Emilio Bonifacio drew attention from fantasy owners with his 4-for-4 opening day performance with the Florida Marlins. (AtHomePlate's Tony Meale offered his fantasy advice on Bonifacio here.)

Through the season's first nine games, Bonifacio is hitting .386/.400/.523 with four stolen bases. Please pardon the drool from fantasy owners.

But is Bonifacio's torrid start going to continue? Chico Harlan of the Washington Post:

Now Bonifacio. Sure, he tore up the Nats in the opening series this year. He looked like a video game version of Lou Brock. But those I talked to about Bonifacio were unimpressed, and felt certain he'd regress -- quickly -- into the light-hitting player Washington saw in 2008. There is no doubt that, during spurts, Bonifacio can take over a game with speed like few others. Remember that week from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7 last year? Bonifacio came in, batted .375, slugged .594. He had five multi-hit games in a span of six.

But after that? Bonifacio's average fell like a barrel going over Niagara. Very quickly, the league saw his weakness. As a right-hander, he steps away from the plate -- "into the bucket," as they say -- making him susceptible to outside pitches. Give him something down the middle or inside, and Bonifacio can handle it. But place the ball away, and he's limited.

This year, those who've seen Bonifacio notice the same major flaw. He has not improved. Bonifacio's tear against the Nats was enabled by Washington's pitchers, who knew the scouting report, but missed time and time again when trying to locate pitches. They came inside, and Bonifacio, as a right-hander, made them pay.

Bonifacio had multi-hit games in each of the first five games this year. Since, he's gone 3-for-20. That's not to discount him as a weapon -- any time he reaches base, he dictates every moment -- but just remember this: The player Washington traded away is still pretty much the same player, according to scouts.

Bonifacio appears to have an enormous spot for pitchers to exploit. And once they start doing that, Bonifacio will have to adjust. Can he? If he could, why wouldn't he have already done so?

Something interesting of note: Bonifacio's strikeout-to-walk ratio is 11-to-1 on the young season. We, of course, cannot base too much on nine games' worth of statistics. Bonifacio's minor league strikeout-to-walk ratio is about 2.5-to-1. While this isn't the end-all, be-all statistic, players who strike out much more often than they walk usually have a lower batting average. Because he doesn't draw many walks, how is Bonifacio going to be on base enough to rack up steals?

Put me in the same boat as Chico. Bonifacio will be returning to earth any day now. Fantasy owners: enjoy it while you can.

Josh Q. Public likes what he sees from Miguel Cabrera this early in the season:

Miguel Cabrera is starting something.  Hot starting something.  Yesterday, Miggy had three hits.  Yesterday, Miggy had two RBIs.  Big deal you say?  So what you say?  I’ll tell you so what.  I’ll tell you that lifts his season totals to seventeen hits.   I’ll tell you that lifts his season totals to twelve  RBIs.  I’ll also tell you the last Detroit Tigers player with such high totals in both categories through the team’s first nine games of a season was the aberration that was Chris Shelton.    

Chris Shelton may have had nineteen hits, fourteen RBIs and seven bombs over the Tigers’ first nine games in 2006, but Shelton hit only nine more homers in 106 subsequent games that season.  Shelton subsequently went into obscurity and is now toiling in the Seattle Mariners farm system.  Miguel Cabrera ain’t going nowhere.

I had Miguel Cabrera as my AL MVP pick. So far, it's looking like a smart choice.

Commissioner is talking on the Indians broadcast of the Yankees-Indians game. I'm too distracted to write down some of the things he is saying, but he kind of reminds me of an official from the People's Republic of China. You pretty much know what he is going to say in advance and you wonder if he actually believes what he is saying himself. "The Steroid Era is definitely over." LOL!

Update: I can't believe I'm switching over to the YES broadcast, but the game caller for Cleveland is even more annoying than Selig. Interestingly, the YES broadcast on MLB.TV is a few minutes behind.

Yankee Johnny Damon had the first hit in New Yankees Stadium, but the first run is scored by Indian Ben Francisco, right after Cody Ransom makes the fans forget about A-Rod for a second by cutting down Peralta at the plate after he made a good stop at third. Now the Yankees will have to come back against Cliff Lee if they want to inaugurate their new ballpark with a win.

Update: Jorge Posada hits the first home run in New Yankee Stadium and will now forever be mentioned together with Babe Ruth, who hit the first homer in the old stadium. The game is tied at 1-1 after five innings.

Update: The Indians score nine runs of the Yankees relievers, highlighted by the grand slam of the bat of Grady Sizemore, just after the men in the booth talked about how he has struggled against the Yankees in his career. So I guess we can write down Cliff Lee's name as the answer to the trivia question "Who won the first game in New Yankees Stadium?".

Orel from Sons of Steve Garvey has written down a transcript of Vin Scully telling a story about how he ice-skated with Jackie Robinson:

I actually raced Jackie Robinson on ice skates—I think I tell that once a year—but it is a little offbeat.

One and one the count to Fred Lewis....Fouled back.

We were assigned by the Dodgers to go up to the Catskill Mountains and have a little symposium, whatever, for the customers up there, and it was dead of winter, and I brought my ice skates.

And Jackie, along with Rachel—who was great with child—we met up in the mountains.

Two and two.

And Jackie looked at my ice skates and said, "I'll go skating with you." Okay. And Rachel said, "I'm going too." Well, I was scared to death for her.

So we went to the rink. I put on my skates. They were great racing skates with the long blade.

And strike three call, strikeout number seven.

Well anyway, we were putting on our skates. And if you've never been on ice skates, when you put them on and you stand up, all of a sudden you're on your ankles because you have no idea how to balance on the blades.

And here's Jackie standing on his ankles and he turned and said to me, "I'll bet you five bucks I can beat you."

And I said, "Jack, you're from Southern California. I mean, I didn't know you ice skated."

He said, "I've never been on skates in my life," and I said, "Well, that's pretty obvious."

But I said, "Why would you want to race me? I'm not a great skater but I know I can beat you."

"Oh," he said. "That's okay."

And then that look came over his face.

And he said, "That's how I'll learn."

His competitive drive was so great.

Yeah I won, sure, but I mean he was walking on the ice on his ankles. One of the great athletes of all time.

One and one the count to Molina....

You have to love how he mixed in game calling with story telling. Simply amazing!

Watching Troy Percival come in for the Rays, barely touching 90 mph with fastball and hardly displaying any control at all, I wonder how long Joe Maddon will stick with him in the closer role. He promptly gives up two doubles and one of the two outs he recorded has a hard liner right at the third baseman.

Of course, with Percy, an injury is always a possible explanation for his early struggles and nobody would be surprised if he hits the DL sooner than later.

The Rays lack a real household name in the pen who can be trusted to get it done and the bullpen may turn out to be the team's Achilles heel in the end.