The Crane Pool Forum

The grid is getting closer to filled as now less than within 37 hours to the MLB opener from Tokyo as I type.
All times EDT. And, as a service to those of you who live elsewhere ... there is none, just suck it up and do the math!!

DATE/TIME	ROAD	STARTER	HOME	STARTER
TUE 3/18 -- 6:00 AM (FOX)	DODGERS	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	CUBS	Shota Imanaga
THU 3/28 — 4:05	BREWERS	Freddie Peralta	YANKEES	Carlos Rodon
4:05	ORIOLES	Zach Eflin	BLUE JAYS
4:05	PHILLIES	Zack Wheeler	NATIONALS
4:10	RED SOX	Garrett Crochet	RANGERS	Nathan Eovaldi
4:10	GUARDIANS		ROYALS
4:10	BRAVES		PADRES
4:10	GIANTS	Logan Webb	REDS	Hunter Greene
4:10	PIRATES	Paul Skenes	MARLINS	Sandy Alcantara
4:10	ANGELS	Yusei Kikuchi	WHITE SOX	Sean Burke
4:10	METS	Clay Holmes	ASTROS	Framber Valdez
4:15	TWINS	Pablo López	CARDINALS	Sonny Gray
7:10	TIGERS	Tarik Skubal	DODGERS	-----
10:10	ATHLETICS		MARINERS	Logan Gilbert
10:10	CUBS	-----	DIAMONDBACKS
FRI 3/29 — 4:10	ROCKIES	Kyle Freeland	RAYS	Shane McClanahan

Seriously, what the hell kind of name is Framber anyway

[Catch-22]Why it's Framber's name, Sir.[/Catch-22}

Cubs score in the 2nd while Imanaga no-hits the Dodgers for the first 4
And so the Cubs went to the pen to start the 5th and now it's 4 - 1 Dodgers.

No Mookie (illness), no Freddie (sore something'er other) for LAD

Fman99 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 17, 2025 8:31 am Seriously, what the hell kind of name is Framber anyway

The name of a guy who threw a no-hitter in 2023.
Take him seriously.
Later

Almost all filled in.
Not sure what it says that five ex-Yanquis, two of them relievers, will be O.D. starters for teams other than the Yanx this year:
Michael King (SD), Clay Holmes (NYM), Luis Severino (SAC), Nathan Eovaldi TEX), Sonny Gray (StL).

DATE/TIME	ROAD	STARTER	HOME	STARTER
TUE 3/18	DODGERS	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	CUBS	Shota Imanaga
THU 3/28 — 4:05	BREWERS	Freddie Peralta	YANKEES	Carlos Rodon
4:05	ORIOLES	Zach Eflin	BLUE JAYS	Jose Berrios
4:05	PHILLIES	Zack Wheeler	NATIONALS	MacKenzie Gore
4:10	RED SOX	Garrett Crochet	RANGERS	Nathan Eovaldi
4:10	GUARDIANS		ROYALS	Cole Ragans
4:10	BRAVES	Chris Sale	PADRES	Michael King
4:10	GIANTS	Logan Webb	REDS	Hunter Greene
4:10	PIRATES	Paul Skenes	MARLINS	Sandy Alcantara
4:10	ANGELS	Yusei Kikuchi	WHITE SOX	Sean Burke
4:10	METS	Clay Holmes	ASTROS	Framber Valdez
4:15	TWINS	Pablo López	CARDINALS	Sonny Gray
7:10	TIGERS	Tarik Skubal	DODGERS	---
10:10	ATHLETICS	Luis Severino	MARINERS	Logan Gilbert
10:10	CUBS	---	DIAMONDBACKS
FRI 3/29 — 4:10	ROCKIES	Kyle Freeland	RAYS	Shane McClanahan

Meanwhile in Tokyo, the Cubs have like two hits over like the last dozen innings and are down 6-2 6-3 in the 5th in Game 2

It was also the MLB debut of Roki Sasaki (not sure if his brother Rori was in the stands). He didn't get hit but he walked four including walking in a run,
threw almost no first-pitch strikes, and lasted just three innings while tossing 25 strikes on 56 pitches.

Those two games in Tokyo were stupid; we had to scramble to do our fantasy draft and now wait 10 days for more
games.

I remembered yesterday in time to watch the last 5-ish innings of the game.

Today, not so much. Fully blanked and missed all of it, despite being online at 6:30 AM and working from home all morning. My wife + daughter getting ready for work and school are a bit distracting around here.

So the Dodgers are 1.23% of their way to a perfect season, despite no Mookie or Freddie for either.
Tommy Edman is still hitting HRs so, y'know, it's not just us.
Ohtani got two hits in game 1 and HR'd this morning (on pace for 81 for the season) so the locals were happy.
Sasaki was throwing 100 (or 160km as the scoreboard showed it) but only occasionally getting it over the plate (13 batters faced, 5 walks)
LA didn't hit a ton but Cubbie hurlers walked 15 Dodgers over the two games.

Japanese fans, the female ones in particular, seemed quite taken by Pete Crow-Armstrong. His bleach blond buzz cut with multicolored stars
dyed into it was a favorite of many as noted by numerous signs in the stands displaying the initials P C A surrounded by stars.

Couple of adjustments to game starting times and for the third game of the season pitchers for the Cubs and Dodgers

DATE/TIME (EDT)	ROAD	STARTER	HOME	STARTER
TUE 3/18	DODGERS	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	CUBS	Shota Imanaga
THU 3/28 — 3:05	BREWERS	Freddie Peralta	YANKEES	Carlos Rodon
3:07	ORIOLES	Zach Eflin	BLUE JAYS	Jose Berrios
4:05	PHILLIES	Zack Wheeler	NATIONALS	MacKenzie Gore
4:10	RED SOX	Garrett Crochet	RANGERS	Nathan Eovaldi
4:10	GUARDIANS	Tanner Bibee	ROYALS	Cole Ragans
4:10	BRAVES	Chris Sale	PADRES	Michael King
4:10	GIANTS	Logan Webb	REDS	Hunter Greene
4:10	PIRATES	Paul Skenes	MARLINS	Sandy Alcantara
4:10	ANGELS	Yusei Kikuchi	WHITE SOX	Sean Burke
4:10	METS	Clay Holmes	ASTROS	Framber Valdez
4:15	TWINS	Pablo López	CARDINALS	Sonny Gray
7:10	TIGERS	Tarik Skubal	DODGERS	Blake Snell
10:10	ATHLETICS	Luis Severino	MARINERS	Logan Gilbert
10:10	CUBS	Justin Steele	DIAMONDBACKS	Zac Gallen
FRI 3/29 — 4:10	ROCKIES	Kyle Freeland	RAYS	Shane McClanahan

I just looked at my fantasy team and realized not one game starts before late afternoon.

What’s up with that?

Well, the game at SD is 1:00 local time but point still holds.
My guess is that it's probably in the contract with ESPN that they get the first time slot (even if it's just by minutes) thus reducing competition from other games for the first hour anyway. They also have a second prime time game at 7:00 (LAD/DET) so they want to make sure the first game is over before that.
So they get Yanquis and Dodgers and Judge and Shohei all to themselves.