Lessons From A Young Season

Here’s a few things I’ve learned from the first workweek of the 2013 season:

• The Nationals will be good for a while. In the very first game of the season, Bryce Harper hit  two home runs and Stephen Strasburg went seven strong and retired 19 in a row at one point. For those of you who wonder why teams are so preoccupied with their draft picks, look no further than the nations’ capital. In a related note…..
• Bryce Harper makes adjustments. Last season, he hit one homer on the 177 breaking balls down and in he saw. This season, he hit two on the first two.
• The Yankees are in trouble. Lyle Overbay is the starting first basemen. Hiroki Kuroda was bad and may miss a start due to injury. CC Sabathia’s fastball was in the upper 80’s in his first start. They are currently 1-3 and that record is indicative of the number of good games they’ve played.
• Baseball is exciting. Those 16 awesome innings in Phoenix between the Dbacks and visiting Cardinals proved that.
• Chris Davis is a monster. When he’s hot, he’s hot. He’s currently got four HRs in four games and his 16 RBIs are the most in four games since they’ve kept the stat. OTBB picked Baltimore to finish in 4th in the AL East. If Davis keeps this up, they might not loose 10 games.
• Justin Maxwell plays centerfield. In a related note he’s not as good as you think. Even though he hit two triples on Opening night in addition to playing some great defense, he’s 29 years old and hit .229 last season. If he was going to figure it out, he would have already.
• Evan Gattis is a force. The guy hit a homer in his 2nd career AB while his dad was being interviewed on TV. He’s enormous and can hit a ball a country mile. Gattis is the Braves backup catcher but if he keeps swinging the bat this way, he’ll be starting before long.
• Dave Sappelt. Apparently he’s the Cubs leadoff hitter.
• Josh Reddick got challenged to a beard competition by a professional wrestler.
• Fantasy baseball is both the best and worst thing to ever happen to watching baseball. On the one hand, it encourages people to stay involved but on the other, it makes them obnoxious frontrunners who care more about whether some obscure eigth hitting second basemen plays than whether their favorite team wins.
• The Braves trivia questions are either too hard or their announcers are very dumb. I’m saying it’s both.
• Vin Scully is the best. You know what, nobody just learned this.
• This new interleague thing is great. Jared Weaver hitting on opening day? The Angels and Reds, two of baseball’s best teams that might ordinarily never see each other, starting the season? KC heading to Philly in the first week? Fans getting to see new players? Some quirky intrigue about who might play and what NL backup might DH every night? I’m in.
• Placido Polanco is the cleanup hitter for the Marlins. Haha.
• Matt Harvey is the real deal. I know it was the Padres but still.
• The Astros are in the American League. I guess I already knew this but it still takes some serious getting used to. I keep expecting the pitcher to hit every time I watch them.
• Yu Darvish has figured out the MLB. Yes, it was the Astros but I’m sorry, did you watch that game? Nobody was hitting was he was throwing that night.
• Mariano Rivera entering Yankee Stadium is something you have to feel to believe. I was lucky enough to be there when he made his first appearance of the season and it was electric. Enter Sandman playing, number 42 jogging in. It gives you goosebumps.
• And finally…. I’m really happy baseball is back.

-Max Frankel