Baseball Beat: Thursday, April 5th

Here is the rundown for the Thursday, April 5th edition of Baseball Beat. Chuck Wilson was in for Charley Steiner, who was traveling with the Los Angeles Dodgers to San Francisco today.

1:05 p.m.
Guest: Dayn Perry, FoxSports.com
1:25 p.m.
Guest: Lyle Spencer, MLB.com (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim)
1:45 p.m.
Guest: Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post (Washington Nationals Beat)
2:05 p.m.
Guest: Maury Brown, BizofBaseball.com
2:25 p.m.
Guest: Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2:45 p.m.
Guest: Jim Baumbach, Newsday (New York Yankees Beat)

Guest Summaries:
Perry discussed the fast and slow starts of various teams, Dice-K’s debut today, and Barry Bonds chances of breaking the HR record, as well as debating if race is an issue in the negative stance towards Bonds. Spencer discussed Gary Matthews Jr.’s fast start out of the gate and how it has done wonders to silence the criticism of the past few months. Svrluga talked about the Nats comeback win yesterday, giving Manny Acta his first win as Nationals manager. Brown discussed the MLB/iN DEMAND agreement to carry the MLB EXTRA INNINGS package on cable and how the owners will make a lot of money through this deal. Smizik discussed the Pirates winning their first games of the season and how they look a lot better than many predicted. Baumbach talked about the blazing start of the Mets, both in starting pitching and at the plate. He also touched on the Yankees and the leg injury of Johnny Damon.