Welcome to "MLB Corner," our bi-weekly (and sometimes more) look at the current season, complete with knee-jerk reactions and hot takes. Stay tuned throughout the season for more coverage.
Hot Starts
Every year there are players who get off to hot starts that carry teams early in the season; this year is no different for hot hitters. The opposite can also be stated for pitchers this year. For every Adrian Gonzalez there is Mat Latos, for Lorenzo Cain there is Derek Holland. Just a couple of examples from the season thus far but it will be interesting to see if the Marlins and Rangers season’s are over already. The Rangers have been bitten again by the injury bug in the starting rotation along with OF Shin-Soo Choo and really do look done, and it’s only the end of April.
The Mets are on a mini tear ripping off 8 straight wins to jump to the top of the NL East. There were rumblings at the beginning of the season that they could be a dark horse playoff team, some of that was lost when Zach Wheeler went down for the year, and recent injuries to David Wright and Travis d’Arnoud are the reasons why teams with fringe playoff talent need to get off to hot starts. Banking wins now, especially with heavy favorite Washington struggling and Miami appearing to try to get its manager fired is important for team morale as well as the fan base.
This year’s Charlie Blackmon watch:
Shane Greene was sent to Detroit in the off season and has pitched his way into the number 2 starter spot with Justin Verlander injured and Anibal Sanchez struggling. He’s only 3-0 and allowed one earned run in 23 innings; pretty good for a guy who was pegged as a #5 starter entering the year.
Honorable Mention: Chris Heston, Giants SP. Entered the season having started 1 career big league game, he’s 27. He’s sporting a .97 WHIP and an ERA of .087.
In the batters box DJ LeMahieu of, surprise Colorado! Is off to a hot start hitting .444 with a triple and a home run. Not bad for a guy who was thought of entering the year as a glove only middle infielder.
Honorable Mention: Luis Valbuena 3B Houston. He’s fit right in in Houston’s order as he has 5 homers and a .244 average. He became expendable in Chicago after last year as uber prospect Kris Bryant showed he’s ready; pretty good value for a cast off addition.
This week’s list: The top and bottom five teams right now.
Top 5:
- Detroit Tigers-Hitting and Shane Greene have carried them.
- New York Mets-8 in a row is nice but they must survive the injury bug.
- Kansas City Royals-Lorenzo Cain not Eric Hosmer looks like he took the next step to stardom.
- Los Angeles Dodgers-A Gon carrying a dinged up Puig.
- St. Louis Cardinals-Right where they want to be.
Bottom 5:
- Texas Rangers-one word, injuries.
- Philadelphia Phillies-1-6 on the road, pretty much par for the course this year.
- San Francisco Giants-a minus 25 run differential only says they should have paid Panda.
- Miami Marlins- Mat Latos looks like he’s hurt and trying to pitch through it, which might cost Mike Redmond his job.
- Milwaukee Brewers- No excuse for this poor of a start, the pitching has been awful and Lucroy just landed on DL.
