Welcome to the newest addition to our baseball coverage here at RealGM with our new daily notebook. The Baseball Notebook will examine player and team trends as well as take a more in-depth look at the games. This is interactive, so feel free to email your opinions or questions to [email protected], and your thoughts may just appear in this space. April 1 New York Mets? left-handed pitcher Johan Santana was very good in his Mets' debut at the Florida Marlins on Monday. He went seven innings while only giving up three hits on two runs, both of which came on a fourth inning home run by outfielder Josh Willingham. Santana retired his first nine hitters and threw 68% of his pitches for strikes. San Diego Padres? ace Jake Peavy might have been even better as the Padres won their home opener over Houston Astros 4-0. Peavy went seven shutout innings and gave up only three hits. The Astros have a solid line-up, and Peavy held Miguel Tejada, Carlos Lee, and Lance Berkman to 2-10 with a strikeout. Chicago Cubs' outfielder Kosuke Fukudome had a great debut in the states, going 3-3 with a game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth. He added a walk to his day and never had a swing and a miss against Milwaukee. In fact, his double in the first inning and single in the seventh were first pitch hits to centerfield. On the negative side, he struggled on the base paths by getting picked-off at second base and caught trying to steal third. The new and improved Detroit Tigers' offense was tamed by Kansas City Royals? ace Gil Meche. They scored four runs and had six walks while having eight total batters which took the count to three balls. However, the 11 strikeouts are alarming because it shouldn?t happen for a line-up with so many professional hitters. March 31 We only had one game on Sunday, but it was a good one as the Washington Nationals opened up their new ballpark with a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves, thanks to a walk-off home run by third baseman Ryan Zimmerman in the ninth inning. Braves? starter Tim Hudson had a tough first inning but left the game after seven innings having retired his last 19 batters. Twelve of his 21 outs were ground balls. Nationals? first baseman Nick Johnson had a nice season debut after missing all of 2007 with a broken leg. He had an RBI double in the first inning and had a few good cuts against Hudson. With Johnson and Dmitri Young, the Nationals have a good one-two punch at first base. Finally, we will leave you with three games to watch on the ?real opening day.? The Toronto Blue Jays open at the New York Yankees as both teams have something to prove in 2008. In Los Angeles, the Dodgers start the Joe Torre era by hosting the rival San Francisco Giants with Barry Zito taking on Brad Penny. As the night wears down, check out the Houston Astros at the San Diego Padres with Roy Oswalt going up against Jake Peavy.