Matt Holliday and the Rockies ply their trade in Petco Park this week.

Time flies when you’re having fun.  Here we are, starting the third week of the season already.  Most teams have played about a dozen games, or about 7% of the schedule so far.  If you haven’t checked out John Rakowski’s, For Better For Worse yet, you really are missing something.  He gives some great advice that applies at this point in the season.  If you are looking for some sound waiver wire advice for mixed and mono-leagues, check out the Waiver Wire Wonders column, which appears every Wednesday.  We also have a column that is dedicated to finding prime targets for stolen bases called, Burning Up the Bases, that appears every Tuesday.  And that is just the beginning, folks.  We also have two columns that focus on the news coming from every team in both leagues.  On Tuesdays, we have NL Grumblings, for your National League news, and on Wednesdays, AL Grumblings, takes a look at the American League.  Sports Grumblings also has two terrific columns dedicated to finding valuable players, The Farm Report on Mondays, looks at how players in the minors are performing, while Treasure Hunting looks at players who are seeing a spike in value at the major league level.  That’s enough pimping for now; next week, I’ll tell you about some of our other features.  In the meantime, let us take a look at a couple of marquee match ups this week.

Series of The Week – Weekday Edition – San Diego Padres vs. Colorado Rockies

When the end of the 2007 season rolled around, the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies both finished with a record of 89-73, leaving them requiring a one game playoff to determine which of them would gain the right to be the Wild Card playoff team. The game was a wild affair itself, with the Padres tying the score in the top of the 8^th to send the game into extra innings. They then took the lead in the top of the 13^th, only to have the Rockies snatch it back and win it in the bottom half of the inning on hits by Kaz Matsui, Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holiday, and a sacrifice fly by Jamey Carroll, all off future Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman.  Of course, the Rockies went on to roll through the playoffs, sweeping the Phillies and Diamondbacks, only to be swept themselves by the Red Sox in the World Series.

Head to head, the two teams played a total of 19 games, of which 11 were won by Colorado.  They meet this week in San Diego for the first three of 18 games to be played between the clubs this season.  Like last season, both teams are likely to be chasing the Arizona Diamondbacks, who appear to have the upper hand in the NL West division.  The pitchers scheduled for this series are; Ubaldo Jimenez (1-1, 4.91) vs. Randy Wolf (0-0, 2.25) on Tuesday, Mark Redman (1-1, 5.06) vs. Justin Germano (0-0, 0.00) on Wednesday, and Jeff Francis (0-2, 9.53) vs. Jake Peavy (3-0, 1.64) on Thursday.

The Rockies hitter who owned the Padres in Petco Park last season was Brad Hawpe.  In the 9 games there last year he batted .387 with 2 home runs and 8 RBI.  The Padres seemed to feast on Rockies pitching last season when they came to Petco; as a team they hit 12 home runs off Rockies pitching in nine games.  Kevin Kouzmanoff enjoyed Rockies pitchers most though, batting .355 with a home run and 6 RBI. 

Series of The Week – Weekend Edition – Los Angeles Angels vs. Seattle Mariners

The Angels and Mariners are expected to be the two dominant teams in the AL West, with neither the Oakland A’s nor the Texas Rangers looking like contenders this season.  The Angels won 94 games last season, taking first place in the AL West, 6 games ahead of the Mariners.  LA improved their already strong offense by signing free agent outfielder Torii Hunter, and bolstered their pitching by trading shortstop Orlando Cabrera to the White Sox for Jon Garland.  The Mariners, looking to retool after falling short last season, acquired talented pitcher Erik Bedard to join Felix Hernandez in the rotation. The two clubs met 19 times last season, with the Angels taking the series 13-6. 

Their meeting in Anaheim next weekend comes on the heels of a three game set in Seattle this weekend. The first two games went to Seattle, with Raul Ibanez mashing Angels pitching.  Ibanez had a pair of home runs and a double, drove in three runs and scored another three in Friday night’s win against Jered Weaver.  On Saturday, he homered again, tripled, drove in another three runs and scored a pair off starter Jon Garland. Sunday’s final game features Joe Saunders for the Angels and Erik Bedard on the mound for Seattle, two pitchers scheduled for the opener next week as well.

The pitchers scheduled for next weekend’s games are; Saunders, Ervin Santana, and Dustin Moseley for the Angels, up against Bedard, Jarrod Washburn, and Miguel Batista for the Seattle Mariners.  Vladimir Guerrero is the Angels batter who did the most damage against the Mariners last season, with six home runs and 20 RBI in 18 games. While the spotlighted hitter for the Mariners is Adrian Beltre, who batted .295 with 13 RBI and 4 stolen bases against the Angels last season.