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All those offseason columns you read about what team had the best winter, all those projections you clicked on crossing your fingers that the Braves weren’t picked to finish last, all the articles stating that “the Cubs will/will not repeat and here’s why!”
All of those have been rendered moot. Meaningless. Thrown away.
Not because they aren’t fun to read or talk about, because, after all, we have to have something to be outraged about in the offseason, because obviously a certain sportswriter hates your team.
But all those articles mean nothing now, because the real games have started. The guessing games can be put to rest and we can let the actual season play itself out now.
Did you have the Baltimore Orioles pegged as the lone unbeaten team after a week’s worth of games? Or how about the Washington Nationals giving up a million runs -- OK, it was just 12 — to the Philadelphia Phillies in the first inning on Saturday? What about the Braves grounding into a ton of double plays with runners in scoring position? (Yeah, we’re not actually surprised with this one either.)
The headline “Chacin outduels Bumgarner in Padres win” seems insane and laughable, but it happened on Saturday. Jhoulys Chacin threw 6 2⁄3 shutout innings against the Giants to beat San Francisco.
*Author’s note: I openly ridiculed San Diego’s starting rotation earlier this week, one that includes Chacin, Clayton Richard, Trevor Cahill and Jered Weaver, which sounded like a decent rotation in 2009. But hey, they went 3-3 last week.
Unfortunately, real games mean real injuries begin coming into play as well. Trea Turner of the Nationals and the Braves’ Matt Kemp suffered hamstring injuries in the opening week that both clubs hope do not keep the respective players out of the lineup for long. The Yankees new franchise catcher, Gary Sanchez, landed on the 10-day disabled list as well.
Regardless of how each team started, there are over 150 games left to revert to the mean. So enjoy the games and relish the fact that baseball is back.
And for this week, we leave you with one question: Is Yasiel Puig good again?