Opening Day Preview - Kind Of

Baseball is finally back tomorrow. Sort of. The 2020 season will be simulated in its entirety, overseen by the folks at Strat-O-Matic (SOM). And we here at Somewhat Phanatical will be here to cover the action for you.

SOM polled fans about Opening Day pitchers, and it looks like Phillies ace Aaron Nola will be facing 24-year-old Marlins righthander Sandy Alcantara. The Phils have had trouble with Alcantara in the past-he's 3-1 with a 2.81 ERA in four career starts. But most of that success came in 2018, when he pitched seven innings of three-hit shutout ball against the Phils.

In 2019, Alcantara pitched 18.2 innings against the Phils, giving up 27 hits and nine walks while striking out 17. The Phils had plenty of baserunners against him, but couldn't bring enough of them around to score.

Nola has pitched well against the Marlins in his career, but only has a 3-6 record to show for it over 13 starts and 82.2 innings. He's allowed just 72 hits and 18 walks against the Fish and has a career ERA of 3.28.

It'll be interesting to see if SOM deems Andrew McCutchen healthy enough to play on Opening Day. But baseball is back, kind of, and we'll be here to let you know how it goes.