tougher start, as Lester is set to be followed on the mound by Beckett and Bucholz as both the boys from Beantown will look to get into the habit of winning early in the season to appease those that were none too keen to see Bobby Valentine replace Tito Francona in the off-season.

Johan Santana will get the Opening Day nod for the New York Mets as they take on the Atlanta Braves who will counter the series opener with Tommy Hanson, who gets the Opening Day nod for the first time in his career. Santana missed the whole of 2011 and so his performances in the opening few weeks, and none more so than on Opening Day, will be closely followed. The Braves will look to quickly erase the memories of their September meltdown, while the face of the franchise, Chipper Jones, is set to miss some time in what will be his final season.

Another who will be returning following a season disrupted by injury will be flame throwing Stephen Strasburg, who will take to the mound on Thursday for the Washington Nationals as they start the season at Wrigley.

Of those series that get going on Friday, there are three particularly intriguing inter-division clashes as the New York Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays, the St. Louis Cardinals visit the Prince Fielder-less Milwaukee Brewers and the San Francisco Giants are the visitors in Phoenix as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

While both the Yankees and Rays have potent line-ups, the pitching duels of Sabathia and Shields followed by Kuroda and Price look particularly enticing, while the Rays will be looking to show the big boys from the Bronx that it isn’t going to be an easy run to the division title this year.

Milwaukee have effectively replaced Prince Fielder with Aramis Ramirez, and no doubt he will be keen to get off to a fast start with the Brew Crew, but having to face Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright, who will be making his first appearance since 2010, and Lance Lynn is hardly an easy task to start the season.

Meanwhile, new eras get underway for the duo of Los Angeles teams. For the L.A. Dodgers, the Magic era gets underway in PETCO Park against the Padres, with reigning Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw the unsurprising Opening Day starter for the Dodgers, while the Pujols era in Orange County starts on Friday night against the Royals.

Interesting storylines on Sunday’s slate of games include Carlos Zambrano making his Marlins debut at the Great American Ballpark against Joey Votto and the Cincinnati Reds, while Juan Nicasio, who suffered an horrendous facial injury last season after taking a line drive to the face, will take to the big league mound for the first time since that incident when the Rockies take on the Astros in Houston. Although the big feel good story of Opening Week could be reserved for Nicasio’s teammate the day before, as 49 year old Jamie Moyer will aim to be the oldest pitcher ever to record a win in the Major Leagues on Saturday night.

Finally, the week is rounded off on Sunday night when Gavin Floyd takes on Matt Harrison in Arlington in the third game of the series between the White Sox and the Rangers.

There are very few things quite like Opening Day, so sit back, grab yourself a beer and get ready for some baseball!!!