Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox are starting the 2014 MLB season on Monday with an ESPN Opening Day game at U.S. Cellular Field and the streaming matchup from the WatchESPN website will have a live stream that starts at 4:10 pm ET and the pitching matchup has Chris Sale taking on Ricky Nolasco in this AL Central battle.
Paul Konerko is the elder statesman for the White Sox and he will break his streak of 15 opening day starts after starting on the bench and Sale will get the ball for the Sox, who are looking to get back to the playoffs after having a losing season last year. Konerko signed a one year deal to return to the team for Robin Ventura and they are looking to get back on track after losing 99 games last season and now they have some help, as they signed Cuban slugger Jose Abreu and they feel that the team is much stronger than last year.
The Twins come in looking to rebound as well and these were the two terrible teams in the AL Central last season, as the Tigers and Indians made it into the playoffs and now these two will look to dig out of their holes along with the Kansas City Royals, who are also in the playoff mix after finishing over .500 for the first time in a decade. The Twins shelled out some money for the first time in a couple years to get Phil Hughes and Ricky Nolasco and now the latter star, who signed for a nice contract, will get the Opening Day start for the team.
The Twins come into the game after going 29-47 last season and they had a very tough year and now they have Joe Mauer coming back after hitting over .320, but he now will be at first base and has given up full time catcher duties. The team starts off with Nolasco against Sale and then things get tough in the rotation, but the Twins have some young talent coming up and Brian Dozier comes in after leading the team in home runs and RBIs and they are hoping to get back to the days when Mauer was leading the team to division titles and playoff appearances and now last place finishes.
Last season Minnesota finished in the bottom half of the league in runs, batting average and slugging percentage and the pitching was one of the worst in the league and that's why they spent money on the rotation. The team was last in quality starts and opposing BA and they were 29th in the league in ERA overall, with over 4.50. The White Sox weren't much better and they were 29th in runs with less than 600 and they were 19th in batting, 27th in on base and 25th in slugging percentage. The pitching staff had a sub 4.00 ERA and they were 12th in quality starts with Sale leading the way, but there was not much past him and he will need support this season if the White Sox want to get back into the mix in the American League.
