ESPN Announces Opening Day Broadcast Schedule

Opening Day is less than two months away now and ESPN announced their broadcast schedule.

First up is the pre-Opening Sunday Night Game on 30 March at 6pm. The Washington Nationals debut their new stadium in the SE part of the District when they host the Atlanta Braves. On the regular opening day, Monday 31 March, there are five games scheduled for broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2:

Toronto BlueJays @ New York Yankees, 11am ESPN

Milwaukee Brewers @ Chicago Cubs, noon ESPN2

San Francisco Giants @ Los Angeles Dodgers, 2pm ESPN

Anaheim Angels @ Minnesota Twins, 5pm ESPN2

Houston Astros @ San Diego Padres, 8pm ESPN2

ESPN will televise games on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays through the season, but the Monday broadcasts will end before Labor Day and telecasts will then be on the final four Fridays in September

A great new addition to the broadcasting schedule is the addition of TBS as a national telecaster starting this 2008 season. TBS will televise a national Sunday afternoon game of the week starting on Sunday 6 April. There will be a primary national game and an alternate game broadcast into markets where a blackout is necessitated. TBS will also have a slate of national games on the three summer national holiday Mondays: Memorial, Independence, and Labor Days, with two late morning/afternoon games before ESPN takes over with their Monday Night baseball telecast.

And FOX will telecast one of up to four games regionally on all 26 Saturdays with first pitch at 3:55 ET (1:55 MT).

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Baseball's Worst Position Players

Its going to be a long season in San Francisco with three of their four infielders making this list. Hopefully SF managment sees the light and starts playing some promising kids in the infield. Its very unfortunate to see Omar Vizquel here as he has been a standout shortstop for many years. He probably should have retired but he keeps going on to get closer to 3000 hits as he sits at 2598 at the start of '08. Aurillia and Durham are thorough has-beens for a couple of seasons already. Kendall has been washed up since before he left Pittsburgh, and the A's are elated to be rid of him; Millar was a one-time standout for Boston but he has gone into the tank with the Orioles (Richie Sexson of the Mariners is also worthy of being on this list for 1B); and the outfield trio of Pierre, Kotsay, and Teahen are known for their defensive and offensive shortcomings, though Teahen is still young at 26 and could turn it around. Kotsay is another ex-Athletic thankfully shipped out of Oakland to Atlanta, but with improved health, he could revive his career; and Pierre has disappointed and underachieved everywhere he has been as his throwing arm is worse than mine and his batting is enemic. Johnny Damon probably should be on the list in place of Teahen.

Too bad pitchers are not part of this list, but if they were, those starters that could be included would be Woody Williams, Kip Wells, Bronson Arroyo, Javier Vasquez, John Danks, Daniel Cabrera, Jose Contreras, Jarrod Washburn, and Edwin Jackson. Relievers would include Brad Lidge, Todd Jones, and Chad Cordero.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7737168/Position-by-position-look-at-MLB

The list of the best positional players is also out and there can be little debate on whom was chosen for that recognition.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7673598/A-position-by-position-look-at-MLB's-best

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