THREE UP, THREE DOWN
Three up
Babe watch: Shohei Ohtani starts Sunday for the Angels, in search of his second major league victory, four days after he hit his second major league home run. The Babe Ruth comparisons dutifully discuss how Ruth gave up pitching and became baseball’s most celebrated slugger, but what often is lost is how successful he had been on the mound. His career earned-run average was 2.28 in the regular season, 0.87 in the World Series. He had 94 victories, more than many long-playing pitchers, including Jim Abbott, Jose Lima, Blue Moon Odom and Oil Can Boyd. The 32/100 club: Charlie Blackmon took the money and ran. The Colorado Rockies signed their All-Star center fielder to an extension that guarantees him $108 million over six years. He’ll turn 32 this summer, and he could have been a free agent this fall. The only player so old to sign for at least $100 million within the last six years: pitcher Zack Greinke. As teams shy away from paying players for past performance, and with his performance heavily skewed by Coors Field, Blackmon almost certainly would not have gotten so rich an offer in free agency. The reaction to this deal was so heavily tilted in favor of Blackmon that you had to wonder what’s in it for the Rockies. A better chance to win, and to keep franchise player Nolan Arenado away from free agency, or so they hope. Money player: Bryce Harper is 25, so he’ll get the big bucks in free agency this fall, perhaps topping Giancarlo Stanton’s record $325-million contract. The most popular parlor game in baseball this season might be speculating where Harper signs. The Washington Nationals outfielder isn’t talking about that, so Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski had some fun with it. When Harper batted in Atlanta this week, Kaminski played “Go Cubs Go” and “New York, New York.” He also played “Imperial March,” the Star Wars song better known as Darth Vader’s theme. Harper hit four home runs in the season’s first week, including two in three games in Atlanta.
Three down
Kapler disaster: The Dodgers selected Dave Roberts over Gabe Kapler as their manager two years ago. The Philadelphia Phillies hired Kapler in the offseason, and fans turned on him so quickly that they booed him at the home opener. In the season opener at Atlanta, he pulled his starting pitcher at 68 pitches, with a five-run lead. In the third game, he enraged umpires by calling for a reliever who had not warmed up, and he had to use an infielder on the mound because he ran out of pitchers. The Phillies lost both games. Outfielder Nick Williams said he was not in a lineup because “I guess the computers are making it.” Yankee daze: Stanton led the major leagues with 59 home runs for the Miami Marlins last year, and hit two for the New York Yankees on opening day. Then the Yankees hit New York, and the same fans that were so delirious when the team acquired him welcomed him to the Bronx by booing him when he struck out five times in the home opener. The game was not lost, though, as shortstop Didi Gregorius hit two home runs and drove in eight runs. When the Yankees traded for Stanton, Gregorius tweeted: “am i still batting 4th ???” In four of the Yankees’ first five games, he was. Fighting words: The Oakland Coliseum was barely half full on opening day, and San Jose Mercury News columnist Dieter Kurtenbach wrote that “the depressed … turnout is the natural byproduct of years of the franchise and its fans’ toxic relationship.” Athletics President Dave Kaval called the column “Fake News” on Twitter, confusing reasonable opinion with factual error. “Ask our actual fans,” Kaval wrote. Then the A’s sold 7,416 tickets to their fourth game, their lowest crowd in 15 years. The A’s have promised a new ballpark at least that long, they have finished in last place three years running and their latest stadium plan blew up in December. Kaval has done a nice job putting lipstick on the Coliseum, but an actual groundbreaking would be more useful than an ill-conceived tweet.