Ball Four

The first full weekend of Major League Baseball is over and it was about as good as could have possibly been hoped. There has been a good mix of great pitching, great hitting and great defence and we have seen some genuinely great games and interesting series. In true baseball spirit I thought it would only be right to begin a clichéd weekly piece looking back at the previous week and finding the four things I found most interesting it will probably change, as with everything on here I’m still trying stuff and finding out what works so bear with me for the first couple of weeks as I work out the best way to do this. Anyway let the umpire send you down to first as we look at ball four:

1. 1. Two of the premier pitching prospects in baseball made their debuts on back-to-back days over the weekend and turned in consecutive gems as Kyle Drabek and Zach Britton both earned their first Major League win. Drabek pitched seven innings of 1 hit 1 run ball against the Twins on Saturday after he carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He maintained good velocity on his fastball between 89-94 mph and good control while issuing only three walks. Britton also only gave up one run while pitching six innings in an emergency start after Brian Matusz went down with a side strain. Britton gave up three hits and three walks while striking out six.

2. 2. It began on Opening Day and has continued through the rest of the weekend with close games in almost every series. On Opening Day itself all five games played were decided by three runs or less with the Reds providing the most dramatic with a walk-off win in the ninth inning courtesy of Ramon Hernandez’s three-run homer. The second day of the season on Friday saw six of the eleven games decided by three runs or less. This pattern continued for the remainder of the weekend proving the Major League Baseball is indeed very competitive even at this point of the year.

3. 3. It’s way too early to worry about records for some of the more fancied teams. Mainly two of the three big guns in the AL East in the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays are both 0-3 after being swept in their opening series’. The Red Sox were hammered down in Arlington by the Rangers thanks in large part because of some bad pitching while the Rays offense was shut down by the Baltimore Orioles in Tampa. The Milwaukee Brewers, many people’s pick to win the NL Central are also winless with a 0-4 record however 3 of those 4 games have been decided by two runs or fewer. The point is both teams have new additions and are still figuring out their new identities both teams will win lots of games, after all they still have 159 and 158 game left to play respectively. No time to reach for the red button.

4. 4. After the year of the pitcher in 2010 we have seen a power output of epic proportions with over 100 home runs being hit over the first five days of the season. Leading the way is the Texas Rangers with 13 and the New York Yankees with 11. The offensive output hasn’t however affected the quality of the games mainly due to their competitive nature. Expect to see the power reduce as teams adjust and pitchers get into the swing of pitching.

We are under a week into the season and already it feels like a lot has happened with a lot of young players producing and MVP calibre players living up to their billing. We’ve got six months of this to enjoy just think on that!