The First Week of Baseball

Author: Zachary Patlin

Editor: Brian Symons

Baseball is finally back and well underway in this full 162 game schedule to play out deep into September. Some overlying themes or storylines from the first week of baseball are fun to look at as we continue through the long grind of the season. They include players, teams, and personnel.

The first storyline is Ohtani pitching and hitting at the same time. After coming back fully healthy from Tommy John’s surgery, Ohtani looks to pitch every Sunday, while at the same time hitting approximately 5 days a week, including the day that he pitches. What does he do after throwing 100 MPH in the first inning of his first start? Just hits an absolute laser at 115 MPH out to right. If he can sustain doing both hitting and pitching at a high level, he can be the most fun player to watch in baseball.

The second storyline comes from the same team, and that is the best player in the game Mike Trout. Trout, coming off of arguably his worst year as a pro (which isn’t saying much because he was still top 5 in AL MVP voting) looks to be locked in early in the season. He believes that his swing is back and I cannot wait to see the numbers he is going to put up this season.

Next, we stay in the same state as we move the San Diego Padres, which have two major storylines early in the season. The first of the two is the IL stint of Fernando Tatis JR. Tatis is the face of baseball, and after an awkward-looking swing went to the IL with a shoulder injury (He came back last night and hit a scorcher of a home run against the Dodgers). The second storyline from the Padres is of course the no-hitter thrown by Joe Musgrove. The native San Diego pitcher was stellar last Friday, hitting just one batsman and dominating with 10 punch-outs.

The last storyline is to not get carried away over the two New York teams. Firstly, the Yankees are flat out struggling but are so talented that they will be fine over the long haul. Although their starting pitching and pen look strong, their offense is non-existent thus far. They are primed to bounce back and dominate the rest of the season. Moving on to the Mets, they seem to have been the same old Mets we see every year. DeGrom threw 8 one-run innings and was awarded the loss to the Marlins. Their lack of run support for the best pitcher on the planet is concerning. But, after this deGrom outing, the Mets have turned it around, with great pitching and timely hitting the Mets are in first place in the NL East and have won 3 in a row.

Baseball has been so much fun to watch early on, with many storylines to follow as the season continues. Don’t get carried away over the results, or lack thereof, because it is just the opening stretch of a very long season. This looks to be a great upcoming season and I cannot wait to see how it plays out.

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE