Baseball Is Back, Baby

I watched 12 hours of baseball yesterday and it was glorious.

One game for each team—a few innings pitched or a few at-bats—is the smallest of small sample sizes. So I’m not going to draw any conclusions from what happened in yesterday’s games and you shouldn’t either. In fact, I’m not even going to recap the games. You’re smart. You know you can find the scores and highlights here. That’s true for Opening Day and every other day of the 2023 MLB season.

You read this newsletter for the witty takes, the smart analysis, and the compelling stories. Let’s get to it.

The best play of the year

The Angels’ right fielder Hunter Renfroe defied physics and logic with this no-look catch. Come September, I predict this will still be one of the best plays of the year. That’s how insanely good it is.

If not for Renfroe’s absurd catch, the Rangers’ Bubba Thompson would have had the best defensive play of the day with this catch robbing the Phillies Brandon Marsh of a home run. I love this stuff.

Stellar Opening Day pitching performances

First day of the season. The best starters on the mound for every team. Some aces were much better than others. The standouts were the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (6.0IP, 0R, 3H, 11K, 2 BB); the Rays’ Shane McClanahan (6.0IP, 4H, 0R, 6Ks, 1BB), the Cubs’ Marcus Stroman (6.0IP, 3H, 0R, 8K, 3 BB); the Mariners’ Luis Castillo (6.0IP, 0R, 1H, 6K, 0BB) and the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani (6.0IP, 0R, 2H, 10K, 3BB).

Cole did stuff like this.

And Ohtani did stuff like this.

But because Ohtani plays for the Angels, his teammates gave him only one run to work with and then the bullpen blew the lead to the Oakland A’s—expected to be one of the worst teams in baseball this season. That was so 2022, Angels. You’re supposed to be better than this in 2023.

The Giants’ Logan Webb stuck out 12 Yankees but gave up two home runs and lost to Cole. Webb’s performance is notable because the Yankees have players who can hit and the Giants—well, the jury is still out on that.

The White Sox’ Dylan Cease also recorded 10 strikeouts. All told, that’s four starting pitchers with 10+ strikeouts on Opening Day. The only other time that happened on Opening Day was in 1970. Historic stuff folks.

Other historic stuff? The Reds’ Hunter Greene threw a gajillion pitches today over 100 mph. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. He threw a lot of pitches over 100 mph, including at least one pitch at 105.2 mph. Pure power stuff. When power pitchers meet power hitters, this is what happens.

Yes, the graphic in the corner says the exit velocity on Oneal Cruz’s home run was 111.1 mph. Sheesh.

Stellar Opening Day hitting performances

Adley Rutschman is the Orioles’ rookie catcher. Rutschman played in his first Opening Day, against the Red Sox at famed Fenway Park, and was ridiculous. Five hits in five at-bats, plus a walk. His first hit of the game was a home run off the Red Sox’ Corey Kluber on the 8th pitch of the game.

The Blue Jays’ George Springer also had 5 hits but struck out once, so his batting average this season is only .833, while Rutschman is sitting there at 1.000. Come on George, get it together. Springer’s teammate Bo Bichette had 4 hits of his own. The Blue Jays needed every bit of that offense, as they held on to beat the Cardinals 10-9 in an incredible see-saw battle. The best game of the day for pure baseball excitement.

C.J. Cron plays for the Colorado Rockies, so unless you’re a Rockies fan or are related to Cron, you may not even know such a ballplayer exists. Well, pay attention, because Cron hit two home runs on Thursday against the Padres at Petco Park—not exactly the most home run-friendly ballpark in the majors. Cron leads the majors in homers now. Watch out Aaron Judge.

Surprisingly poor Opening Day performances

Over the winter, Jacob deGrom signed a ginormous free agent deal with the Texas Rangers. Which, good for deGrom to extract that kind of coin from the Rangers. But deGrom will turn 35 in June and has battled injuries his entire career. His Opening Day start does not inspire confidence. In 3.2 innings, he gave up 6 hits—all for extra bases, and left the game down 5-0.

Lucky for deGrom, the Rangers pounded Phillies ace Aaron Nola and half the Phillies’ bullpen in the bottom of the 4th inning for 9 runs.

Blue Jays’ starter Alek Manoah was a pre-season favorite to win the American League Cy Young Award but looked underwhelming against the Cardinals, giving up 5 runs on 9 hits in 3.1 innings.

Some things never change

The Dodgers and the Braves won easily and already look like the two best teams in the National League. The Padres—this is supposed to be their year!—looked lifeless and overmatched by the Rockies. And the game wasn’t even at Coors Field.

Were the games quicker?

MLB implemented a bunch of new rules for this season with the goal of speeding up the game. (I analyzed how the rules could affect play here and here).

On day one of the new rules, they appear to be working. The average game time for all 15 games was 2 hours and 45 minutes, 30+ minutes shorter than Opening Day 2022. The quickest game took only 2 hours and 14 minutes (the Rays’ 4-0 win over the Tigers). The longest game was 3 hours and 38 minutes (the Blue Jays’ 10-9 win over the Cardinals).

Really important stuff

In all of the Opening Day hoopla, a reporter who covers the Rockies tweeted this:

Professional athletes face immense pressure to perform well at the highest level. Too often, they’re told to “buck up” and not let off-field issues affect their on-field performance. If you suffer from anxiety, that is much easier said than done. I know a little something about this because I have general anxiety disorder and 15 years ago, I suffered debilitating panic attacks that made it impossible for me to do my job.

Kudos to Daniel Bard for dealing with his anxiety openly and honestly. We’re pulling for him to get well and pitch this season, if that’s what he chooses to do.