USA TODAY International Edition
MLB fans should enjoy wacky start
Baseball is incredible.
Where else can you find a two- way star like Shohei Ohtani, who leads the American League in home runs and also started and won a game Monday in which he drove in or scored a majority of the Angels’ runs?
Baseball is terrible.
Why bother with a sport whose hitters have collectively produced a .232 batting average, which would rank as the worst ever and mark the third time in four years that number has dropped? Baseball is incredible.
We have never seen such precision from a starting pitcher like Corbin Burnes, who has started the season by striking out 49 batters and walking nobody, his adjusted ERA an otherworldly 265, his Fielding Independent Pitching a near- invisible 0.51. Baseball is terrible.
We’re not yet to May 1 and already we’ve seen 14 position players pitch, a record pace for a once
whimsical rarity that’s now a far too common statement on the overall dearth of acceptable pitching around the major leagues.
Baseball is incredible.
Jacob deGrom is the game’s best pitcher and, amazingly, is getting better, striking out a career- high 15 in his last start, sporting a 0.31 ERA with 50 strikeouts, breaking Shane Bieber’s days- old mark ( shared with Nolan Ryan) of 48 punchouts through four starts. Baseball is terrible. Strikeouts now comprise 25% of all plate appearances, and 2021 almost assuredly will mark the 25th consecutive season the strikeout rate has risen and the fourth consecutive year there will be more strikeouts than hits. Baseball is incredible.
Never has a player started his MLB career like Fernando Tatis Jr., who, despite an injured list stint, is on track for 47 homers and 27 steals, is a five- tool talent and is the perfect bellwether for the next generation of stars. Baseball is terrible.
Never has there been less action in the game, with a record 37% of plate appearances ending in one of three “true outcomes” – homer, strikeout, walk – and the average time of a nine- inning game still a record 3 hours, 7 minutes despite a three- batter minimum rule for relief pitchers.
So. About this first month: It is a small sample size, of course.
Greatness and mediocrity don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
And it could very well be that the game is in this strange transitional stage – perhaps you’ve heard the home office is pondering significant changes to shake out of it – where one group of players, the pitchers, exhibits too much control.
Heck, just a few moments after the more casual fan knew Burnes’ name, he was dealt his first loss by yet another relative unknown.
Next flamethrower up.
“It’s as hard as ever to score runs,” says Craig Counsell, manager of the National League Central first- place Brewers and the guy fortunate enough to trot Burnes out there every fifth day. “And as much as anything, it’s about velocity – the velocity of the game just continues. The Marlins pitcher yesterday was really darn good – he was throwing 97 mph in the sixth inning last night. A starter, throwing 97 in the sixth inning, and we don’t even talk about that, almost.
“You just don’t see that but it feels like it’s becoming – from a player who isn’t necessarily a household name – a statement about where pitching’s at in the game, where a guy like Trevor Rogers, a really darn good young pitcher, is doing special things with big velocity.
“There’s velocity all over the game. And it’s made hitting very difficult.”
Both should normalize – we think – but also, it may just be one of those haywire years, an unprecedented 162- game slog coming off a 60- game, pandemic-shortened season.
So, enjoy 2021, in all of its guts and glory. Never has a year looked so different based on the eye of the beholder.