Godzilla Invades Phoenix

The Oakland A’s welcomed Hideki Matsui and his Japanese media entourage to Phoenix today for Spring Training. I must say the Matsui-mania is getting me even extra hyped about the season. This guy is a winner, and its good to see him fitting in with the club right off the bat like this. Let’s not forget Matsui – when so many others didn’t – wanted to be in Oakland. Susan Slusser with the San Francisco Chronicle was able to snap Dallas Braden and Gozilla before Matsui’s arrival, though it can’t be seen this pic, they made sure he was wearing his white cleats!

Matsui really was all the big news in Phoenix today, his father Masao who also held a press conference, said his son would hit .300 with 30 home runs and 100 driven in and also added that he expected him to get one stolen base. All the projections I have seen are a bit more conservative: Bill James expects a .268, 21 home run, 69 RBI campaign (with no swipes), Marcel sees Matsui posting a .266 average with 19 dingers and 56 RBI albeit with one stolen base.

In other news, Slusser tweeted that Geren thinks Josh Donaldson could break with the big league club this spring, which is great news and currently it looks as if Trevor Cahill will get the opening nod for the start of Spring Training. Does this mean that he could be our opening day starter once the regular season begins?