Now that Opening Day is over, we can breath easy and look forward to the 2008 season. Now that the season is underway, some story-lines are starting to unfold. With that in mind, here are ten things I learned from watching Opening Day for the 2008 season.

10. This Opening Day seemed to be missing something or someone. I just can’t figure out who…

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With the MLB Opening Day upon us, I’m looking to expand Baseball Mastermind. First and foremost, I’m looking for some knowledgeable baseball fans who will join me as a part of the Baseball Mastermind Team, contributing to the site on a regular basis. I’m looking for the die-hard fan. I’m looking for the opinionated, blow-hard pundit. I’m looking for the future journalist, the future Vin Scully, the future general manager. I’m looking for the casual fan. I’m looking for the exacting sabermetrician. I’m looking for players, coaches, scouts. I’m looking for college baseball fans, prep baseball fans. I’m looking for serious people. You have something to say? You think you’re a mastermind? Let’s find out. Andy Botros, my main man and the hilarious blogger responsible for Gutty Little Bruins has worked tirelessly to add a multi-user program to Baseball Mastermind where readers will be able to sign up for accounts of their own with blogs that look like the Baseball Mastermind homepage and will get a domain yourusername.baseballmastermind.com. Pretty sweet huh? Feel free to post opinions, questions or articles of your own.

Since starting this site in November, I’ve been very pleased with the growing popularity of the site. If you’re serious and you like what you see on the site, I’m looking for people who can make this site better, take it to the next level.

Join the Baseball Mastermind team today.

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2:15 pm PST: So here we are. Opening Day. Obscure Sports Quarterly came up with a sonnet to commemorate. No games for about eight hours. I’ve heard Chien-Ming Wang is working on a change-up. If he can combine that pitch with his power-sinker that would bode well for his strikeouts this season. Roy Halladay is no longer one of the game’s most feared pitcher as he was in 2002-03 but he’s still a monster and the Blue Jays have put together some kind of infield defense.

If you have MLB.tv - a great investment and a great way to waste time at work - watch Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks against Aaron Harang and the Reds at 11:10 AM PST. That said, Joey Votto will be on the bench while Scott “Takes Strike One” Hatteberg will be starting. Dusty Baker, are you really that dumb???

11:11 am PST: The internet was bad where I was at in the morning, so I bailed. This live-blogging thing isn’t going as well as I would have liked. I will be live-blogging during the games starting at 1:00pm. Johan Santana vs. Mark Hendrickson? Talk about a mismatch.

Why is Brandon Inge playing center field? Couldn’t Jim Leyland give Jacque Jones a crack at it first?

11:42 am PST: Miguel Cabrera goes deep for what will be the first of many bombs this season. The extension he gets and how he can square-up on just about any pitch is what makes him so good.

People really love making fun of fat people, I guess because ESPN has mentioned Cabrera’s weight about 1,200 times since I’ve sat down.

11:49 am PST: Justin Verlander grooves one to Alex Gordon on a 3-1 count and he just mashes it. How good is Alex Gordon? I honestly don’t know. Last season, he was the consensus #1 prospect but his stock took a bit of a hit in 2007 after a rough rookie season. Is he better than Evan Longoria? I honestly don’t know, but I have to think no. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong and re-establish himself as one of the best young players in the game.

12:26 pm PST: Kosuke Fukudome debuts in the United States with a double on a 0-0 fastball off Ben Sheets. I love it.

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Okay, so the games in Japan were the MLB’s first opening day - gotta expand our horizons. Daisuke Matsuzaka looked nervous but also like every pitcher in the first few weeks of the season - not ready - in front of the Japanese crowd but his performance looked a lot worse than it really was. Then there was the second opening day, Sunday night, when the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals squared-off in the new Nationals Park, of the $611 million variety. Ryan Zimmerman broke the new ballpark in nicely. He’s going to have a great year. But today, is Opening Day. Baseball on all day, it’s a beautiful thing. I’ll be live-blogging throughout the day, as much as I can so keep an eye out for that.

Here are the games to watch today on ESPN and ESPN2:

ESPN @ 10:05 AM: Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees - Roy Halladay vs. Chien-Ming Wang
ESPN2 @ 11:20 AM: Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs - Ben Sheets vs. Carlos Zambrano
ESPN2 @ 7:05 PM: Houston Astros at San Diego Padres - Roy Oswalt vs. Jake Peavy

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Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci makes his pre-season picks. Not bad. He jumps on the Detroit Tigers band-wagon, I stick by my Cleveland pick. He also picks the Colorado Rockies over the Los Angeles Dodgers or Arizona Diamondbacks, which I find questionable.

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Larry Brown makes his pre-season picks. (Larry Brown Sports)

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True Blue LA gets a facelift.

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Ben Howland pretty much is the man. We’re going to win it all. (Gutty Little Bruins)

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And I saved the worst for last. I published my Top-30 Franchise Players in three parts this past week as a copy of Nate Silver’s annual column. Well, it seems ESPN’s Rob Nayer has published his Top-50 list. He doesn’t specify his criteria except for the fact that he projects a five-year window rather than a six-year window. That shouldn’t affect the ranking at all.

To be honest - and I really admire Rob Nayer’s work - this is a pretty awful list. The top fifteen are a matter of opinion and I’m not going to question his picks but he has Jimmy Rollins as #16. Rollins has a career .331 on-base percentage, so that kept him off my list. He has Jhonny Peralta at #21, above Jake Peavy. I’m not buying it. He ranks Dustin Pedroia #24, but ranks Prince Fielder #40 and Justin Upton #43. Was he on drugs? He has Melky Cabrera (#46) listed above Matt Kemp (#49). I like Melky as much as the next guy but he barely projets for 20 homeruns, much less anything more than that. He finishes the list with Asdrubal Cabrera. Again, I like Asdrubal but if I’m drafting a team, would I really pick Asdrubal in the second round?

I’m really not trying to pick apart Nayer’s list, although that’s exactly what I am doing. I just don’t see it. I’ll wait for Silver’s list to come out.

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10. Chase Utley, 29-34, 2B-L. Chase Utley has established himself as the MLB’s best second baseman and it isn’t even close. Last season, while missing a month with a broken hand, Utley still managed to hit .332/.410/.566 with 22 home runs in 530 AB. Chase Utley is the only second baseman in all of baseball whose offense could play at any other position and he was the best defensive second baseman in the National League in 2007 (second in baseball) according to defensive zone rating at .874, which makes him that much more valuable than his peers. At age 29, his power may begin to decline in his early thirties but for the time being, Utley is a two-way player who is heads and shoulders above the rest of the second basemen in baseball.

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Today, I will continue with my Top-30 Franchise Players list covering #20-11. Tomorrow, the Top 10.

20. Brandon Webb, 29-34, RHP. Brandon Webb has demonstrated the effectiveness of combining a power sinker with a plus curve ball and has established himself as one of the most effective and efficient starters in the league with a career 7.27 K/9 and a 64% ground ball percentage in five seasons. Webb has improved in innings pitched, strikeouts and ERA each of the last four seasons, including a career high 236.1 innings, 194 strikeouts and 3.01 ERA despite pitching in the Arizona heat in 2007. As long as Webb continues to remain healthy, he will be one of the most effective starters in baseball and should age well on the strength of his sinker which may be the best in the game.

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Every year, Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus publishes a list he calls his top-50 MVP’s. The criteria is this: if all players in Major League Baseball were granted free agency today and a draft were held of all players, who would be drafted. The criteria calls for a six-year window because MLB rules state that a player who plays in the major leagues has six club-controlled seasons before they are granted free agency again.

I’ve always been a big fan of the article so I’m going to borrow the idea and give my top 30, the first round of a draft.  In determining this list, I’ve consulted Baseball Prospectus’s WARP, which combines a position player’s offensive and defensive contribution and PECOTA, BP’s projection system.  Also, I’ve looked at ESPN’s defensive zone rating, which I feel is a better defensive metric than the FRAA that BP uses.  I don’t view any of those systems as law, but as references.  The biggest factors I consider are a player’s age over the next six seasons, their established performance, their ceiling and likelihood of reaching that ceiling.  If a player has upper echelon offensive or defensive ability, that may outweigh shortcomings in other areas (ex. Miguel Cabrera, Troy Tulowitzki).

Honorable Mention: Jeremy Bonderman, Jeff Francoeur, Alex Gordon, Matt Holliday, Evan Longoria, Russell Martin, Brian McCann and Justin Verlander.

There are some concerns about these guys that kept them out of the first round. Of all the guys who missed the cut, Evan Longoria has the best chance and may vault his way into the top 20-25 by the end of the season. Russell Martin and Brian McCann would probably be around #31-35. Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander are close to cracking the list as well.

Thanks to Andrew of True Blue LA and Brian Amaya for helping to compile the list.

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The Minnesota Twins have agreed to terms with closer Joe Nathan on a four-year $47 million contract extension that includes a $12.5 million team option for 2012 with incentives on games finished over the life of the contract to bring the price of his option up to $14 million. Nathan, 33, is coming off another great year in 2007 as the Twins’ closer where he pitched 71.2 innings with a 1.88 ERA, striking out 77 and walking 19, closing 37 games.

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The 2008 Major League Baseball Season is set to kick off tonight in Japan as the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics are set to square off at 3 am PST. I’ll be up watching the game. I really, really do not understand how the scheduling go so badly screwed up that the Red Sox will play games that count, fly back to the states and play more Spring Training games against the Dodgers. Someone screwed up.

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I was lucky enough to spend this past weekend in Las Vegas, thus the low posting for the weekend. My UCLA Bruins pulled through yet again.

Last season, MLB Futures betting activity was pretty inefficient and as a result, I was able to place two $20 bets on the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series, at 60/1 and 25/1 respectively. I did not win either bet, but I was pretty close (two of the final four teams standing) to a nice pay-out. This season, all inefficiencies seem to have sorted themselves out prior to the season starting and I was unable to find any great bets on Futures. I almost bet Milwaukee Brewers at 15/1, but even then, they’re not that great of a team. Even the Los Angeles Dodgers who opened at 25/1 were now no better than 10/1. Yes, those are better than 8/1, but I’m not crazy about either.

There were still a few areas where inefficiency did exist however and that was in the over/under betting on regular season wins. For one, I was able to bet that the Tampa Bay Rays would win more than 74.5 games, that the San Diego Padres would win less than 85 games and the Seattle Mariners would win less than 84 games. I felt these were the only major inefficiencies this season. In the case of the Rays, I’ll enjoy rooting for them in their search for their first .500 season. The Mariners were vastly overrated last season as their run scored/allowed differential was not as good as their record indicated and with the San Diego Padres, they are losing some key players in Mike Cameron and Milton Bradley and they are replacing them with significantly worse players. In all cases, the payoff is nowhere near last season’s.

If you really want to gamble, the Cincinnati Reds are still listed at 50/1. That might be the biggest opportunity for big money, but I don’t see it happening.

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Evan Longoria gets optioned to AAA. This is probably a wise move. Longoria is ready, but if they keep him in AAA for just one month, they will be able to have another year on him before he becomes a free agent.

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I’ve got something cooking for you all this week. Every year, Baseball Prospectus’s Nate Silver comes up with a list he calls his Top-50 MVPs, where he imagines a scenario where the entire MLB were disbanded and all players were made free agents. If there were a draft with all of the players in baseball available, where each team could control a players’ rights for the next six seasons (the same as the MLB), how might those players go. The article is always a personal favorite of mine from year to year and I will be coming up with a top-30 list, covering the first round of such a draft.

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Play ball.

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It is being reported that the Detroit Tigers have come to terms with recently acquired third baseman Miguel Cabrera on a contract extension that is believed to keep the slugger with the Tigers for the next eight years and worth $153 million, or $19 million per season. The deal has yet to be announced by the Tigers and a number of players within the organization, including Miguel Cabrera, have