FOR OPENERS...
Just a few observations with season underway
One week for sure does not a season make. Nevertheless, even from a smidgen sampling of early April baseball, we have already been able to make some definitive determinations about a lot of teams.
With one swift “no mas” with Brett Cecil , Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons made the declarative statement that he will live or die with his precocious rookies this year. With one gigantic 22-1 three-game pratfall in Detroit, the seemingly eternally pitching-challenged Minnesota Twins established the fact that they are again going to stink this year. With yet another trade of a cornerstone player for a questionable return, the Atlanta Braves have shown their true intentions for gutting their team. Looking mutually lackluster in 0-3 starts, the Marlins and White Sox spent too much time over the winter believing their own press clippings about being instantly transformed from fourth-place losers into legitimate World Series contenders.
ALL IN WITH THE KIDS
Not that he really had much choice after No. 1 starter Marcus Stroman blew out his knee in the spring and turned the pitching staff into chaos, but Gibbons made it official two days into the season: Miguel Castro a nd Roberto Osuna , his two 20-yearold righties, neither of whom has pitched above Single-A ball until now, will be closing out his games this year. It was originally believed Cecil, the Jays’ closer at the end of last season, would continue in that role if, for nothing else, his experience. But after summoning Cecil into an untenable bases-loaded, none-out situation in the eighth inning with the Jays leading the Yankees, 3-0, on Wednesday — and watching him blow the save and the game by issuing a wild pitch, hitting a batter and giving up an RBI base hit, Gibbons made the snap decision that the lefty simply didn’t have the right stuff or makeup to be his closer. The next night, Cecil struck out two as the eighthinning set-up man for Castro, who retired the Yanks in order in the ninth for his first majorleague save. As it is, the Jays are going with six rookies this season, all of them in prominent roles. It would, however, hardly be unprecedented for them to go all the way with so many firstyear players. The 2013 National League champion Cardinals had nine rookies on their World Series roster, including closer Trevor Rosenthal .
BRAVE NEW (CHEAPER) WORLD
When the Braves traded AllStar closer Craig Kimbrel to the Padres on the eve of the season, they could no longer continue their spin that all this gutting of the roster was about replenishing their farm system. Plain and simple, it was the only way they could get rid of Melvin (B.J.) Upton’s onerous contract and the $48.35 million remaining on it. As with almost all the previous trades made by GM John Hart since December, the principal return from San Diego was a highly rated pitching prospect — in this case righty Matt Wisler , who struggled at Triple-A last year. For Hart and Braves president John Schuerholz to justify all this salary dumping, most of the pitchers they got back — righty Mike Foltynewicz (from the Astros for Evan Gattis ) Max Fried (recovering from Tommy John surgery and acquired from the Padres for Justin Upton ), righty Arodys Vizcaino (suspended 80 games for a PED violation after being acquired from the Cubs for homegrown second baseman Tommy La Stella ), much injured righty Tyrell Jenkins (picked up from the Cardinals in the Jason Heyward deal) and even the greatly diminished Manny Banuelos (acquired from the Yankees for relievers David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve , who both opened the season in the Yank bullpen) — are going to have to have impact in the majors by 2016. Right now, all of them are as much suspects as prospects.
MARLINS AND WHITE SOX MOST IMPROVED — NOT?
In being swept by Fredi Gonzalez’s trade-depleted Braves in the first series of the season, and being outscored 16-3, the Marlins were exposed as having some potentially major flaws. Certainly “Mouthy Mat” Latos recording just two outs and getting bombed for seven runs in his Marlin debut was a damper to the hopes that he will have a comeback season as a more-than-adequate rotation fill-in until Jose Fernandez comes back in July. More than that, the Marlins have to realize now what a horrible catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia is and how much they need top prospect J.T. Realmuto to complete his Triple-A refining as soon as possible. Also exposed was the Marlin bench, where 40-year-old Ichiro Suzuki is the only pinchhitting option who commands any respect. Owner Jeffrey Loria and his baseball operations team have more work to do in finding at least another outfield bat with some power to replace weakhitting Don Kelly and help Giancarlo Stanton . As for the White Sox, in losing three more to the Royals (against whom they were 6-13 last year and have gone 28-49 since 2010), they were decidedly out-energized. Much of that had to do with leadoff man Adam Eaton going 1-for-12 in the series (in which the Royals stole six bases to the Chisox’s zero). They followed that up by being shut out in their home opener by the wretched Twins, and a second straight more-than subpar start by Jeff Samardzija Satruday , though they managed to pull out a 5-4 win, their first of the season . Manager Robin Ventura ’s seat may be getting warm.
STALE TWINKIES
It started with Ervin Santana , their latest free agent starting pitcher (four years/$55M), getting busted for 80 games two days before the start of the season for PED violations. Then, in their first series of the season the Twins were annihilated by the Tigers as the Detroit staff set an AL record with 24 consecutive shutout innings to start a season. In his managerial debut Paul Molitor had the dubious distinction of being the second skipper in history (after Fred Tenney of the 1905 Boston Beaneaters) to be outscored by 20 or more runs in his first three games.